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Bluehost vs. NameCheap – who is the better web hosting provider in 2020?
It is now a well-known fact that you now definitely need to own a website if you are running a business. Similarly, blogs and online stores too have abundantly grown in popularity. To tap into the growing trend, a large number of domain registration providers have also started offering hosting services.
For instance, NameCheap is a popular domain service provider that now also offers world-class hosting services. Then there are renowned hosting providers like Bluehost that have been in the hosting business for decades. Interestingly, most of such hosting providers also offer domain registration services.
Bluehost vs NameCheap Comparison 2020
So, if we were to compare Bluehost with NameCheap, who do you think will be the winner? We did a detailed Bluehost vs NameCheap comparison to find out the answer.
1. Hosting Infrastructure
The hosting infrastructure is an excellent way to know the reliability of a hosting provider. Bluehost currently has its two main datacenters located in the USA (Utah). In the last few years, it has also commissioned smaller datacenters all over the world in cities like Hong Kong, London, and Mumbai. All of its hosting servers use SSD storage for improved accessibility, speed, and security.
The EIG-owned hosting provider is in the hosting business since 2003 and currently powers more than 2 million websites on the internet. NameCheap too has its main datacenters located in the USA. Recently, it also launched hosting servers in the UK. While a lot of people might have not really heard about NameCheap, it actually is in existence since 2000.
However, it began as a domain registrar and only started offering hosting services several years later. Nevertheless, it now uses SSD storage and has multiple levels of security for enhanced safety of the servers and their hosted websites. So, with regards to hosting infrastructure, both the hosting providers seem to have a lot in common.
2. Hosting Services
You can now go ahead and select a hosting service that best suits the needs of your website as all the popular hosting providers now offer many different types of services. For instance, Bluehost offers Shared Hosting, Dedicated Hosting, WordPress Hosting, VPS Hosting, and Reseller Hosting. It also offers WP Pro which is a type of managed WordPress Hosting with additional resources and features.
Similarly, NameCheap offers Shared, WordPress, Managed WordPress, Reseller, VPS, and Dedicated Hosting. All the different types of hosting services offered by both the providers also have multiple plans to better match your needs and budget. You can try to know more about all of these options to pick the best for your website.
3. NameCheap vs Bluehost Pricing
You’d definitely want to get the best bang for your money. This makes pricing one of the most important considerations when selecting a hosting provider. We will compare the cheapest shared hosting plan of both the companies to help you understand their pricing better. With Bluehost, the cheapest shared hosting plan is their Basic plan which costs $2.95/month for the initial term and increases up to $7.99 during renewal.
The plan comes with 50GB SSD storage, unmetered bandwidth, free domain for a year, free SSL, 5 parked domains, and 25 sub-domains for a single website. NameCheap, on the other hand, offers its cheapest Stellar plan at $2.88/month. However, it is currently running a 50% discount promotion which brings down the cost to $1.44/month. But note that this discount offer is only available for the first year. Renewals will be priced at $2.88.
While NameCheap appears to be more affordable than BlueHost with regards to its cheapest shared hosting plan, the plan is severely limited. For instance, you only get 20GB SSD storage and 50 Positive SSL certificates. Also, one very interesting thing to know here is that NameCheap charges an additional fee of minimum $1/month if you select its UK servers. There is no such differentiation in the pricing of Bluehost based on the server location.
So, while NameCheap is one of the most affordable hosting providers, it has been able to keep the prices low by limiting the resources and features.
Must Read: Which Bluehost Plan Is Best for High Traffic Websites?
4. Uptime and Speed
One of the biggest reasons for the widespread popularity of Bluehost is its speed and uptime. A dummy website was created with a single page of about 400KB to test the speed of both the hosting providers and Bluehost proved to be a significantly better option than NameCheap. With the cheapest shared plan of Bluehost, the average load time was around 800ms.
The same for NameCheap was close to 2 seconds which is 2.5x of what Bluehost achieved. Even with regards to the uptime, Bluehost delivered far better results. As a matter of fact, NameCheap offers a 100% uptime guarantee which is almost impossible even for the top hosting providers. As per our research, the uptime of NameCheap was close to 99.90% which is pretty decent.
While Bluehost does not offer any uptime guarantee, it was able to maintain an average uptime of 99.99%. If impressive hosting performance is what you are looking for in your host, Bluehost is a significantly better choice than NameCheap.
5. Security
Both the hosting providers offer a basic level of safety through their SSD servers and free SSL certificates. Bluehost also offers Cloudflare CDN and SpamExpert. Similarly, NameCheap offers a few free security tools like 2FA and WhoisGuard. Apart from the free tools, both the hosts also offer a number of paid security add-ons.
Bluehost offers paid tools like web application firewall, malware scan and report, and CDN caching while NameCheap offers PremiumDNS and a few other tools. In short, Bluehost and NameCheap are well-equipped as far as the security of their hosting services is concerned. Both the hosting providers offer a number of free and paid tools.
6. Daily Backups
You should create a backup of your website at regular intervals for enhanced safety. While there are some hosting providers that offer backup and restore service for free, most others charge a fee for the same and Bluehost belongs to the latter category. It offers the CodeGuard tool for creating website backups and charges a monthly fee of $3 for the same.
But note that this tool is available for free in most of Bluehost’s expensive plans. NameCheap is a better option here. Even with its cheapest plan, you get 2 weekly backups for free. The expensive plans come with an automatic backup tool. Once the backup is created, you can restore the same anytime you like.
7. Domain Registration
NameCheap is primarily a domain registrar and excels over Bluehost in this department. While both the hosting providers offer a free domain for 1 year with each of their plans, domain renewals are cheaper with NameCheap. If you go for a basic .com domain, NameCheap will charge a yearly fee of $8.88. The same from Bluehost costs $11.99.
But apart from this difference in pricing, both the hosts offer the same level of convenience and ease with regards to registering a domain. Both the hosts offer several TLDs to choose from, including the likes of .tech, .io, .club, and more.
8. Customer Support
With something as important as website hosting, you definitely need quick access to experts who can answer your queries any time of the day or night. Fortunately, Bluehost and NameCheap both offer 24×7 support. Bluehost offers support through phone, live chat, and email. It also has an extensive knowledgebase to answer hundreds of basic queries.
Surprisingly, NameCheap does not offer phone support. Its 24×7 support is available through live chat and its email-based ticketing system. It also has an excellent knowledge base with blogs, articles, how-to tutorials, and much more.
Also check: WPX Hosting vs Bluehost Managed WordPress Hosting Comparison 2020
9. User-Friendliness
While Bluehost uses cPanel which is commonly used by most hosting providers, it has customized the account management software to make it more powerful and easier to use. NameCheap offers the standard version of cPanel. Both the hosts also offer website building tools for free. While Bluehost offers a Weebly-powered tool, NameCheap has its custom website builder.
Overall, both the hosting providers are highly user-friendly and you should not really face any major complications even if you are purchasing hosting services for the first time.
10. Additional Features and Benefits
NameCheap offers free website migration service but Bluehost charges a $149 fee for the same. But if you have paid this migration fee, you can migrate up to 5 websites to Bluehost. If you do have some experience with website development, you can also do the migration yourself. Also, both the hosts offer a 30-days money-back guarantee on all of their plans.
Bluehost now also offers a number of professional services like Digital Marketing, SEO, PPC, and more. Namecheap, on the other hand, offers a number of paid apps such as NameCheap VPN, Strikingly, Ghost Machine, and more.
Bluehost vs NameCheap – Who is Better?
As you can see, while NameCheap is definitely one of the best domain registrars, Bluehost is a significantly better hosting provider. From the hosting performance, security, support, to cost-efficiency, there are several reasons that make Bluehost not just better than NameCheap but considerably better than most companies in the hosting business.
If you are searching for a hosting provider and are confused between Bluehost and NameCheap, you now know what you should select.