- Main Differences Between Namecheap vs Bluehost Hosting
- Namecheap vs Bluehost Hosting: In-Depth Namecheap Overview
- Namecheap vs Bluehost: The Main Features of Namecheap Web Hosting
- Namecheap vs Bluehost: Bluehost Overview
- Namecheap vs Bluehost Web Host: The Main Features of Bluehost Hosting
- Frequently Asked Questions:
- The Verdict: Namecheap vs Bluehost Hosting - Which is the better budget hosting provider?
Last Updated on May 2, 2023 by Ewen Finser
In this article, we are going to be taking a look at Namecheap vs Bluehost Hosting to help you decide which one of these popular hosting providers is right for you.
If you’re on the search for the best hosting provider for your website or blog, you will have realized by now that there are hundreds of options to choose from, but don’t worry – we’re here to help you make the best decision!
Main Differences Between Namecheap vs Bluehost Hosting
The main differences between Namecheap vs Bluehost Hosting are:
- Namecheap offers free migration from your previous hosting provider with all its hosting plan options, whereas Bluehost doesn’t offer free migrations
- Bluehost doesn’t include automatic backups, whereas Namecheap offers automatic backups twice weekly with its Stellar Plus and Stellar Business plans
- Namecheap is more affordable, with plans starting at just $1.44/month, whereas Bluehost’s cheapest plan starts at $3.95/month
- Bluehost has slightly faster page loading speeds than Namecheap, with an average speed of 420ms for the last 12 months, whereas Namecheap’s average speed was 543ms for the last 12 months
- Bluehost offers 24/7 support by phone, email, and chat, whereas Namecheap only offers support by live chat and tickets
It’s a very affordable hosting solution, Bluehost allows you to build a site with WordPress which gives you complete control and flexibility over your website.
Choosing a reliable host from the start is important, after all- your website is your baby, and you will want to make sure it is in safe hands. With cybercrime on the rise, knowing that your website is well protected by state of the art security feature capabilities and regular backups will give you extra peace of mind.
There are other things you should be looking out for too when choosing a host, such as uptime statistics, page loading speeds, customer support, and scalability as your traffic grows.
Each of these things can have a direct impact on your business as well as your SEO, so they are all worth taking into consideration. Page loading speeds and uptime rates, in particular, will have a direct impact on your bottom line, in fact, the probability of bounce increases by a massive 32% when your page loading time drops from 1 second to 3 seconds. So if your page loading speeds aren’t up to scratch, you’re leaving money on the table.
Making sure that the hosting provider you choose for your website ticks all the right boxes now, will mean that you can sit back and relax, and focus on growing your business without having to worry about your site.
So, today we are going to be looking at Namecheap vs Bluehost hosting side by side to see exactly what each of these dedicated hosting providers has to offer. We will also be looking at the pros and cons of each service, as well as the pricing, to give you all the information you need to make the best decision for your business.
Let’s take a look.
Namecheap vs Bluehost Hosting: In-Depth Namecheap Overview
Namecheap is known for offering great value hosting and domains to their customers. The company was founded in 2000 by its CEO, Richard Kirkendall, and since then has become one of the fastest-growing companies in America.
They pride themselves on offering the best customer service and support around, and currently manage over 10 million domains, making them one of the top domain registrars and hosting providers in the world.
As well as offering domains, they also offer reliable hosting packages at competitive prices, fully equipped with SSL security certificates, and WhoisGuard privacy protection, making them accessible to everyone.
Namecheap vs Bluehost: The Main Features of Namecheap Web Hosting
- Free Domain Name
- Automatic backups
- Unmetered bandwidth
- Free website builder
- Domain name and privacy protection
- Free automatic SSL installation
- 30-day money-back guarantee
- 24/7 live support
- Personalized email service
- Managed WordPress and cPanel
- 100% uptime
Namecheap Page Loading Speeds and Uptime Statistics
Namecheap has impressive uptime statistics, sitting at 100% for all of its shared hosting plan options, and even if there is maintenance (whether it’s planned or unplanned) you will always be able to be online, with no interruptions.
All servers use the latest technology to ensure unparalleled performance and reliability. They run CloudLinux 6.x Operating System with Apache, MySQL, PHP, Perl and more, so that you can be sure that your page loading speeds will be as fast as possible.
For the last 12 months, Namecheap’s average page loading speed has been recorded at 543ms, which although it’s not the fastest around, is well above average in the industry.
Namecheap Customer Support and Reviews
Namecheap offers 24/7 support to all of their customers, for free, so you can get in touch with them at any time, on any day of the year. Support is available in a variety of ways, including live chat, and support tickets. They also have a ‘status updates’ page which you can subscribe to, as well as a news page, where you can read their latest blog posts and find lots of useful information.
The support centre also has an FAQ page, as well as links to popular articles and ‘How-Tos’.
When it comes to customer reviews, Namecheap is doing very well on Shopper Approved, with an overall score of 4.6 out of 5 stars from over 1,616,322 reviews– phew! Unfortunately, their reviews aren’t so good on Trustpilot, with only 2.5 stars out of 5 from 508 reviews, which is a rating of ‘poor’.
They are also under investigation with the Better Business Bureau, and rated ‘F’ due to their failure to respond to 75 complaints made about the business.
Security
Namecheap takes security very seriously, and offers two main security services to its customers to protect them from identity thieves and other security threats:
- WhoisGuard – Completely free for Namecheap domain owners. This keeps domain owners’ contact information such as their name, email, and phone number, out of the public Whois database. Having this information hidden protects you from spammers and marketing firms, as well as fraudsters.
- SSL Certificates – Namecheap offers a variety of different SSL certificates based on your needs. This works as a third party verification for your website’s security, to ensure that your customers’ data is always secure.
As well as these security measures, Namecheap uses two-factor authentication for its account holders, giving your account an extra layer of security. This normally works by using a username and a password, as well as sending a code to your mobile device.
Namecheap also offers Auto backup free with its premium hosting plan tiers. This backs up your website, as well as your files, databases, settings, email accounts, and more so that if the worst should happen, you can easily restore everything with just a few clicks.
Migrating to Namecheap from Another Hosting Provider
If you want to switch from another hosting provider over to Namecheap, they will migrate your site to one of their hosting plans free of charge.
The migration process is easy- first of all you open a support ticket letting Namecheap know which provider you are with currently, how many sites you would like to move over, and also the login URL, username, and password for your existing hosting provider. This information will allow a Namecheap Support technician to access your old account and directly perform the migration for you.
You will also need to let Namecheap know if you already have a hosting plan with them, or if you need to purchase one for you. If you are not sure which plan would be best for you they can take a look at your existing site and recommend the best service for you.
Your login information will be in safe hands as Namecheap’s support ticket system is protected by an SSL encryption. They will also ask you to create a temporary password which you can change after the migration is complete for extra protection.
The Benefits of Using Namecheap
- Namecheap offers hosting at very competitive pricing compared to other hosting providers.
- Free domain name provided (domain registrar) with all hosting plans (.com can also be provided at a discounted rate).
- Free SSL certificates with all shared hosting plans
- Good page loading speeds.
- They offer a 30-day money-back guarantee if you aren’t happy with the service.
- Great reviews on ShopperApproved.com with 4.6 stars out of 5 from over 1 million reviews.
- A good backup and security features.
The Downsides to Using Namecheap
Although Nampcheap claims to have 100% uptime on their shared hosting plans, when we checked their test site on Pingdom, we could see that it fell below that frequently, particularly in late 2018/early 2019. The other thing is that the free domain name doesn’t include ‘.com’ domains, although they do offer a discount with the premium plans.
You also need to remember that the prices advertised are only for the first contract period, and will go up after renewal.
Namecheap Pricing
We are going to be comparing the pricing for Shared hosting plans, but there are other hosting plans available too, so if you would like to see pricing for any other plans such as managed hosting, head over to their website here. Namecheap has three different plans for shared hosting in total: Stellar, Stellar Plus, and Stellar Business.
The Stellar plan costs $1.44/month for the first year, and after that renews at $2.88/month after that. It includes 20GB of SSD, up to 3 websites, a free domain name, 3 hosted domains, unmetered bandwidth, 30 subdomains, backups twice a week, cPanel, and the website builder.
The Stellar Plus plan costs $2.44/month for the first year, and after that renews at $4.88/month after that. It includes unmetered SSD, unlimited websites, a free domain name, unlimited hosted domains, unmetered bandwidth (unlimited bandwidth), unlimited subdomains, backups twice a week and auto backups, cPanel, and the website builder.
The Stellar Business plan costs $4.44/month for the first year, and after that renews at $8.88/month after that. It includes 50GB SSD, unlimited websites, a free domain name, unlimited hosted domains, unmetered bandwidth, unlimited subdomains, backups twice a week and auto backups, cloud storage, cPanel, PCI compliance, personal nameserver (dedicated server), and the website builder.
If you would like to see the plans in more detail, head over to Namecheap’s website here.
Namecheap vs Bluehost: Bluehost Overview
Bluehost is one of the most well-known hosting companies around, famed for its affordable and reliable hosting, and great customer service. Bluehost currently powers over 2 million websites, blogs, and ecommerce stores around the world.
The company was founded in 2003, and since then they have worked hard to enable anyone to thrive online with their web hosting packages.
Bluehost has been recommended by WordPress.org since 2005, making it one of the best places around to build and grow a WordPress website. Since WordPress only officially recommends 3 hosting providers in total (Bluehost, Dreamhost, and SiteGround), this is quite a badge of honor for a dedicated Managed WordPress host! They offer an extensive range of comprehensive tools, hosting packages, and 24/7 support.
Namecheap vs Bluehost Web Host: The Main Features of Bluehost Hosting
- Automatic WordPress installation and updates
- A free domain name for one year
- Microsoft Office 365 available
- Secure configuration of login credentials
- Managed WordPress hosting plan staging environment
- Free SSL Certificates
- 24/7 support
- Hundreds of WordPress themes available
Bluehost Page Loading Speeds and Uptime Statistics
Bluehost has great uptime and page loading speeds on Pingdom, with their uptime statistics for the last 12 months averaging out at 99.99% which is impressive. Their page loading speed averages out at 420ms for the last 12 months, which is great.
Bluehost Customer Support and Reviews
If you need to contact customer support, there are a variety of ways to get in touch, including phone, live chat, and email, as well as a vast knowledge base, packed full of helpful articles, tutorials, and answers to frequently asked questions.
Support is available 24/7 with all plans. We contacted support to see how they measured up, and they responded quickly with a helpful answer.
When it comes to independent customer reviews, Bluehost performs quite well on TrustRadius, with 7.5 out of 10 stars in total. Unfortunately, they aren’t doing so well on Trustpilot, with a pretty low score of 1.5 stars out of 5 from a total of 362 reviews.
Hosting Service Security
Bluehost has taken several measures to ensure that your site is always secure. It currently uses Spam Experts, Spam Hammer, and Apache Spam Assassin to protect your websites, and you can also add additional free or paid security features to your websites, depending on your needs. Bluehost also provides a free SSL certificate with all hosting plans which will add ‘https’ to your website, and encrypt your customers’ data. This also helps with sites your SEO.
When you sign up for an account with Bluehost, you will immediately be able to change your assigned password to a password of your choice for extra security.
Migrating from Bluehost from Another Hosting Provider
Bluehost provides a professional migration service for up to 5 websites. There is a fee for this service (usually around $100) but you will need to request a consultation. If you would prefer to migrate your site yourself, Bluehost provides an extensive guide on how to do this here.
The Benefits of Using Bluehost
- Bluehost offers very affordable pricing for its hosting plans compared to its competitors, great for anyone who wants to get started on a budget.
- Free SSL certificates are included with all hosting plans.
- Automatic WordPress automation with all hosting plans so you can start using it straight away.
- A free domain name for the first year.
- The Plus plan and Choice Plus plan both allow you to build unlimited websites for no additional cost.
- Very good uptime rates, Bluehost has uptime rates of 99.9%.
- Unmetered bandwidth, so there’s no limit to the amount of traffic your website can have.
- Generous storage and disk space allowances.
- Since Bluehost is recommended by WordPress, there is a huge range of apps and integrations you can install on your WordPress site with just a couple of clicks.
- Bluehost offers a 30-day money-back guarantee, so if you aren’t happy with the service you can claim a full refund.
- Bluehost offers 24/7 support to its customers by phone, email, and live chat, so you can always speak to someone when you need help, no matter the time of day or day of the year.
The Downsides to Using Bluehost Service Provider
Bluehost has a pretty poor record for customer reviews on independent review sites which is worrying, however, when we contacted support via live chat they responded with a quick and helpful answer. Bluehost doesn’t offer a free migration service like many of its competitors which is a shame, they also don’t offer automatic backups which may be a problem for some users.
You also need to remember that the prices advertised are only for the first contract period, and will go up after renewal.
Bluehost Pricing
Bluehost offers three different pricing plans for WordPress hosting: Basic, Plus, and Choice Plus.
The Basic plan costs $3.95/month (which goes up to $7.99/month after renewal). This plan includes 1 website, free SSL certificate, 50GB SSD storage, free domain for 1 year, 5 parked domains, and 25 subdomains.
The Plus plan costs $5.95/month (which goes up to $10.99/month after renewal). This plan includes unlimited websites, free SSL certificate, unmetered SSD storage, free domain for 1 year, unlimited parked domains, and unlimited subdomains.
The Choice Plus plan costs $5.95/month (which goes up to $14.99/month after renewal). This plan includes everything from the Plus plan, as well as CodeGuard Basic backups.
If you would like to find out more about Bluehost WordPress hosting plans, you can visit their website here.
It’s a very affordable hosting solution, Bluehost allows you to build a site with WordPress which gives you complete control and flexibility over your website.
Frequently Asked Questions:
Is Namecheap free SSL?
To ensure your site retains its “secure” status with Google, Namecheap will issue a free Comodo SSL Certificate. This SSL coverage is free for the remaining time of your original, non-Comodo certificate.
Does Bluehost have a website builder?
BlueHost offers a couple of amazing website builders to help their clients build professional-looking blogs and websites even without touching a single line of code.
The Verdict: Namecheap vs Bluehost Hosting – Which is the better budget hosting provider?
Both Namecheap and Bluehost offer great hosting solutions for anyone on a budget, but which of these two hosting providers is better?
At first glance, Namecheap looks like the better option, due to the fact that it offers better value for money, and includes a few additional services that Bluehost doesn’t include as part of the package, such as automatic backups, and free migration. But when you look a little closer there are some big red flags, that in our opinion should make you stay away from Namecheap hosting, and go for Bluehost instead.
Ever heard the expression ‘You get what you pay for’? Well, in this case, it rings true. Namecheap definitely offers the best price, but at what cost?
Well to us it looks like the customer service is the main issue here, with a huge number of unresolved complaints made against the business to the BBB, and terrible reviews about the hosting and customer service on Trustpilot. They do have great reviews on Shopper Approved, but it looks like the majority of those reviews are for domains only, rather than hosting packages.
So if it’s just a domain you’re after, then sure, go for Namecheap, as domains are what they are good at. But if it’s solid hosting you’re after then Bluehost is definitely a better choice here.
Bluehost offers great uptime statistics and page loading speeds at a very reasonable price, and they are a trusted WordPress partner, so if you’re looking for budget WordPress hosting, then Bluehost is a great option. They include free SSL certificates, a free domain name for the first year and 24/7 phone support.
Like the sound of what Bluehost has to offer? Visit their website here to check out their full range of hosting plans and see exactly what’s on offer.
If you want to find out more about the Namecheap hosting service, you can visit their website to see their pricing and plans here.
If you’ve got a little bit more money to spend, then we would recommend checking out SiteGround, who is one of the most reliable hosting providers around, with an excellent track record for customer service and performance. We compared SiteGround vs Bluehost to see exactly how they each measured up when out head to head.
WPX Hosting is another great option you might want to consider if performance is important to you. Check out our comparison of WPX Hosting vs SiteGround here.
Finally, another good option here is to look at Dreamhost vs Bluehost, another great WordPress managed hosting company.
Further Reading on Hosting Service Options: