Namecheap Domains Reviews

1. Solid state drives (SSDs) for storage

When it comes to web hosting, a few things are as important as site loading speed. While many factors contribute to the overall load speed, few of them are more impactful than the hard drive where the data is stored. That is why I love the fact that Namecheap provides solid state drives on all of the hosting packages that it offers.

Solid-state drives are far faster than traditional spinning disk drives, and can perform a lot more operations per second. Using SSDs with hosting is always going to provide a performance boost. Still, the benefits will be especially apparent on sites that get a lot of visitors or those that have a lot of elements on the page, such as e-commerce websites.

2. Great uptime guarantee

If you sign up for a reseller or VPS hosting package with Namecheap, you will get a 100% uptime guarantee. If you choose shared hosting, WordPress hosting, or dedicated servers, you get a 99.9% uptime guarantee. Both are at or above the industry standard for uptime and reliability.

When I first saw this uptime guarantee, I was quite skeptical because it is impossible for any hosting provider to be able to truly deliver on a 100% uptime guarantee. Given the fact that Namecheap is a lower-cost provider, I thought that the claims would not hold up. Instead, I was impressed with how Namecheap handles their uptime guarantees.

First of all, this company generally does a good job at keeping your website up and running smoothly, so most of the time, you will not have any noticeable downtime at all. When they do fall before their stated uptime levels, they will provide you with a credit on your bill.

In any given calendar month, every hour past the stated uptime guarantee that your site is down will earn you a full day’s payment credit. If you have a VPS hosting package with a 100% uptime guarantee, for example, and your site is down due to an issue with hosting for an hour, you’ll get a free day of hosting.

3. Affordable pricing for shared and VPS

With a business called Namecheap, nobody is going to be surprised by low prices. If you are like the vast majority of people looking for hosting and you need either shared hosting or VPS hosting, you will love the prices. When looking through the different packages, the price points are very attractive. In fact, Namecheap offers its entry-level shared hosting package free of charge for the first few months so you can give it a try. This is a great option for anyone just starting out.

However, I found that the prices for WordPress hosting and dedicated servers are not that great. Looking at the system specs on these packages, I can’t really see any justification for the higher prices, especially given the fact that this company markets itself as a discount provider. Namecheap may target users signing up for inexpensive shared hosting who then upgrade later to the more costly options. If you need WordPress hosting or dedicated servers, I recommend going to other companies.

4. Excellent domain name registration and management

Namecheap started off as a domain name registration company, which is still its main service with an impressive 17 million+ domain names registered for its customers. The fact that it sells domains at a significant discount compared to other sites also makes Namecheap a very attractive option for many people.

5. Free SSL certificate included and installed

All the hosting packages at Namecheap will come with a free shared SSL certificate. This is important as it will not only keep the data transferred to and from your site protected, but it will also lend trust to the page.

Additionally, Namecheap will install your SSL certificate. While SSL installs are common in the web hosting industry, it is nice to see that it is done even by this discount hosting provider.

Namecheap Hosting Plans and Pricing

★★★★★★★★★★ (5.0)

Namecheap offers five hosting plan types:

• Shared ($1.48 to $4.98 per month)
  • Good for: Small businesses, bloggers, artists, small e-commerce sites
• WordPress ($17.44 to $54.88 per month)
  • Good for: Popular WordPress sites, business pages, e-commerce sites, entrepreneurs.
• Reseller ($19.88 to $58.88 per month)
  • Good for: Businesses offering hosting services.
• VPS ($6.88 to $24.88 per month)
  • Good for: Small businesses, entrepreneurs, e-commerce sites.
• Dedicated ($48.88 to $237.88 per month)
  • Good for: Mid-sized businesses, large entrepreneurs, popular artists.

Each of these hosting types offers multiple different levels within it. Upgrading from one type of hosting to another is quite easy, so Namecheap can provide you with appropriate services as your business grows.

Pros

• Competitive pricing plans
• Easy to use interface
• 99.9% uptime for reseller and VPS; 100% for shared, dedicated and business hosting