In the Hostinger vs Namecheap matchup, the four-year bill favors Hostinger: $119.52 for Hostinger Premium against $148.00 for Namecheap Stellar, both for three websites. The real split comes before and after those four years. Hostinger is the better pick if uptime and daily backups matter most and you can pay four years upfront. Namecheap is the better pick if you want a small first payment, a free 30-day trial and a much lower bill once the promo ends.
Prices were checked on October 16, 2026 on the providers’ US pricing pages and in Namecheap’s May 2026 renewal-price notice. Speed and uptime figures come from HostingStep (2025), Cybernews (July 2026), Kripesh Adwani (365-day monitoring) and Website Planet (30-day monitoring).
Quick verdict
| Question | Hostinger | Namecheap |
|---|---|---|
| Paid on day one (3 sites) | $119.52 (48 months) | $45.12 (2 years) |
| Four-year total (3 sites) | $119.52 | $148.00 |
| Yearly cost after year four | $131.88 | $51.44 |
| Measured uptime | Higher in all four tests | 99.29% to 99.98% |
| Speed (TTFB) | Close to a tie | Close to a tie |
| Backups on the cheapest plan | Weekly | Twice a week |
| Free trial | No, 30-day refund | Yes, 30 days |
| Control panel | hPanel | cPanel |
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Hostinger vs Namecheap pricing: the real cost
The two hosts sell their plans differently. Hostinger’s pricing page shows a 48-month term paid upfront. Namecheap shows month-to-month, one-year and two-year terms, and its promo discount applies only to the yearly and two-year terms, not to renewals.
| Plan | Websites | Intro price | Billing term | Paid upfront | Renewal price | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hostinger Premium | 3 | $2.49/mo | 48 months | $119.52 | $10.99/mo | Official |
| Hostinger Unlimited | Unlimited | $3.49/mo | 48 months | $167.52 | $16.99/mo | Official |
| Namecheap Stellar | 3 | $1.88/mo | 2 years | $45.12 | $102.88 per 2 years | Official |
| Namecheap Stellar Plus | Unlimited | $2.28/mo | 2 years | $54.72 | $146.44 per 2 years | Official |
| Namecheap Stellar Business | Unlimited | $4.48/mo | 2 years | $107.52 | $251.88 per 2 years | Official |
Namecheap’s one-year prices are $2.28, $2.98 and $4.98 a month, renewing at $55.88, $85.44 and $128.88 a year. Month-to-month starts at $5.88. Namecheap’s renewal prices apply to invoices issued from May 19, 2026. For every Stellar term side by side, see our guide to the Namecheap renewal price.
Four-year money block
Assumptions: Hostinger on one 48-month term; Namecheap on a two-year term renewed once for two more years; renewal rates stay as listed today; cost per site is based on three websites.
| Plan | Day one | Four-year total | Average per month | Cost per site (3 sites) | Yearly cost after year four |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hostinger Premium | $119.52 | $119.52 | $2.49 | $39.84 | $131.88 |
| Namecheap Stellar | $45.12 | $148.00 | $3.08 | $49.33 | $51.44 |
| Hostinger Unlimited | $167.52 | $167.52 | $3.49 | $55.84 | $203.88 |
| Namecheap Stellar Plus | $54.72 | $201.16 | $4.19 | $67.05 | $73.22 |
Over four years, Hostinger is cheaper: $28.48 less at the entry level and $33.64 less for unlimited sites. The cash-flow difference is large, though. Hostinger asks for $74.40 more on day one at the entry level and $112.80 more for unlimited sites, and it locks you in for four years instead of two.
Once the promo ends, the order flips. At listed rates, Namecheap Stellar costs $80.44 a year less than Hostinger Premium, and Stellar Plus costs $130.66 a year less than Unlimited. If you plan to keep a site for five years or more, Namecheap is the cheaper home. Paying Namecheap month to month is the expensive route: 48 months of Stellar at $5.88 comes to $282.24.
For more detail on how Hostinger’s renewal works, see Hostinger renewal price explained.
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What you get for the money
Sites allowed
Both entry plans cap you at three websites: Hostinger Premium and Namecheap Stellar. Stellar also limits you to 30 subdomains. For a fourth site, you move to Hostinger Unlimited or Namecheap Stellar Plus. On Namecheap, that step costs $9.60 more for the first two years ($54.72 vs $45.12). On Hostinger, it costs $48.00 more over the 48-month term. If you expect to grow past three sites, Namecheap makes the upgrade cheaper.
I run my own affiliate sites on Namecheap shared hosting on a plan that allows many domains. I add each new domain in cPanel and install WordPress with the one-click installer, and the file layout is easy to follow.
Backups
Hostinger Premium includes free weekly backups. Unlimited moves to daily backups with easy restores. Namecheap lists backups twice a week on every plan and adds AutoBackup on Stellar Plus and Stellar Business.
In practice, at the entry level, Namecheap’s twice-weekly schedule means a bad plugin update costs you at most a few days of changes instead of a week. At the unlimited level, both hosts add their stronger backup tool. Hostinger’s daily backups are easier to rely on for a site you update every day.
Resource limits
| Plan | CPU | RAM | File limit (inodes) | Storage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hostinger Premium | 1 core | 2 GB | 400,000 | 20 GB SSD |
| Hostinger Unlimited | 2 cores | 3 GB | 600,000 | 50 GB NVMe |
| Namecheap Stellar | 50% | 1 GB | 300,000 | 20 GB SSD |
| Namecheap Stellar Plus | 50% | 2 GB | 300,000 | Unmetered SSD |
| Namecheap Stellar Business | 100% | 2 GB | 600,000 | 50 GB SSD |
This is where Hostinger gives more per dollar. Premium has twice the RAM of Stellar, and Hostinger Unlimited has 50% more RAM than any Namecheap shared plan. Inodes matter more than storage for WordPress sites with many images: Stellar Plus is sold as unmetered storage, but its 300,000-file cap is lower than Hostinger Premium’s 400,000. If you run five or more content-heavy WordPress sites on one account, the file limit is the number to watch.
The upgrade paths differ too. Hostinger’s next step is Cloud Startup at $383.52 for 48 months, renewing at $25.99 a month, with 100 GB NVMe storage and daily plus on-demand backups. Namecheap’s top shared plan, Stellar Business, is the only one that puts US-datacenter accounts on its Cloud Storage layer, which spreads data across several servers.
Email and domain
Both hosts include a free domain for the first year. Namecheap allows one per hosting plan and excludes premium domains. Email is where the entry plans really differ: Hostinger Premium includes 2 mailboxes per website, free for the first year, while Namecheap Stellar includes 30 mailboxes. A business that needs several addresses gets more room on Namecheap without paying for separate email. Our guide to web hosting with a free domain shows what the domain costs after year one.
Trial, refund and control panel
Namecheap offers a 30-day free trial, one per account. However, its 30-day money-back guarantee applies only to customers who did not start with the trial. Hostinger has no free trial but offers a 30-day money-back guarantee. Namecheap uses cPanel, the panel most hosts and tutorials use. Hostinger uses its own hPanel, so move-in guides written for cPanel will not match its screens. If you are switching hosts, our guide to moving a WordPress site to a new host covers the steps. If you are leaving Namecheap, our list of Namecheap alternatives compares the four-year costs first.
Speed, uptime and support
| Source (period, method) | Hostinger | Namecheap |
|---|---|---|
| HostingStep (Hostinger: full-year 2025; Namecheap: Q4 2025; US monitoring) | 483 ms TTFB, 99.9937% uptime | 461 ms TTFB, 99.98% uptime |
| Kripesh Adwani (last 365 days, US server, 30-second checks) | 22 ms response, 99.96% uptime (Business plan) | 19 ms response, 99.89% uptime (Stellar) |
| Cybernews (updated July 3, 2026, same WordPress site on each host) | 100% uptime, 0 failures in stress test (Business plan) | 0.480 s TTFB, 99.29% uptime (Stellar) |
| Website Planet (30 days, UptimeRobot) | 100% uptime | 99.93% uptime, 11 minutes down |
| Kripesh Adwani load test (US server) | 100 virtual users, 17,100 requests, 0 failed, 79 ms P95 response | 50 virtual users, 0 failed, 2,859 ms average response |
The pattern is consistent on uptime: Hostinger measured higher in all four tests, and Namecheap fell short of its advertised 100% uptime guarantee in every test. Hostinger itself guarantees 99.9%. On speed, Namecheap’s response times were lower in two tests, but only by 22 ms and 3 ms. That gap is too small for a visitor to notice, so there is no speed winner for a single visitor. Most Hostinger tests used the old Business plan. HostingStep puts Premium at 472 ms, so the entry plan is not slower.
Under load, the picture changes. In Kripesh Adwani’s load test, Hostinger handled twice as many virtual users with a far lower response time. Cybernews also recorded zero failures for Hostinger while it processed 14,546 requests at 47 per second. Neither host dropped requests in Adwani’s tests, but if a post of yours goes viral or a product launch sends a burst of traffic, Hostinger is the safer shared host.
Hostinger lists priority 24/7 expert support on Premium and Unlimited. Namecheap lists 24/7 live chat. In my own use, Namecheap’s online support has been fast, and Namecheap emails me before it makes changes or updates on its side. Kripesh Adwani found the chat quick but not always helpful with deeper hosting questions.
Who should pick which
- New site, tight budget: Namecheap Stellar. It costs $45.12 to start, and the 30-day trial lets you build before paying.
- Uptime matters more than price: Hostinger. It was ahead in all four independent uptime tests, with up to 100% measured.
- Many affiliate or niche sites: Namecheap Stellar Plus. Unlimited sites cost $54.72 for two years and $73.22 a year after that.
- Sites updated daily: Hostinger Unlimited. Daily backups and 3 GB RAM for $167.52 over four years.
- Sites that may get traffic spikes: Hostinger. It took 100 virtual users with a 79 ms P95 response in Adwani’s load test.
- Small business that needs several email addresses: Namecheap Stellar. It includes 30 mailboxes, while Hostinger Premium includes 2 per website.
- Keeping a site five years or more: Namecheap. Once the promo ends, Stellar costs $80.44 a year less than Premium.
What would change this: if Hostinger renewed below its listed $10.99 a month, or Namecheap raised renewals again, the long-term advantage would shrink.
For more options, see best hosting for affiliate websites, the full Hostinger review and the full Namecheap hosting review.
Final recommendation
For most readers comparing Hostinger vs Namecheap, the deciding question is the time frame. If you want the best measured uptime and daily backups, and you can pay four years upfront, choose Hostinger Unlimited. If you want to start for $45.12, try the host free for 30 days and pay less every year after the promo, choose Namecheap. For several affiliate sites, Stellar Plus is the stronger long-term value.
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FAQ
Is Hostinger better than Namecheap?
For reliability and server resources, yes. Hostinger gives 40 PHP workers on Premium and 60 on Unlimited, which helps WordPress handle many visitors at the same time. For low long-term cost, Namecheap is better.
Does Namecheap’s free trial affect my refund?
Yes. If you start with the 30-day trial, the 30-day money-back guarantee does not apply. You also lose refund eligibility if you open a second Namecheap account, or cancel and sign up again.
Is Namecheap’s 100% uptime guarantee real?
It is a provider claim. In the four tests above, measured uptime ranged from 99.29% to 99.98%. At 99.29%, that is about 62 hours of downtime over a year.
Do I need Namecheap’s dedicated IP add-on?
Most sites do not need one, since SSL works without it. It costs $4.00 a month on every Stellar plan, which adds $192 over four years, more than the entire Stellar bill.