Namecheap hosting suits small WordPress sites on a tight budget, but only if you plan for the renewal price. Stellar costs $1.88 a month on a 2-year term, then $4.29 a month when it renews.
This Namecheap hosting review covers the three shared plans: Stellar (3 sites), Stellar Plus and Stellar Business (both unlimited sites). I run my own sites on Namecheap shared hosting, and I say so where that experience applies. Prices were checked on October 16, 2026 on Namecheap’s US shared hosting page and help center. Speed and uptime figures come from three outside tests, named in the table with their periods.
Namecheap hosting plans and the real cost
Every plan starts with a 30-day free trial, then a discounted rate on yearly or 2-year billing. Namecheap’s fine print says the discount does not apply to renewals. The plan page shows monthly rates only, so the term totals in the second table are my calculation (rate times months).
| Plan | Month-to-month | 1-year term, per month | 2-year term, per month | Renewal, 1 year | Renewal, 2 years |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stellar | $5.88 | $2.28 | $1.88 | $55.88 | $102.88 |
| Stellar Plus | $7.88 | $2.98 | $2.28 | $85.44 | $146.44 |
| Stellar Business | $11.88 | $4.98 | $4.48 | $128.88 | $251.88 |
All figures are from Namecheap’s own pages: term rates from the shared hosting page, renewals from its help center (effective May 19, 2026). The help page does not list the earlier renewal prices, so the size of that increase cannot be calculated. Our breakdown of the Namecheap renewal price lists every plan and term after that change.
What four years cost
| Plan | First 2 years | Next 2 years (renewal) | Four-year total | Average per month | Sites included |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stellar | $45.12 | $102.88 | $148.00 | $3.08 | 3 ($49.33 per site) |
| Stellar Plus | $54.72 | $146.44 | $201.16 | $4.19 | Unlimited ($67.05 at 3 sites) |
| Stellar Business | $107.52 | $251.88 | $359.40 | $7.49 | Unlimited ($119.80 at 3 sites) |
The totals assume a 2-year term, a renewal into another 2-year term at today’s renewal price, no further price change, and no charge for the free trial month.
The renewal is the part to plan for. Stellar’s second two years cost $102.88, which is $4.29 a month against $1.88 at the start, or 2.3 times as much. Stellar Plus goes from $2.28 to $6.10 a month, 2.7 times. Moving from Stellar to Stellar Plus adds $53.16 over four years. Month-to-month billing is the costly route: Stellar at $5.88 for 48 months comes to $282.24, which is $134.24 more than the 2-year path. Month 24 is the point to compare prices again, and moving a site is a routine job: see how to move a WordPress site to a new host.
What Namecheap hosting includes, and the limits that matter
- Sites: Stellar allows 3 websites. Stellar Plus and Stellar Business are unlimited. For anyone building several affiliate sites, the fourth site is what pushes you from Stellar to Stellar Plus. Stellar also caps subdomains at 30 and mailboxes at 30, while the other two plans list both as unlimited. For separate business mailboxes, see our Namecheap email hosting review.
- Storage and files: Stellar has 20 GB SSD, Stellar Plus lists unmetered SSD and Stellar Business has 50 GB SSD. The file limit (inodes) is 300,000 on Stellar and Stellar Plus and 600,000 on Stellar Business, so “unmetered” on Stellar Plus is capped by file count, not by gigabytes. Namecheap also says the unmetered space is for your website only and falls under its Acceptable Use Policy.
- Free domain: every plan lists a free domain for the first year. Premium domains are excluded, and the fine print allows one domain per hosting plan.
- Server resources: Namecheap’s resource-limits page (updated June 24, 2026) gives a baseline shared account 1 GB of RAM and 20 entry processes, the number of requests the account can run at once. Stellar Plus is listed at 2 GB and 30. Stellar Business is listed at 2 GB, 40 entry processes and a 100% CPU limit, against 50% for the other columns. The page does not name Stellar separately, so the baseline is the closest figure for it.
- Backups: the plan page says twice a week on every plan, plus AutoBackup on Stellar Plus and Stellar Business. AutoBackup keeps 6 daily, 3 weekly and 5 monthly copies for up to six months, and you cannot force one. An undated Namecheap help page says shared accounts get weekly backups for server restoration only, tells customers to keep their own copies, and says backups are made only for accounts of 25 GB or less and 200,000 files or fewer. That does not match the plan page, so keep a copy of your own.
- Security and extras: every plan lists Imunify360 (malware scanning and a firewall), automatic SSL installation, cPanel two-factor login and the Supersonic CDN, which Namecheap describes as built-in DDoS protection. A dedicated IP is an extra $4.00 a month.
- Staging: the shared plan page I read lists no staging tool.
- Data center: the US option is on the order page. Namecheap says its Cloud Storage layer comes with the US data center only on Stellar Business; on Stellar and Stellar Plus it is limited to the EU and Singapore locations.
Namecheap hosting review: speed and uptime evidence
Namecheap advertises a 100% uptime guarantee on all its shared plans. That is a provider claim, not a measured result. Its uptime guarantee terms give one free day of hosting for each hour of unplanned downtime, up to one month, if you open a billing ticket within 10 calendar days, and Namecheap alone decides whether an outage qualifies. Three outside sources measured real sites:
| Source | Method and period | Uptime | Speed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kripesh Adwani (review updated July 2026) | Own test site on the Stellar plan, US server; monitor checks every 30 seconds; last 365 days | 99.89% | 19 ms server response from the US; 50-user load test with no failed requests, 2,859 ms average response |
| Cybernews (page updated April 14, 2025; test dates not stated) | Own test site, US data center, plan not named; two weeks of GTmetrix monitoring | 99.82% (16 outages, 31 minutes in total) | 912 ms LCP from the US; in a 50-visitors-a-minute stress test, 440 of 9,348 requests failed |
| HostingStep, as reported by ComparEdge (Q4 2025) | Monitoring of shared-hosting sites | 99.98% (four outages) | 461 ms average TTFB in the US |
All three results sit below the 100% Namecheap advertises. Over a year, 99.89% is about 9.6 hours of downtime (8,760 hours times 0.11%), and 99.98% is about 1.8 hours. The speed figures use different methods (a 19 ms server response in one test, a 461 ms average TTFB in another), so they cannot be ranked against each other. Only one test names its plan. A single event can outweigh a year of small outages: the August 2026 Phoenix data center failure, covered in our Namecheap outage breakdown, took hosting down for about a day.
Support and migration
Namecheap lists live chat 24/7. I find its online support fast, and it emails me before it makes changes or updates on its side. Outside reviewers disagree: Kripesh Adwani found chat quick but not always helpful with hosting questions, and Gaurav Tiwari (updated June 2026) calls it slow to respond. Cybernews lists no phone support. If you are locked out rather than waiting on a reply, our guide to a Namecheap account locked lists which Namecheap email address handles each problem.
Namecheap says migration from another cPanel host is free, with manual transfers possible case by case. That is the provider’s claim; I have not used it. On the setup side, I add new domains in cPanel and install WordPress with the one-click installer, and the control panel and file layout are easy to follow. Adding each new site takes a few minutes, as our step-by-step guide to adding a domain in cPanel shows. Moving a domain is a separate step, explained in our guide to transferring a domain to Namecheap.
Who Namecheap hosting suits, and who should look elsewhere
- One to three small WordPress sites on a budget: Stellar, at $148.00 over four years ($49.33 per site).
- Four or more sites: Stellar Plus, at $201.16 over four years for unlimited sites, within the 300,000-file cap per account. Our guide to the best hosting for multiple websites compares it with three other hosts.
- A store or a busier site: Stellar Business has a 100% CPU limit and 600,000 files, at $359.40 over four years. Look at Hostinger Unlimited first: $167.52 for 48 months, with daily backups, 3 GB of RAM and 600,000 files.
- Anyone who needs staging or tight backup control: the Namecheap plan page lists neither. SiteGround GrowBig lists staging and 5 on-demand backups. See SiteGround vs Namecheap for the full side-by-side.
A clearer backup policy or a lower renewal table would change this advice.
Namecheap alternatives with a number each
Hostinger Premium is $2.49 a month on a 48-month term, $119.52 in total for 3 sites and 20 GB. That is $28.48 less than Stellar over the same four years, and the price holds for all 48 months, but you pay it upfront. It renews at $10.99 a month. See the Hostinger review, or the side-by-side Hostinger vs Namecheap comparison.
SiteGround StartUp is $35.88 for the first 12 months, then $17.99 a month, which makes $683.52 over four years for 1 site and 10 GB. Choose it for its caching tools and US data centers, not for price. See the SiteGround review. For all three options side by side, see our list of Namecheap alternatives.
Check Hostinger plansVisit SiteGround
Namecheap hosting review verdict
Pick Stellar for up to three small sites and Stellar Plus for more. Buy the 2-year term, keep your own backups, and set a reminder before month 24 to compare the $102.88 Stellar renewal against what other hosts charge. For wider price context, read best cheap WordPress hosting and how much web hosting costs.
Explore Namecheap hosting options
Frequently asked questions
Does Namecheap offer a free trial?
Yes, 30 days free on each shared plan, limited to one trial per account. The 30-day money-back guarantee applies only to first-time shared hosting customers who start without the trial, so you get one or the other.
Is Namecheap shared hosting good for WordPress?
It includes cPanel and Softaculous with 100+ one-click apps, plus an AI for WordPress tool. Kripesh Adwani’s Stellar test site ran Elementor with the W3 Total Cache plugin, so a cache plugin is part of a typical setup. Our Namecheap cPanel guide walks through adding a domain and installing WordPress.
Can I host more than three sites on Stellar?
No. Stellar lists 3 websites and 30 subdomains. Stellar Plus lifts both to unlimited for $53.16 more over four years.
What does Namecheap charge on top of the plan?
A dedicated IP costs $4.00 a month on every plan. Some domain registrations carry a mandatory $0.20 yearly ICANN fee, which Namecheap adds at checkout.
Does Namecheap have phone support?
Not according to Cybernews, which lists live chat, email, tickets and a knowledge base. Namecheap’s page names live chat as its support channel.