Table of Contents
About Namecheap
Founded in 2000 by Richard Kirkendall, Namecheap is a domain name registration and web hosting company that has been running for 22 years now. Its headquarter is located in
Phoenix, Arizona, United States.
Today the company manages more than 15 million domains and has 11 million users all over the world.
Namecheap provides a lot of positives like free domain and migration, strong uptime, automated backups, etc. let’s have a look at these.
The pros of Namecheap:
Money-back guarantees-
It follows the industry standards and offers 30 days money-back guarantee. So you have a whole month to try out their services without spending any money. if their services didn’t meet your expectations or you didn’t get what you were looking for then you can ask for a refund.
Good customer support-
Namecheap provides customer support 24 hours a day, seven days a week through their live chat service and ticketing system for any assistance or problem solving that you need. They also have an extensive help center where you can find knowledgebase, Guru Guides, Blog, How-to videos and Status updates. They also have good online reviews from existing customers as well as those who have used them.
Well-known company-
Namecheap is a very popular and trusted web host company that has been running around for more than 20 years. Ever since then, it has grown to bring people everything that they need. The company hosts more than three million customers as of today. With years of experience, they have established themselves as a good brand providing plans at the best affordable price and guarantying customer commitment.
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Excellent uptime-
Uptime is very crucial for your website. An excellent uptime means your site mostly stays up with few hours of downtime in a year. You do not want many hours of downtime as it means you will lose more visitors if your site stays offline.
Namecheap’s average uptime is very good with 99.97% for the past six months. They also guarantee they will refund the customer’s money if their uptime guarantee of 100% every month ever fails minus the scheduled maintenance.
Free domain
They provide free domains for one year when you buy their shared hosting plan. After the first year, the price of the .com domain will be charged at $7.98/year
Free migration
Namecheap offers site migration for free for one year if you have your website hosted with another provider and want to transfer it with their company.
They guarantee that they will migrate your site within 24 hours. If they are unable to fulfill this commitment or you are not satisfied with the migration process then whichever shared hosting plan you purchase from Namecheap will credit your account with the value of your first purchase. For promo packages, this guarantee is not applicable.
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Security
One of the most vital factors to consider is security when you want to buy a hosting plan. Apart from a free SSL certificate, Namecheap also provides many basic security features like WHOIS Domain Privacy Protection, DDoS protection and firewall and many more.
Easy to use–
Their cPanel is straightforward, easy to use and understand as well as beginner friendly. You can find everything in their dashboard with ease. From the cPanel, you can easily install all the apps you want with the help of Softaculous, check your SSL certificates, manage your backups, easily use the drag-and-drop website builder, contact the support team, etc
In case you need help you can find everything in their help center or you can chat with their agent in live chat and get help.
Automated Backups-
Backup is offered twice a week for the ‘Stellar’ plan though it is not guaranteed. Automated backup is only for ‘Stellar Plus’ and ‘Stellar Business’ plans that backups your website data. You can choose either daily, weekly or monthly backups.
Good value of basic plan–
Their cheapest plan i.e. ‘Stellar’ is priced at $2.18/month if signed up for one year (introductory price). The price is even lower if you sign up for 2 years which is $1.88/month.
With this discount price, they offer lots of features like free domain name, 20 GB storage, unmetered bandwidth, 30 email addresses and many more.
Namecheap also provides 3 websites compared to most of web host who only provides a single website with their cheapest plan.
They also provide features like WordPress and cPanel. SSL certificate is also included for the first year in their cheapest plan which is completely free.
Stellar customers will also get backups twice a week.
You will also get 50 MySQL databases higher than some of its competitors.
No upsells-
There are many web host companies that try to trick you by offering low introductory prices so that you sign up but later only to find that there are lots of upsells in your final bill making it expensive.
But Namecheap does not use any such tactics and they take pride in this. As their name suggests, they provide budget-friendly prices for all their plans. Even their renewal price is not as high as what other web host has set. For e.g. if you choose their cheapest plan ‘Stellar’ which starts at $2.18 a month after 1 year the renewal price is $4.48/month which is still less and affordable.
No web host can perfect. Even the best of the best host also has some flaws. Now let’s take a look at the cons:
The cons of Namecheap:
No phone support-
Namecheap provides customer support only through live chat and a ticketing system. They offer no phone support which is a disadvantage as most web host provides this support.
Few data centers-
Data centers of Namecheap are located in the US, UK, and Europe which are very less. There are other web hosts that have lots of data centers all around the world than them. More data center means faster page loading speed.
Moreover, shared hosting prices depend on which data center you choose. If you choose UK or EU you have to pay an extra $1/month if billed monthly, yearly or 2 years.
Overall review
The cheapest plan is good value for money compared to what other web hosts are providing. They also have good uptime and speed which makes them a reliable and consistent host.
Though their introductory price is low upon renewal they are so high which is also a plus point. With many positives and just a few negatives, you may like to try Namecheap and see for yourself.
Is Namecheap recommended?
Yes, it is.
For small personal blogs and businesses whose budget is tight for them, it is ideal to use Namecheap as it is affordable and a great deal.
What are some other alternatives to Namecheap?
Hostinger, Bluehost and Hostgator are some other better budget-friendly alternatives than Namecheap.
Is it safe to use Namecheap?
Yes, it is safe to use Namecheap. In all their plans lots of security features are included. If you want more advanced security you have to purchase though.
What are the methods of payment that Namecheap accepts?
Namecheap accepts payment through credit/debit cards (American Express, Mastercard, Discover and Visa), PayPal, Bitcoin, and Dwolla.
