Introduction Of Namecheap
Namecheap Hosting Review, You might know Namecheap as a domain registrar, but did you know they also offer hosting services? With over 11 million users, Namecheap’s hosting platform has garnered attention. In this review, we’ll explore the performance, support, usability, features, and pricing of Namecheap hosting to determine if it’s a good choice for your needs.
Performance Of Namecheap Hosting
Namecheap’s performance is a crucial factor in evaluating its hosting services. After running GTmetrix tests, it was found that Namecheap had an impressive Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) of just 1.1 seconds, significantly faster than the industry standard of 2.5 seconds. This indicates good loading times. The full load time was reported as 1.3 seconds.
However, when it comes to uptime, Namecheap fell short of industry standards. Over three months of testing, the uptime was recorded at 99.87%, with approximately one hour of downtime per month. While not terrible, it does not meet the industry-standard uptime of 99.9%.
Stress testing revealed that Namecheap’s cheapest plan is not suitable for handling large traffic spikes. It’s best suited for small websites with limited traffic.
Usability
Namecheap’s user interface and control panel receive mixed reviews. While functional, they may not win any design awards. Users have access to cPanel for more advanced tasks, but some may find it dated.
For those who prefer a website builder, Namecheap offers one with a good selection of templates and drag-and-drop functionality, making it beginner-friendly.
Namecheap Support
Namecheap provides 24/7 customer support through live chat and tickets. Live chat responses are quick, but support agents may primarily refer users to the knowledge base, which could be improved.
Features Of Namecheap
Namecheap offers some attractive features, including a free domain name for a year with more expensive shared hosting plans. Even the cheapest plan includes .site or .online domain options.
Users can host up to three websites on Namecheap’s most affordable plan, and all plans come with unmetered bandwidth. Storage space varies by plan, with the highest-tier plan offering 50GB SSD storage. However, there is a limitation of 10GB for media files like images and videos.
Pricing Of Namecheap Plans
Namecheap lives up to its name with budget-friendly hosting plans starting at $1.58 per month. Renewal prices are approximately two times higher than the initial rates, which is a reasonable increase compared to some competitors.
Data Centers of Namcheap
Namecheap allows users to choose from three data centers (US, UK, EU) before purchasing hosting services. However, this choice affects not only the price but also the features available. The data center selection can be confusing, and the reasons for these differences are not always clear.
Conclusion
Namecheap offers affordable hosting solutions suitable for small or personal projects. While its performance, usability, and features are decent, they may not stand out compared to some competitors like Hostinger or Bluehost. Namecheap’s pricing is budget-friendly, but users should be aware of the potential price differences based on data center selection and the restrictions on media storage.
