With its 99% guaranteed uptime, fast loading of pages, affordable pricing, free migration of websites, and NO hidden fees, Namecheap is a high-quality web hosting service you can get without breaking the bank.
But the headache here is choosing a suitable plan between Namecheap Shared Hosting and WordPress Hosting.
As a blogger and online business owner, I have used the shared hosting and WordPress hosting of Namecheap to host my sites.
I shared my experience and findings with you in the comparison article.
Namecheap Shared Hosting vs WordPress Hosting: A Comparison Table
| Namecheap Shared Hosting | Namecheap WordPress Hosting | |
| Page Load time | Under 3 seconds | Under 0.7 second |
| Hosting | Traditional hosting | Namecheap cloud – more advanced and guarantees speedy loading of pages |
| Number of sites you can host | Three – unlimited | One |
| Free domain | Yes (.online, .live, .studio) | No |
| Free SSL | Yes | Yes |
| Uptime | 97% | 99% |
| WordPress installation | Yes, but requires technical settings | Yes, one-click installation |
| Free CDN | Yes | Yes |
| Scalability | Yes, but requires a lot of settings | Easy scalability |
| Security | Yes | Advanced security |
| Bandwidth | Unmetered bandwidth | Unmetered bandwidth |
| Datacenter | US, UK, EU | US |
| CPU & RAM | Basic | Advanced (5X) |
| Traffic | Can host up to 50k traffic | Can host up to 500k traffic |
| Customer support | 24/7 (Email, livechat) | 24/7 (Email, livechat) |
| Free trial | No | 30-day free trial |
| Money-back guarantee | 30-day | 30-day |
| Pricing | Starts at $1.98/month | Starts at $2.91/month |
| Best for | Personal site | Bloggers, affiliate marketers, small businesses |
| Discount | Grab your 56% discount | Grab your 58% discount |
What is the difference between shared hosting and WordPress hosting in Namecheap? Which is best for you?
Namecheap shared hosting is suitable for starters who want affordable hosting with basic web hosting resources. It allows you to host unlimited websites but requires you to be tech-savvy to manage the technical aspects of your site like learning how to use the cPanel.
Namecheap WordPress hosting is best if you want to avoid anything technical. Namecheap takes care of it. Also, it offers advanced web hosting resources that can see you host up to 500k traffic monthly, and it still have your pages load speedily. Your website is hosted on Namecheap cloud, and it offers a free 30-Day trial. However, it’s a bit expensive and you can only host one WordPress site.
Namecheap shared hosting review
Shared hosting plans are the most affordable plans on Namecheap. Hosting your site on this plan will see you share a physical server with other sites.
This saves you hosting costs which you incur should you go for a VPS or dedicated hosting. Hosting resources are shared based on demand and each site gets a percentage of RAM, CPU, MySQL, and other resources.
It has 3 different pricing plans:
For yearly billing,
Stellar costs $1.98/month and has the following features:
- Free domain for certain extensions
- You can host up to 3 websites
- SSD storage of 20GB
- Create 30 mailboxes
- Has a website builder
- Enjoy a 56% discount on first-year hosting
Stellar Plus costs $2.98/month and has the following features:
- Free domain for certain extensions
- Host unlimited websites
- Unlimited SSD storage
- You can have unlimited mailboxes
- Auto backup for your sites
- A website builder
- Enjoy a 54% discount on first-year hosting
Stellar Business costs $4.98/month and offers the following features:
- Free domain for certain extensions like .shop, .online, .live
- Host unlimited websites
- SSD storage of 50GB
- Supports unlimited mailboxes
- Has cloud storage and auto-backup
- Enjoy a 47% discount for the first one-year hosting
Note:
The pricing plan above is based on US data center.
If you choose UK data center for the same one-year hosting, there is a slight increase in price as you can see below:
The price remains the same for the EU data center for a one-year hosting plan:
All the Namecheap shared hosting plans have the following:
- Unlimited bandwidth
- Free website builder
- Free supersonic CDN
- Domain name privacy protection
- Free automatic SSL installation
- Free migration of your site to Namecheap within 24 hours
- 24/7 customer support
- Personalized email services
- cPanel and WordPress
However, it isn’t all glitz and glam as Namecheap has a few cons you should know:
You pay more when you want to renew your hosting. This is common with web hosting services; even Hostinger Premium and Business plans charge more for renewal.
If you opt for Namecheap cloud storage, you incur an additional fee to your hosting fees.
Namecheap Shared Hosting: What Users Say On Reddit
I jumped on Reddit to get a feel of what other Namecheap shared hosting users say. So you can add them to my own findings and make a decision on which is suitable for you.
A user who uses Namecheap shared hosting for their starter website attests to its affordability and responsive customer support.
However, they stated that the initial response time is a bit higher, but the new supersonic CDN has improved the speed at which pages load. Another user stated that they migrated their site to Namecheap from Sitegrounds and that the experience has been better.
A customer who has been hosting their site on Namecheap for 8 years says it has been fine without issues.
Namecheap shared hosting nameservers: what to do after purchasing your hosting
After purchasing any of the Namecheap shared hosting plans, it’s important you point your domains to dns1.namecheaphosting.com and dns2.namecheaphosting.com nameservers
This is to ensure your site is successfully hosted and for your pages to load without issues.
If you purchased and registered the domain name with Namecheap, take the following steps to change the Namecheap servers:
Login into your Namecheap account and navigate to Domain List
Click on Manage which is next to your domain
Choose Namecheap Web Hosting DNS next to the Nameserver
Click the check mark icon to save all changes you have made
If your domain is registered with another domain registrar, ask Namecheap technical team to provide you with the correct Nameservers and then proceed to configure the DNS from the side of your domain name registrar.
If you purchased your domain on GoDaddy, read this article to understand how to set up Namecheap shared hosting nameservers on GoDaddy.
Namecheap WordPress hosting review
Namecheap WordPress is meant for website owners who aren’t tech-savvy. Namecheap takes care of all the technicalities that are involved in managing a WordPress site. This is suitable if you want to start a blog, personal, or small business website on WordPress.
You enjoy a user-friendly dashboard that is self-explanatory; you create and publish content, easily install plugins, and don’t have to bother learning how to use cPanel.
It has 3 different pricing plans:
For yearly billing;
The EasyWP Starter costs $2.91/month and offers the following features:
- Can host up to 50k traffic monthly
- Offers 10GB SSD storage
- Offers free CDN
- You enjoy a 58% discount for the first year.
The EasyWP Turbo costs $4.91/month and offers the following features:
- SSD storage of 50GB
- Can host up to 200k traffic per month
- 1.5X CPU
- Higher RAM
- Free SSL and CDN
- You get a 62% discount for the first year.
The EasyWP Supersonic costs $5.74/month and offers the following features:
- 100 GB SSD storage
- Can host up to 500k traffic per month
- 99.99 uptime is guaranteed
- Free CDN and SSL
- 2X RAM and 2X RAM
- You get a 70% discount for the first year.
All the Namecheap WordPress hosting plans have the following:
- Free 30-Day trial
- Database and SDTB access
- Fast support for any domain name provider
- Hosting on Namecheap cloud which guarantees higher speed and scalability
- Easy website backup and restore
However, there is a downside with Namecheap WordPress hosting and that is you can host only one WordPress site.
Namecheap WordPress hosting: What users say on Reddit
I again researched to get the feel of what users who host their site on Namecheap WordPress have to say on Reddit.
A user who has been hosting on Namecheap WordPress for years says that it has always been easy to manage and maintain. They also said that the customer support is fast and responsive.
Another user who has several sites hosted on Namecheap WordPress says they haven’t experienced any issues. They also added that setting up is easier with the Softaculous installer included in the cPanel.
Is Namecheap shared hosting better than WordPress hosting?
In terms of affordability, yes. In terms of high-quality hosting and advanced features, Namecheap WordPress has a strong edge over Namecheap shared hosting. For example, Namecheap shared hosting runs on traditional hosting which oftentimes is slow while Namecheap managed WordPress is hosted on Namecheap cloud which guarantees super speed, fewer server issues, and higher security.
Another is that Namecheap WordPress hosting has the capability to host up to 500k traffic monthly and still load pages in under 1 second. Namecheap shared hosting will load very slowly if it hosts such a large amount of traffic.
Even when it comes to domain name servers, Namecheap WordPress provides support for any domain name provider while Namecheap shared hosting can only offer support for GoDaddy domain name servers.
So if Domain.com is your domain provider, and you’re on Namecheap shared hosting and want to configure your DNS, you have to handle it yourself.
Is shared hosting good for WordPress?
You can install WordPress on shared hosting, but it’s easier to manage WordPress sites on Namecheap managed WordPress hosting. This is because Namecheap will take care of all technical issues. Also, the interface is beginner-friendly on managed WordPress hosting.
Namecheap shared hosting vs WordPress: which costs more?
WordPress hosting costs more. This because it’s hosted on cloud while Namecheap shared hosting is on traditional hosting. The shared hosting starts at $1.98/month for yearly billing while managed WordPress hosting starts at $2.91/month for yearly billing. It’s almost a $1 difference.
How much traffic can Namecheap shared hosting handle?
From my experience, it can handle a maximum of 10k traffic monthly. Anything above that will put pressure on hosting resources resulting in slow loading of pages. In a sense, Namecheap shared hosting isn’t ideal if you project your site will get a large amount of traffic.
In this case, the managed WordPress hosting will be your best option as it can handle up to 500k traffic monthly and still load your pages in under 1 second.
What is the disadvantage of Namecheap shared hosting?
- It can’t handle large volume of traffic
- It’s hosted on traditional shared hosting
- It’s self-managed so you have to be tech-savvy to handle technical issues
- No free trial unlike Namecheap WordPress hosting
- Support for DNS is only for GoDaddy.
How fast is Namecheap shared hosting?
For a website that hosts thousands of traffic monthly, Namecheap shared hosting won’t deliver great speed. It’s usually over 2 seconds for a website that drives 500 daily traffic. The initial response time is high although the new Supersonic CDN has helped.
But you can’t compare it to Namecheap managed WordPress hosting which hosts websites on Namecheap cloud and loads a page fully under 0.7 seconds for a site that attracts over 10k traffic monthly.
Why is Namecheap hosting cheap?
Namecheap hosting isn’t that cheap. The shared hosting is cheap because it’s hosted on traditional hosting, and it doesn’t offer advanced resources to host large volumes of traffic and still load pages speedily.
But Namecheap managed WordPress, VPS, and dedicated hosting are expensive. This is because they offer advanced and sophisticated hosting resources. For example, you don’t share a server with any site on a dedicated hosting. And the managed WordPress is hosted on Namecheap cloud.
How many sites can I host on Namecheap shared hosting?
You can host unlimited websites on Namecheap shared hosting ( Stellar Plus and Business).
However, keep in mind the speed of your web pages may slow down. Namecheap shared hosting doesn’t have the resources to host large traffic and still have pages load under 1 second.
Does Namecheap shared hosting include email?
No, Namecheap shared hosting doesn’t include email hosting. However, it allows you to create up to 30 mailboxes using your domain name, and send and receive emails with limited storage. Businesses that want professional email hosting can go for Namecheap email hosting plans.
The video below shows you how to create Namecheap private email mailbox:
Final thought on Namecheap shared hosting vs WordPress hosting
Shared hosting is suitable for personal websites that won’t host much traffic. It’s affordable and offers basic web hosting resources including free domains ( except .com, .net domains). It’s hosted on traditional hosting which doesn’t guarantee page speedily loading.
Namecheap WordPress hosting is hosted on Namecheap cloud, a modern and advanced web hosting infrastructure. It’s suitable if you project your site will get a large volume of traffic. It can host up to 500k traffic and still load pages speedily.
I recommend it to bloggers, affiliates, and small businesses. The only downside is you can only host one website.
So it’s up to you to compare both based on what you require in Namecheap hosting plan and make a decision.
