Namecheap review: is the “cheap” part of its name a telltale sign?

In this Namecheap review, you’ll find all the information about this cheap hosting provider and the services it offers. I’ll talk about plans and prices, performance, security, and many other features I came across so that you know what to expect.

Namecheap is known as one of the best affordable and reliable domain name registrars. One of the largest in the market, too. However, that’s not all – Namecheap also offers web hosting services. Quite a large variety of different hosting types and for very low prices.

While many enjoy Namecheap’s domain registration services, its hosting reviews are quite mixed.

Some users are very happy with low hosting prices, knowledgeable customer support, and a reasonable security package. At the same time, Namecheap’s performance is quite poor, which makes it undesirable to many.

Nevertheless, I decided to give it a shot. So I’ve purchased a plan and tested it. My commitment paid off eventually, and I was able to find out whether Namecheap is worth it.

Wanna see what I found out? Keep on reading. However, if you’re short on time, feel free to jump to the final verdict.

Pros and Cons of Namecheap

Namecheap video review

Namecheap pricing

Namecheap is one of the cheapest hosting providers out there. Its cheapest shared hosting plan comes for $1.58/month. Other options include reasonably priced WordPress, VPS hosting, reseller, and dedicated server hosting.

It’s good to know that the provider has many options, and all of them are fairly cheaply priced. However, shared hosting is what I’ll be focusing on in this review.

For shared hosting, Namecheap has 3 plans, all of which come with unmetered bandwidth, free domain registration and privacy protection, access to a free website builder, and a free SSL certificate.

Of course, all plans have plenty of differences, too:

I have to admit, for the price, these plans look great. Even the cheapest plan allows up to 3 websites? That’s not what you would often see. Plus, no additional expenses are needed as the domain is included.

However, not all plans are of equal value:

• If you’re looking to run a personal website or a blog, I’d suggest you go with Stellar. The Stellar plan allows you to connect 3 websites, so if you ever find yourself needing more than one, you’re sorted. Plus, you get 20GB of storage and unlimited to support a couple of fully functional websites.
• As for other plans, they are quite confusing. The Stellar Plus plan offers supposedly unlimited storage, while with Business, it drops to 50GB. What this suggests is that you won’t get much more than 50 GB of disk space with the Stellar Plus plan either.

Even though the initial payment is very nicely priced, the renewal price is double that. But that’s nothing unusual, in fact, that’s one of the lowest rates I’ve seen.

The last thing you should know money-wise is that Namecheap has a 30-day money-back guarantee. Just keep in mind that you’ll be refunded only for the hosting services, additional features like a domain or any service renewals extras will not be compensated.

The bottom line is that Namecheap lives up to its name and delivers cheap prices. Plus, even the basic plan is very inclusive, which makes me wonder where the provider is economizing.

Hosting management – is Namecheap easy to use?

When talking about ease of use, Namecheap makes everything pretty straightforward. The provider is effortless to use as a domain registrar as well as a hosting service. It uses a very common mix of native account management panel and cPanel, which I’m sure you’re familiar with. Even if you’re not, cPanel is intuitive and functional. Getting the hang of it is not a challenging process.

After you create an account, you’ll come across this page:

The native Namecheap’s dashboard is pretty simple, and everything you need is easily accessible.

It mostly works as navigation to reach cPanel or your owned domain management tools. Also, this is where you contact support.

More interesting, however, is the actual hosting management. For that, we’ll need to open the control panel.

What does the Namecheap control panel look like?

Namecheap uses the typical cPanel. There are no tweaks, no flashy skins, no nothing. It’s basically a naked cPanel. However, it’s common knowledge that even without the flashy skins, cPanel is easy to use. Whether you’re an experienced user or a beginner, you need no Codex to decipher cPanel.

All the most needed settings can be easily found in the cPanel as it’s really well organized.

So, what will you be using cPanel for?

• WordPress installation. For all application installations, Namecheap uses the standard Softaculous app installer. You can find all Softaculous installations at the bottom of your cPanel under the Software category.
• Activating SSL. For that, Namecheap has its own tool, “Namecheap SSL,” which is located at the very top of the control panel. And to be honest, the tool is straightforward. However, it was broken when I was using it. I had to contact customer support to install the SSL for me.
• Setting up a professional email address. For that, you’ll need to find the Email category and use the Email Accounts module. Very straightforward process, but this email service will only be good for sending a few messages. As the reputation is shared with the whole shared hosting server on which your site is hosted, you might be flagged as spam.
• Other standard web hosting management tasks such as database management, accessing file manager, creating subdomains, and so on.

So cPanel is very standard and straightforward. And there are very few issues with standard tools. However, Namecheap’s own SSL installer had some issues.

Additionally, you might make website development easier by using a website builder.

Namecheap website builder

What I found while writing this Namecheap review, is that no matter which type of hosting or which plan you purchase, the provider grants you access to a drag-and-drop website builder. However, its templates are not the most modern. Also, the drag-and-drop editor is pretty restrictive. I said what I said.

When you first explore the templates, you’ll think you hit the motherlode. There are over 200 templates for all major niches.

Pretty neat, right? Wrong! All it takes is for you to give it a closer look. I swear to whatever deity you believe in; they all look like they were made when I was in primary school. And it’s been years.

The best way to describe them is, well… fossils.

Leaving the templates aside, I decided to play around with the editor. Not much success there either. The editor didn’t let me do that much, and it lacks that “je ne sais quoi” we all got to know and love about modern website builders. It’s not as smooth as you’d want it to be. I don’t have an exact definition of what’s missing, but if you try it out, you’ll see what I’m talking about.

But other than that, the website builder is pretty standard. It’s effortless to use, and you can customize your website by changing a few things, such as colors and fonts. You can add blocks and rearrange some other elements. I’ve seen better, I’ve seen worse.

The bottom line is that you can’t complain too much when you get access to a free website builder. Sure, it could use some new templates, and the editor is somewhat rigid, but it’s okay overall. A bit too old-school but relatively functional and easy-to-use.

Overall, Namecheap is very easy to use. It wants to satisfy both veterans and newbies, and I have to say that it succeeds. With a clean dashboard and cPanel, this provider removed all challenges from every hosting-related process. The website builder is also simple and intuitive yet quite restrictive and old-fashioned.

Performance – is Namecheap fast?

Quite a few Namecheap reviews I’ve read have warned that this host’s performance is not its strong suit. To test that, I have put this provider through multiple performance-oriented tests to examine its reliability, speed, and how well the provider can handle the traffic. Sadly, it seems that the provider is unstable, uptime is not very reliable, speed is below average, and stress test well… it passed it.

Namecheap uptime and response time

I must admit, for this Namecheap hosting review, I did monitor it for a short time, close to two weeks. In that time, the site had 16 outages, which resulted in 31 minutes of downtime. This left Namecheap’s uptime at an all-time low of 99.82%.

I’d just like to point out that Namecheap has a 100% SLA uptime guarantee.

According to Namecheap’s terms of service, you receive one day of free hosting for each hour of downtime your website experiences. If everyone were to regularly get the results I got, I think it’s safe to say that the provider would have a large hole in its pocket.

Nonetheless, the results show that the provider is not reliable and should not be trusted for websites which success depends on availability. Oh wait, that’s all websites!

As for response time, it averaged at 1.05 seconds. That is quite disappointing too. The shared hosting market average is around 600ms.

Next up I test the website’s loading speed.

Namecheap speed

My website is hosted in the US data center. Therefore, there’s no surprise that the best results are in the US. Here, the Largest Contentful Paint is 912ms. I won’t lie, I have definitely, seen better. However, it’s not the worst either.

Also, it’s very natural for LCP to increase the further you go from the origin server. The data has to travel longer distances, which naturally takes longer. So the results from other locations are not shocking and much expected.

Okay, but why does the LCP matter?

LCP is one of the measures Google takes into account when ranking websites on the search result page. And as long as the time is under 2.5s, your chances to rank higher are greater. Or, if not rank higher, at least you will not lose chances to rank at all. Simple, but good to know.

So when you take that into consideration, Namecheap is doing pretty okay. No gold medal, but still.

Up to this point, I’ve been examining an empty website. Now it’s time to test a fully built website’s speed. This time around, the LCP is 2.3s, which is pretty borderline. A tight fit to squeeze into the suggested 2.5s for sure.

Now, with a fully built website, LCP isn’t the only measure you should be concerned with. You should also pay attention to the Fully Loaded Time, which in this case is 2.7 seconds. Simply put, it could be better. Site visitors don’t really feel the difference in loading time between 1 – 2.5 seconds. However, anything above 3 seconds adds to the bounce-off rates.

So while 2.7 seconds is not ideal for a fully loaded time, it’s not disastrous either. Believe it or not, I’ve seen worse.

It’s time for the last test. I wanted to see how well Namecheap handles a traffic increase to the site.

Namecheap stress testing

To begin with, I’ve sent 50 virtual visitors to my site. I must say, 50 visitors, is quite a big number. These visitors are on the website at the same time, sending numerous requests to it. This puts a lot of pressure on, which could possibly slow down the server or overwhelm it entirely.

And it looks like 50 visitors were just a tad bit too much for Namecheap to handle. Although the response time (blue line) was great, quite a lot of requests have failed. 440 of them, to be precise, as indicated by the bumpy red line.

Okay, 50 visitors didn’t work out, but I’m curious to know how many Namecheap can handle. So I decreased the number of visitors by five and ran the test again until I succeeded.

The first pass I got was with 30 visitors.

And I know what you’re thinking, but it’s not too bad. Not at all. 30 is still a relatively big number. If the site gets 30 visitors each minute for a month, that’s some decent traffic. Usually, that’s what you can expect from a popular local blog or small business website.

Although I must note, even though Namecheap did pass the test, there are still 83 requests that have failed. Also, the response time went slightly crazy at the end. All of that could mean that this is just about the maximum pressure the provider can handle.

All in all, Namecheap is pretty lacking when it comes to performance. The provider promised 100% uptime and then delivered only 99.82% is just as sad. If it promised 99.9%, I wouldn’t be this upset. It’s the arrogance that bothered me. Moreover, the loading speed and the maximum handled traffic on the site was nothing to be amazed over.

Security – is Namecheap secure?

Security is one of the most important factors to consider when looking for the best hosting provider. While preparing this Namecheap review, I found it to be quite secure yet a little basic. It did a pretty good job of including several security features in its plans – from free SSL certificates to firewalls and backups.

For a better understanding of Namecheap’s security standards, I’ll break it down for you. Here’s what this provider offers:

• Free Positive SSL with one-click activation is available. In my case, the tool was stuck, and I had to contact support about it. But in the end, I came out with a working SSL, so no hard feelings here.
• WHOIS Domain Privacy Protection is free for all clients who are getting a domain name from Namecheap. It protects your personal privacy, prevents spam, identity theft, and unwanted solicitation.
• DDoS protection – basic DDoS protection through Supersonic CDN is free, but you have to turn it on yourself.
• Firewall – ModSecurity is the basic traffic filtering option that NameCheap offers. If you’d like more protection, an advanced Web Application Firewall is available through Supersonic CDN paid version.
• Automatic backups – the Stellar plan offers backups twice a week, but that is not guaranteed. Stellar Plus and Stellar Business come with daily automatic backups. For these plans, you’re given access to 6 daily, 3 weekly, and 11 monthly backups. It’s up to you which one you choose.

Namecheap covers website and server security on the basic level. That means you’re protected from the most common threats if you choose to enable these features. At the same time, websites that need more security should look into additional solutions.

Will Namecheap customer support help me?

There are two ways you can get in contact with Namecheap’s customer support. You can use the 24/7 live chat option or the ticketing system, There is no phone support or email, but there is an extensive knowledge base to get some quick help yourself.

My personal favorite is the live chat, which is why I tested it out for this Namecheap review. The “Chat with a Live Person” button can be found on every page. Usually, it doesn’t take more than a couple of minutes for someone to respond.

This time I had an issue with my SSL certificate, so I’ve contacted live chat to help me out.

I got connected to an agent in only a minute, which is great. Once connected, the replies were very fast too.

Even though at some point I was informed I might have to wait 10 minutes, the wait was no longer than a few minutes.

The agent was very helpful and jumped to solve the problem right away. He kept me informed on what the issue was and what he was doing to fix it.

And even though it didn’t work right away, the agent was patient and stayed with me until all was working just fine.

So my experience with customer support was very good. The agent was very kind and helpful, and the issue got resolved in very little time.

Alongside the live chat option, Namecheap has a very detailed knowledge base. There I found articles and guides on all topics of interest. Plus, there are step-by-step instructions, which come in handy if you’re a beginner.

If you need some help regarding marketing, affiliate marketing, SEO, etc., you can access Namecheap’s resource center. This, too, is full of helpful articles and guides on growing and improving your website.

Overall, I was satisfied with Namecheap’s customer support. When I tested the live chat option, the agent was prompt and helpful. My problem was fixed in no time. The knowledge base is extensive, and the resource center can be incredibly helpful if you’re a beginner. I have to say the customer support service is one of Namecheap’s best qualities.

Namecheap design features

For this review, I explored all of Namecheap’s functionalities. Now I can confidently say, if you’re looking to create a brand, Namecheap can be of help with its two design-related features. I’m talking about a logo maker and a business card maker. Both of them can be found in Namecheap’s app market. The former is free while the latter is not.

The first one I’ve taken a look at was the logo maker.

I have to tell you right from the start that it doesn’t even begin to compare to what a professional logo designer can do.

You’re asked to give preferences on font style and color scheme. Then choose an icon and bam! You have a logo. The choices are very generic, but hey, it’s free after all. In fact, very few “logo makers” even allow you to download the files if you don’t pay a hefty price.

The business card maker, on the other hand, is not free. You’ll have to pay $18.88 for 100 business cards. It’s not expensive, but it won’t look as if they have been made by a professional designer either.

To create a business card, you have to do pretty much the same thing as when designing a logo. There are a few pre-designed templates, and you can play around with a few elements. The good news is that the shipping is free in 50 countries on all continents, so you have that going for you, which is nice. (I know you know that meme.)

The bottom line is that Namecheap’s design features are not something you can’t live without. However, I find them useful for webmasters who are trying to create a brand. Plus, if you don’t have the resources to pay a designer, or you’re just experimenting with some ideas, Namecheap kinda helps you out here.

Namecheap review – the final verdict

While exploring Namecheap for this review, my overall experience wasn’t that bad. The plan I bought was cheap, and I found everything easy to use. Namecheap tanked it with its performance, though. So I recommend it only if performance is not something you’re after.

Of course, I have nothing against Namecheap. None of this is personal. Here are the summed up final findings:

So who do I recommend Namecheap to?

I’d only recommend Namecheap for a small personal blog and definitely not one that you are planning to monetize. Also, it might be good for testing your skills in website creation. It’s cheap and easy for personal stuff, but performance is lagging behind. Better use it for cheap domains – that’s what the provider is really good at.

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