Quick verdict
Namecheap is our budget pick. The Arizona-based company is one of the largest domain registrars around, and its shared hosting carries over the same approach: low prices, straightforward plans and no pressure at checkout. You get standard cPanel, free SSL and the option to pay monthly or yearly, which makes it an easy, low-risk way to put a small site online.
The trade-off is that hosting isn’t Namecheap’s main business, and it shows in places. Speed is fine for small sites but not at the level of hosts built around LiteSpeed or cloud servers, support is chat and tickets only, and the choice of data center locations is narrow. If your site is simple and your budget is tight, those limits rarely matter. If you’re building a business that depends on its website, spend a little more elsewhere.
Buy Namecheap Stellar Plus for a personal site, portfolio or a few small projects on a tight budget. It’s especially convenient if your domains already live at Namecheap.
Pros & cons
What we liked
- One of the lowest-cost ways to get a site online
- Standard cPanel that most tutorials are written for
- Domains and hosting managed in one account
- Monthly billing available, not just long prepays
- Free SSL and a 30-day money-back guarantee
What we didn’t
- Speed is average compared with LiteSpeed-based hosts
- No phone support — chat and tickets only
- Few data center locations to choose from
- Entry plan is basic, with backups and extras on higher tiers
- Renewals cost more than the intro price
Pricing & plans
Namecheap’s shared hosting comes in three tiers: Stellar, Stellar Plus and Stellar Business. Stellar is enough for one small site. Stellar Plus is the one we’d pick for most people because it lifts the main limits and adds automatic backups. Stellar Business moves you to cloud-based storage with more resources, and suits a small company site. See current prices in the table below.
Every Stellar plan includes free SSL, cPanel, email on your own domain and the one-click app installer. The higher tiers mainly add more sites, more storage, automatic backups and extra server resources. If you only want WordPress and don’t need cPanel, EasyWP is worth a look too.
| Plan | Intro price | Renews at | Websites | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stellar | $1.98/mo | $4.48/mo | 3 | Small sites |
| Stellar PlusOur pick | $2.98/mo | $6.48/mo | Unlimited | Several sites |
| Stellar Business | $4.98/mo | $9.48/mo | Unlimited | Business sites |
Intro prices are for a 12-month term. Prices checked Oct 4, 2026 — Namecheap changes them often, so check the live price before you buy.
Monthly or yearly, and what renewal looks like
Unlike many budget hosts, Namecheap lets you pay monthly, so you can start without a big upfront payment. Yearly and two-year terms bring the effective price down further. As with almost every host, the first-term discount ends at renewal and the regular rate is higher, so compare both prices in the table before you pick a term. See our guide to hosting renewal prices and our Namecheap coupons.
Speed test results
Namecheap runs a conventional cPanel shared hosting setup on SSD storage, with data centers in the US and Europe. It offers its own Supersonic CDN as an option for serving static files closer to visitors, and you can add Cloudflare yourself. There’s no proprietary caching layer, so on WordPress you’ll want a caching plugin installed from day one.
Average TTFB, 180 days
The chart above compares time to first byte on our identical test site across every host we track, measured from several regions (see how we test). Namecheap is priced as a budget host and should be judged as one; for a small site with a caching plugin and a CDN, it’s more than adequate.
Uptime
Namecheap backs its shared hosting with an uptime guarantee and offers account credits when it misses the target. The meter above shows what our own monitor recorded. Read the hosting SLA on Namecheap’s site for the exact terms and how to claim a credit.
Ease of use
Namecheap uses cPanel, the industry-standard control panel. It isn’t as friendly as a custom dashboard like hPanel, but it’s familiar, well documented, and almost every hosting tutorial online assumes you’re using it. Pairing hosting with a Namecheap domain cuts out most of the DNS fiddling.
- WordPress: one-click install through Softaculous in cPanel, or choose the managed EasyWP product instead.
- Domains: hosting and domains share one account, so connecting them takes a couple of clicks.
- Migration: free migration from cPanel-based hosts; confirm the details for other panels before you move.
- Email: mailboxes on your own domain are included with shared hosting.
Because there’s no custom wizard, you’ll do a few steps yourself: install WordPress, set up SSL if it isn’t active yet, and add a caching plugin. None of it is hard, and Namecheap’s knowledge base walks you through each step with screenshots.
Customer support
Support is available around the clock by live chat and a ticket system, backed by a large knowledge base. There’s no phone line. Namecheap’s support has a decent reputation for account, domain and cPanel questions, which covers what most budget customers need. For deeper WordPress troubleshooting or server tuning, expect to do more of the work yourself than you would at a host like SiteGround.
Response quality tends to be best for the problems Namecheap handles all day, such as DNS records, SSL setup and email configuration. That lines up well with the kind of customer its hosting is built for.
Who Namecheap is for
Choose Namecheap if you…
- want the lowest cost for a small personal site or portfolio
- already keep your domains at Namecheap
- prefer standard cPanel
- want to pay monthly without a long commitment
Look elsewhere if you…
- care most about top-tier speed
- need phone support or hands-on WordPress help
- run an online store or a traffic-heavy site
- need servers in Asia or Australia
Namecheap alternatives
Best overall, from $2.69/mo.
Read review →Easiest for WordPress, from $1.99/mo.
Read review →Best month-to-month, from $2.59/mo.
Read review →If you can stretch the budget a little, our Hostinger review covers a faster host at a similar entry price. For more low-cost options, see our best cheap hosting list.
Frequently asked questions
Is Namecheap hosting any good?
For small, simple sites, yes. It’s cheap, reliable enough, and uses familiar cPanel. It isn’t the fastest or the most hands-on host, so it’s a weaker fit for stores and business-critical sites.
Do I need a Namecheap domain to use its hosting?
No. You can point a domain from any registrar to Namecheap hosting. Keeping both at Namecheap just makes setup quicker.
What’s the difference between Stellar hosting and EasyWP?
Stellar plans are traditional cPanel shared hosting that can run WordPress and other apps. EasyWP is Namecheap’s separate managed WordPress product with its own simple dashboard and no cPanel.
Can I get a refund?
Namecheap offers a 30-day money-back guarantee on shared hosting. Domain registrations are handled separately, so check the refund terms before you buy.
Is there a Namecheap coupon code?
See our Namecheap coupons page for codes and deals we’ve checked recently. They apply to the first term only.