Sure, Namecheap is known for offering one of the cheapest rates for registering domain names. According to Statista they are the biggest registrar worldwide after GoDaddy – about 8% of all domain names are registered with Namecheap.
But of course, they offer much more than domains. As I’ll explain below you can have your email hosting, website hosting, CDN, SSL certificates and even VPN with them.
In this Namecheap review I’d like to look under Namecheap’s hood and test its hosting services (EasyWP for WordPress) so you can figure out if they are a good fit to host your project.
Namecheap Hosting Review Summary
Its EasyWP hosting service is exclusively for WordPress sites. Namecheap’s backend is (too?) simple and easy to use, and the performance was impressive when speed and uptime were tested. Starting at $2.49 it will be a good fit for small and medium-sized WordPress projects.
What’s on Offer at Namecheap
First of all, let me detail the main products that customers can purchase at Namecheap, to see if any of them will cover your needs.
Domain names
If Namecheap gets something right it’s the domain name registration. I have all my domain names registered with them – I moved them over several years ago from Names.co.uk and I am still delighted with the service.
And of course, the price is very competitive. For less than $10 you can register a .com domain name – and it renews at $13.48 per year.
You can also buy (for about $5 a year) premium DNS that should help your site load faster and have 100% DNS uptime. If you need SSL certificates, you are in luck – Namecheap also offers them, starting at about $8 a year for a single domain or $100 for a Wildcard certificate.
Email Hosting
Another thing Namecheap offers are email hosting plans, in case you don’t need a website, but you’d like to have a professional-looking email address like your_name@your_domain.com.
These email hosting plans start (at renewal) at around $12 per year for 1 email account and 5 GB of storage (you’ll need to purchase the domain name separately) – there are superior plans with more storage and email inboxes if you need them.
If you are looking for an email service that offers storage for your emails, files and even has some features for you to create documents (e.g. similar to MS Word), spreadsheets or presentations, check out the Namecheap Ultimate Plan. However, a service like Google Workspace (read review) or Microsoft 365 (read review) may be better alternatives.
Web Hosting
For those needing a hosting service for their website, Namecheap has several products to offer:
- Shared: This Namecheap hosting plan allows you to host your websites with other clients (you share the server). It’s managed via cPanel, and it starts at around $2.90 a month for hosting a maximum of 3 websites and 20 GB of storage – there are higher plans if needed.
- EasyWP: With prices from $2.49 to $8.24 a month, this Namecheap hosting service will allow you to have 1 WordPress installation only. As it is a WordPress-exclusive hosting package you can’t host other types of sites (e.g. Joomla or Drupal). Scroll down a little further to read more about this service.
- VPS: These are servers ‘virtually’ divided into sub-servers that clients use. VPS is ideal when you want to have your own space and server setup, but can’t afford / don’t need dedicated hosting. VPS Prices start from $10 a month with Namecheap, and you can decide between cPanel and InterWorx to control your dashboard.
- Dedicated: With a dedicated server, you will be the only one using it. Therefore, this is ideal for larger websites (e.g. tens of thousands of visits per month). At Namecheap, dedicated hosting plans range from around $57 – $260 per month up.
- Reseller: Useful for agencies or freelancers working with clients that want to resell Namecheap hosting packages to others. It’s cPanel-based and the prices go from around $18 a month to $52, depending on the storage and number of accounts needed.
- CDN: For those looking to speed up their websites’ global loading times with a network that serves content across different locations faster. It also has some security advantages like preventing DDoS attacks. Some Namecheap hosting plans (e.g. EasyWP Supersonic) include this option, but if needed it can be purchased starting at $8.90 a month.