NamecheapPricing

Namecheap Pricing 2022

In the 21st century, every business needs an online presence from software companies, freelancers, and retail brands. eCommerce alone is one of the most important marketing today for commercial enterprises. With unexpected events like the pandemic, it can be the difference between success and failure.

Namecheap is an affordable web hosting platform and cheap domain name registration. Even the smallest organizations can find a deal there. It’s particularly great for small businesses that are new to web hosting, as well as for experienced developers.

Namecheap Pricing

Namecheap's wide array of promotions and bundles is part of what makes them one of the most affordable places to go for domains and hosting. In this article, we are only going to focus on the domain and hosting costs and features.

If you’re interested in checking out their current deals, see their landing page for running discounts. Some of those current deals include a Fast VPN free trial, 36% off .com domains bought for 2+ years, and discounts on SSL certificates.

There are a couple of terms and rules you should know if this is your first time shopping for domain names and hosting plans. First, you buy domains for the year, or multiple years if you don’t want to remember to renew them. If committing for a year is too much you may not be ready for domain registration. Second, you should know the parts that make up a domain.

The main parts of the domain you need to know are the subdomain, second-level domain, top-level domain, and related concepts. You should know that a subdomain is another page of your website that google can navigate to better than regular pages of your website. The subdomain is another section of your website rather than just another page.

The second-level domain is your actual organization name or idea. The top-level domain (TLD), is the ending. This would be the .com or .org, and their costs differ widely because of the popularity and use associated with them.

Not all TLDs are easy to access. You can’t get a .gov name without filling out accurate information detailing what your authority is, and paying hundreds of dollars for it. The case is similar for .edu as well. You won’t find options for .gov or .edu on commercial sites like Namecheap.

This is also why scammers may try to duplicate .gov websites with a .com instead, so be cautious and look for the right TLD. For more info on URL, parts see HubSpot’s article.

There are more security features that you should know about such as SSL, SSD, and DNS.

SSL certificates or a Secure Socks Layer is the encrypted connection between your browser and the website’s server. Having one is important for commercial websites to show they are secure to consumers. If you don’t have it consumers will be able to see the site is ‘not secure’ in the URL.

Sometimes Google or antivirus software will tell the user the site they’re going to isn’t secure. Anyone can look at your URL before deciding whether your site is safe enough for staying on or even a transaction. You can buy SSL certificates at checkout on Namecheap.

SSD translates to Solid-State Drive and is a form of flash storage. Flash storage is ideal for speed. DNS is the Domain Name System. It’s the process of converting your Domain name to its corresponding server IP address so that your site can actually be found.

Other important terms include ICANN, gTLD, and ccTLD. gTLD refers to generic TLDs that are regular ones you will see. ccTLD means the country code TLD for reserved regions, like .ru for Russia or .eu for Europe. Both are governed by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers which gives accreditation to sites like Namecheap to sell these domains.

Namecheap Domain Costs

Namecheap currently offers several domain promotions including: 15% off for .net, 57% off for .com, and 31% off for .org. Whenever they offer deals like this it’s for the first 1-3 years but reverts to the original cost later.

The general costs for the main three TLDs per year are $13.98 for .com and $12.98 for .net and .org. The renewal cost tends to be more even without special promos and is currently $13.98 for .com, and $14.98 for .net and .org. Outside of the big three costs vary greatly.

New TLDs can be especially expensive. Namecheap features new ones and ones that haven’t launched yet here. Some of those new ones include .guitar, .audio, .flowers, .diet, which are all $128.98 per year.

The TLD’s popularity isn’t the only factor in price, there’s also the popularity of the domain name. The business name could already be taken to the point that you are left with few options. This is why you should still be in the initial stages of your business when you are looking for domains.

You should look at domains while you are in the process of making your business plan. After you have decided on some name ideas you need to start checking the availability of their domains so you have a chance to rethink names that are too popular or too similar to your business name.

If you are an established business, you should go into looking for a domain name with flexibility in mind. The name of your physical restaurant could be BakedSweet, but your website could be baked-and-sweet, bakedsweetly, baked-sweetly-for-you. The logo on the website itself can still be BakedSweet.

Learning to be flexible is important, otherwise, your only leftover option could cost hundreds or thousands of dollars. Although the below example is unique because the name Zara is shared by a major retail franchise from Spain.

If you want to see more possible discounts, Namecheap has a page for monthly coupons and a page for domains available for $.99 cents. The .99 cent plans tend to be .us, .store, .biz, .press, .link. You won’t find the most professional name, but it’s suitable for individuals that aren’t expecting heavy traffic.

Namecheap has competitive rates for those that want to transfer their domain registration. The transfer rate for .com is discounted at $9.98 and renews at the original price later. You can go to their domain transfer page for the full list of prices and discounts. You will notice they have separate price lists for gTLD and ccTLD.

Namecheap has other domain options including Handshake domains. Handshake domains are a new way to decentralize the control of the internet and allow for actual ownership of a domain name instead of renting it. The process of how it actually works gets more complex as you learn about the HNS cryptocurrency for Handshake and how it operates. If you are interested you can learn more at the Namecheap info page and on the official Handshake website.

Those of you who love simplicity and affordability might be excited when you learn about Namecheap hosting and domains combined. If you sign up for hosting there’s the option to get your domain name free. The next section goes over plan details.

Namecheap Hosting Plans

Namecheap offers shared hosting, WordPress hosting, VPS hosting, and reseller hosting. Shared hosting is the regular hosting for non-tech-savvy individuals or for eCommerce websites. You do not manage your own hosting, the maintenance, the uploads, storage is managed for you. This is the ideal setup for most small businesses.

VPS hosting is where you have control and access to the actual server you are using. Developers and tech startups will prefer admin capabilities. WordPress hosting simply means using WordPress, specifically one of the managed versions Namecheap offers. WordPress is open source and you can integrate it yourself with VPS hosting.

Reseller hosting is another option more suited to developers or tech-savvy. Reseller hosting means buying the domain and hosting and operating the website for someone else. Reseller hosting is, you offering your services as the webmaster for a website that you own. Think of this as when Landlords buy homes and conduct all maintenance in exchange for rent from a tenet.

Many hosting providers will not offer monthly options, but Namecheap’s hosting services offer both costs.

Shared Hosting Costs

Shared hosting has 3 plans with free services included in all of them. These services are Namecheap’s website builder, free domain and privacy protection, unmetered bandwidth, and supersonic CDN. CDN is the content delivery system on Namecheap, it handles traffic, SSL upload, and DDoS protection. For more information see Namecheap information CDN plans.

Stellar is the basic plan for businesses just starting out. It comes with a free domain name (it will not include the TLD trio .com, .net, or .org), 20GB SSD, and up to 3 websites. The monthly cost is $3.88/month, and $3.88 a month is the renewal price for annual plans after one year as well.

This means aside from the current discount, there isn’t a big price difference between billing monthly and annual. With this plan, you save with either choice, which is ideal for companies that don’t an online presence or social media traffic yet.

Stellar Plus comes with more free domains and discounts on popular TLDs. This one jumps to offering unlimited websites, unmetered SSD, and auto-backup. This plan is better to suiter to small companies with more growth.

Stellar Business has even more free domain options including TLDs like .business and .company. It also comes with a 50GB SSD and cloud storage. This one is another great option for small businesses that expect a lot of growth and maintain a large amount of content.

VPS Hosting Plans

VPS has just two plans, Pulsar and Quasar for VPS hosting. Each plan allows for root access, and the ability to transfer over existing sites. There’s great flexibility with these plans, which is ideal for those that want admin control of their sites.

Pulsar comes with 2 CPU cores, 2 GB RAM, 1000 GB bandwidth. Quasar increases to 4 CPU cores, 6 GB RAM, and 3000 GB bandwidth.

Both plans would be great for the tech-savvy that want control of their server. They could be developers or software teams, generally on the small side. If you want more features with your plan Namecheap offers VPS Server Management plans. Or you can have a cPanel installed. The plans are meant to be easily customizable with 24/7 support, so don’t be afraid to ask.

If you feel you want something even more advanced you can look into Namecheap’s dedicated servers. The uses for those tend to be more about development and less about commercial needs.

WordPress Hosting Plans

For a limited time, Namecheap’s WordPress hosting plans have a 30-day free trial and money-back guarantee Namecheap claims to have the fastest and most affordable managed WordPress hosting available and compares to other top hosting services like GoDaddy and WP Engine. The free features for these plans include 99.99% uptime, easy installation, and Namecheap Cloud hosting.

They have three managed WordPress subscriptions, EasyWP Starter, EasyWP Turbo, EasyWP Supersonic.

EasyWP Starter is more of a beginner's plan for those that want professional software like WordPress, but don’t need complicated tools and features. It comes with 10 GB SSD and a limit of 50k of traffic per month, as well as the free features for WordPress plans.

EasyWP Turbo comes with a 50GB SSD and allows up to 200k in traffic per month. The plan comes with more power on top of that with more CPU and RAM than the other plans. This plan also allows for free CDN and free SSL. Small businesses that already established content and room for their consumer base will find this plan more ideal than a beginner one.

EasyWP Supersonic has 100 GB storage and allows for as many as 500k visitors each month. It comes with the same features as Turbo, but 2x more CPU and RAM. It’s the next step for eCommerce sites that have grown past needs for 200k.

Reseller Hosting Plans

These plans aren’t for beginners. The technical features are advanced and meant for those with experience managing websites. We encourage you to look at the full and very extensive list of plan specifications on the website for a holistic view of what comes with the reseller plan. One big value of the plans is unlimited hosted domains and subdomains. The big limits are on your cPanels and flash storage.

There are three plans, Nebula, Galaxy Expert, and Universe Pro. Nebula is a starter reseller plan for those that have some experience but not a big enough client list. You get 25 cPanels, and 30GB SSD, which is pretty great for someone starting out.

Galaxy Expert jumps to 100 cPanels and 90GB of storage. Teams might also be interested in the account, but technically one user is allowed for all of these accounts. Anyone that finds managing 100cPanels daunting should know the plans all come with Web Host Manager (WHM) control for keeping track of cPanels on the back end.

Universe Pro has 150 cPanel and 150 GB storage. This plan also comes with a WHMCS Starter license for billing support. For more information about the WHMCS licenses see Namecheap’s knowledgebase article.

Namecheap’s Additional Features

Namecheap also has additional features to offer. They can provide business email hosting for teams that want a professional look and to separate private and personal communications. You can look at their plans here. Many have discounts and offer a free trial.

They offer free domain privacy protection, which is essentially protecting your contact information when people look you up on the Whois database. The whois database registration is required by ICANN so anyone can find out who actually owns a website.

Namecheap has a great customer support team and help center. There you can access their knowledge base for great articles and FAQs pages regarding a topic of interest.

Namecheap vs GoDaddy vs NameSilo

Namecheap is a popular and affordable option, but they’re not the only one in the market. Most domain registrars and hosting platforms offer at least one affordable plan in their line-up for startups or individuals that need an online presence. Their plans will be incredibly small business-friendly.

GoDaddy is a fantastically popular domain and web hosting provider preferred by small and midsize businesses. GoDaddy offers many of the same services as Namecheap. These include but are not limited to SSL certificates, email hosting, VPS hosting, WordPress hosting.

When it comes to pricing you are very encouraged to go with their yearly subscriptions. You won’t see the month-to-month cost until you go to checkout, and you will be warned you are not eligible for any of the free services with monthly plans.

This doesn’t mean they are not affordable or have promotions. Currently, you can get a .com TLD at $2.99 for the first year. The deal also requires a two-year commitment and renews at $18.99 for the .com domain. The general costs of GoDaddy’s domains and hosting tend to be higher than Namecheap overall.

This is because GoDaddy’s main selling point is not affordability. For the higher hosting costs at GoDaddy, they offer great storage capabilities and the option for connected databases. They also have more hosting options, including using Microsoft servers or a Dedicated Server for advanced development.

Namecheap's most similar competitor may just be NameSilo. NameSilo's marketing is built around its affordable prices. They have free add-ons like Namecheap as well, including domain privacy protection. Their costs for the top 3 TLDs are cheaper at $9.95 for a .com and that’s without a promotion.

They don’t have the same hosting choices as Namecheap. They have one set of hosting plans, which are very affordable and transparent offering both monthly and yearly.

The month-to-month cost of their Starter subscription is just $2.99. The plan comes with great storage space, a cPanel, and WordPress compatibility. If what you need is simple, shared hosting plan then NameSilo would be a valuable alternative.

More Resources

If you’re an individual just starting out with your business there are free web hosting services. There are technically free domains but they’re not professional enough for a business. They’re a better option for online portfolios or practice sites. If you don’t want to pay for a domain signing up for a Blogger, WordPress.com, or Medium account to promote yourself might be better.

Some free hosting platforms include BYET Internet Services and InfinityFree. BYET has free hosting options along with free domain name options. InfinityFree offers free PHP and MySQL web hosting. These are not recommended for commercial websites that expect rapid growth. Each service does offer paid hosting if you do want to use them and upgrade when needed.

If you want to see other alternatives for Namecheap see our list of competitors. Those of you that have used some of the platforms in the article, please consider leaving a review to help other buyers make informed decisions.