To make it clear on the matter that whether the VPS hosting service from NameCheap is worth a shot, we have had a close look on the service in terms of these aspects: price, feature, performance and technical support. Moreover, to obtain real feedbacks, we have carefully read hundreds of reviews from verified customers.
In the following, we initially come out overall ratings of the service on the basis of our personal hosting experience for more than 3 months. Please refer to them to get details.
With the above ratings, I guess you have already got a general idea of the service. Next, we are to make an in-depth analysis at length and get the veil lifted.
Price
To serve webmasters demanding VPS hosting service, NameCheap develops altogether 4 packages that are named as VPS Lite-Xen, VPS 1-Xen, VPS 2-Xen and VPS 3-Xen. Allowing the subscription terms of 1-month, 3-month, 6-month and 12 month, the packages can be purchased with a price starting at $19.95/mo, $29.95/mo, $49.95/mo and $69.95/mo accordingly. Furthermore, all packages include a 14 days money back guarantee that ensures worry-free buying experience.
| Fees | VPS Lite-Xen | VPS 1-Xen | VPS 2-Xen | VPS 3-Xen |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| cPanel | N/A | $8.00/mo | $8.00/mo | $8.00/mo |
| Softaculous Script Installer | N/A | $1.5/mo | $1.5/mo | $1.5/mo |
| WHMCS Branded License | N/A | $8.00/mo | $8.00/mo | $8.00/mo |
| WHMCS Non-Branded License | N/A | $11.00/mo | $11.00/mo | $11.00/mo |
In addition to the above additional fees, this company charges $10.48/mo for a yearly transfer of one domain name. Besides, since the service does not include a free domain name, it takes $10.69/mo for buying a domain name. Considering these fees and no extra freebies, the VPS services offered by NameCheap is not really cost-effective. As for payments, the service supports payments through both credit cards and PayPal.
Feature
The service supports diverse operating systems including CentOS 5 LAMP 64bit, CentOS 6 LAMP 64 bit, Debian 6 LAMP 64, Fedora 17 LAMP 64 bit and Ubuntu 12.04 LAMP 64 bit. All packages come with different amounts of resources. Specifically, the VPS Lite-Xen includes 15 GB Raid of disk space, CPU with 1 core, 512 MB of SWAP space, 100 GB bandwidth, 1 dedicated IP, etc.. For the convenience to check the specific amount, we have worked out a clear table in the following.
| Features | VPS Lite-Xen | VPS 1-Xen | VPS 2-Xen | VPS 3-Xen |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Disk Space | 15 GB | 30 GB | 60 GB | 100 GB |
| CPU | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| RAM | 512 MB | 1024 MB | 2048 MB | 3072 MB |
| Bandwidth | 100 GB | 250 GB | 500 GB | 750 GB |
| Dedicated IPs | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
Furthermore, all VPS packages are easy to be upgraded and downgraded, which means that you can change the VPS package to adapt to new demand once you have changed your requirements for resources such as bandwidth and disk space. What is more, the service features the cPanel as its control panel coming with easy-to-use and easy-to-understand graphic interface and tools that simplify the time-consuming administration of websites.
Performance
NameCheap strives to fulfill its commitment of 99.9% uptime by locating its data centers in the UK and the US and adopting reliable and top-notch equipment that are highlighted for Juniper/Cisco network and servers featuring Dell PowerEdge with 24 core Xeon CPUs, RAID 10 hard drives and 32 GB+ RAM.
In order to check out whether the above facilities and technologies can make sure an outstanding uptime, we have conducted a real-time monitoring during the past 3 months. Consequently, it delivers a 99.94% uptime on the average which is great. Meanwhile, we also launched a real-time monitoring on its server response time using Pingdom with a 5 minutes interval. The outcome manifests that the service consumes 740ms, which is good, but still fails to run neck to neck with some first-class providers in the field.
Technical Support
Mostly, using NameCheap VPS hosting service, webmasters are capable of seeking 24/7 technical support that is backed by a highly professional and practiced team consisting of hundreds of technicians. In addition to the support that is available via live chat and email, there is help desk support where webmasters are enabled to view the latest news, browse the knowledge and submit a ticket to get their difficulties overcome.
Nonetheless, the lacking of toll-free phone assistance results in a great deal of inconveniences. This channel is regarded as the most preferred and foremost way through which some native speakers are able to deal with their pressing technical matters with high efficiency. Hence, without the assistance via this way, they have to encounter some obstructions when handling technical issues.
Conclusion – NameCheap Is Great But Not Perfect
Clearly, after the above comprehensive exploration, NameCheap is not a perfect option although it can satisfy the common requirements of some webmasters. Considering the mediocre performance in server response time together with demerits in technical support, we impartially think the service is not an ideal choice for hosting a VPS website. To search a better provider, the companies in the following table are trustworthy and recommendable. Please check the table to select one you need.
