Namecheap and BlueHost are two of the biggest players in the web hosting industry. And often are two of the most highly-considered by new website owners looking to get started.
Here, we will compare and contrast the two so you can end up with the knowledge needed to make a good consumer decision that will help your website grow.
If someone, unfortunately, selects a website host without taking careful consideration of the BlueHost or Namecheap features and reviews, it can cause a big headache. Shared plans that don’t offer enough space. For example, can leave a website at an awkward place when you’re capped out of web pages or file space.
Another risk of selecting the wrong web hosting service is being a victim of downtime. If a site doesn’t guarantee a good uptime or has a performance track record that doesn’t add up, your site could be down for periods of time great enough to affect your site’s performance.
Additionally, slow page loading could bore visitors or activate their impatience. Causing them to leave your site before you even have the chance to make an impression on them.
When it comes to the money you will spend and the time and effort you will dedicate to your website, it’s not an area you want to play around with. Doing proper research and finding out what sites offer better service, performance, specs, and features will save you in more ways than financially.
The best hosting service will always be worth putting in the time to become an educated consumer.
BlueHost vs Namecheap – Whose Shared Plans Are Better?
Shared hosting is not only the key player in the hosting industry, but it’s also the basis for our Internet. A less complex and cheaper option than using dedicated physical servers, using a shared server allows individuals to lease a bit of real estate on the same machine.
Allowing sometimes hundreds of different clients on one server in such an efficient manner cuts the plan cost significantly for everyone.
Hosting providers always provide some levels of shared hosting plans, often in three tiers for flexibility. This way, getting into hosting is more accessible to some while still giving seasoned hosts the independence and control they need.
These plans also make things user-friendly with control panels and automated features.
BlueHost
BlueHost is often seen as the best host for WordPress sites. As they’ve been in the market for a very long time and have tweaked their products to maximum performance.
These industry giants are often recommended by sites like WordPress.org and WP Beginner, shared on forums and suggested by friends. BlueHost offers a typical three-tiered layout of their plans but provides a truly unlimited platform and inclusive services made to grow with you and your sites.
While BlueHost is often considered one of the most inexpensive services. It is still the more expensive between the two options compared here. It’s not always about the hard cost, however. The value of BlueHost can make it much more attractive considering all the features and access it allows.
Namecheap
Namecheap has some of the cheapest shared hosting plans on the market. They even advertise that their shared hosting can cost less than a domain does.
Their four tiers of packages start with a “value” plan for those just starting out but also go up to a “business” option for something more high-performing.
No matter which plans you choose. You get to pick between a US-based host or one based in the UK for your convenience.
Everything always comes with a 14-day money-back guarantee and their uptime promise of 100 percent.
BlueHost VS Namecheap – Best Pricing
BlueHost definitely has some better options when the overall value is taken into consideration, though Namecheap still has much more accessible and flexible plan options for those looking to get into web hosting on a budget.
In conclusion, Namecheap’s shared hosting plans are better in the sense of affordability and features. However, when we finish comparing performance, customer support, and other features, BlueHost still ends up shining when it comes to overall value.
Whose Performance Is Better?
Performance is key in this day and age, where instant gratification makes the world go ‘round. Users don’t want to be waiting for minutes watching a wheel spin on their computer screen. They want to click a button and have the page load in a millisecond, and have everything else be just as responsive.
There’s even be research found by DoubleClick, Google’s research division, that shows 53% of mobile sites will be abandoned if a site takes more than 3 seconds to load.
With this kind of risk on the line, site owners are critical when it comes to finding a hosting service with quick performance.
Performance: BlueHost vs Namecheap
In the same DoubleClick study, they found that Namecheap ranked #7 in speed amongst their studied providers while BlueHost ranked #4. The difference between Namecheap’s 3.17 speed and BlueHost’s 3.07 speed is notable, as that’s exactly what determines whether or not someone will stay on the website.
Performance Winner: BlueHost vs Namecheap
BlueHost offers a much better performance considering their load times and their relation to website traffic.
Uptime: BlueHost vs Namecheap
Using down.com automated tests, we were able to check the uptime for both servers. In these tests, Namecheap had a 99.94% uptime and BlueHost had a 99.3% uptime. In this regard, these numbers are nearly identical and the small difference won’t actually affect performance all that much.
When we take a look at daily statistics, however, there are different results. Measured over the same period of time, Namecheap had 12 outages. Their longest outage was 15 minutes long.
BlueHost, on the other hand, had only two outages and they didn’t last more than 5 minutes either time.
Uptime Winner: BlueHost Vs Namecheap?
While the averages show one thing, the daily statistics show that BlueHost is actually a more reliable server.
Whose Customer Service Is Better?
Customer service is exactly what will ruin a hosting experience.
Of course, it’s to expect that there will be challenges and issues, but waiting for hours to speak to a customer service representative or not hearing back after contacting them is unacceptable.
Customers take the service provided to them very seriously, and it helps them to make a purchasing decision. A hosting service with just a contact email address doesn’t come anywhere close to comparing to a 24/7 online and phone help promise from another hosting service.
When something goes wrong with the site, every second it’s live with the issue present is a second of time lost from your business. A site owner needs fast, friendly, and knowledgeable help to get rid of issues.
Both BlueHost and Namecheap are proud to offer support to their clients 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Yet, the channels in which they offer help varies.
Customer Service by Namecheap
Namecheap’s only option for live customer support is through online chat.
Considering the fact that this is a huge player in the industry, it’s often shocking to prospective customers when they can’t locate a help line phone number.
Not only is chat their only option, but it’s not an easily accessible option. The chat box is quite hidden on the page, buried underneath seldom-viewed text. It is notable that once the live chat service is utilized, the representatives are usually quick and helpful.
Even still, it’s clear that their support desk is not their main priority with secondary focus on the live chat. When something needs to be taken care of quickly, that can be an issue.
Their support tickets can come back resolved anywhere from 2 hours to 2 days later, so it has left some customers upset.
Customer Service by BlueHost
BlueHost, on the other hand, leaves no stone unturned when it comes to finding channels to offer customer support. On top of their website, you will find both a phone number and a live chat option in an easy-to-find spot. They clearly communicate how seriously they take these customer support channels with this simple choice in place. When you remember that this hosting service supports more than 2 million websites worldwide, that dedication is pretty impressive.
Bluehost has built a customer service department that’s capable of handling their need with over 700 representatives employed in their 24/7 support department.
They aren’t just sourcing for numbers, either. They employ experts like WordPress developers, core contributors, and website builders to handle customers so you know you’re speaking to some of the best and brightest people out there when you’re in trouble.
When something is so urgent you need to handle it on your own, they also provide self-help guides that walk you through the process of troubleshooting a number of common problems.
Best Customer Service Winner: BlueHost & Namecheap Comparison
By far, BlueHost ranks better in customer service due to their bright minds employed in the 24/7 customer service department operating through both phones and live-chat channels.
Weighing the Pros and Cons
Now that we’ve broken down both websites into key aspects that make the difference between a good hosting service and a great one, we’ve also compiled the information we’ve covered so we can better understand the advantages and disadvantages of each option.
 |  |
| PROS | PROS |
| User-friendly interface They boast an uncluttered, organized interface, unlike many web hosts. Options are tucked away in a sidebar until you need to access them. | Several hosting plans They offer dedicated and VPS hosting in addition to their three great shared hosting options. Their shared hosting options come with far fewer limitations even though they still end up costing a bit more. |
| Extremely affordable plan options They offer some of the cheapest plans on the market. With four tiers, there’s something for everyone. | 24/7 Phone support Their customer service representatives are always available on the phone or in live chat. |
| 24/7 Customer Support They always have someone there for you, but they are only available on live chat. If resolving issues through a chat box is fine with you, this will be no problem. | Customer Support Experts You’re not just speaking to a call service operator, you’re speaking to some of the best minds in web hosting tech. |
| Good average uptimes Their uptime beat BlueHosts’s on average during the past year. | Uptime Their outages occur less frequently than Namecheap’s. They also are much shorter lasting when they do occur. |
| Performance Their pages load fast. Sometimes, they load in even less than a second but have an average of 3.07 seconds, which is still better than Namecheap. | |
| CONS | CONS |
| No phone support They have no phone line to call for customer service issues. | Uptime guarantee While Namecheap guarantees a 100% uptime, BlueHost doesn’t guarantee any uptime percentage. They also don’t offer any compensation for downtime. However, as the studies have proven, BlueHost outperforms Namecheap in this area, so it seems that Namecheap’s guarantees haven’t meant too much. |
| Limited options in plans They do cap their limits in their plans, restricting space, websites, email addresses, and MySQL databases. | Plan Prices The prices of BlueHost’s plans are notably higher. Their cheapest plan is more than three times the price of Namecheap’s cheapest plan. For someone with a budget, this makes a big difference. However, when you understand the type of support they provide and the quality they are offering, you realize that you get what you pay for. |
| Unreliable uptime Despite their average uptime, their outages are still more frequent and longer-lasting than BlueHosts’ outages. | |
| Visit Namecheap | Visit Bluehost |
Final Conclusion: BlueHost vs Namecheap Winner
Considering plan options, price, features, specs, user-friendliness, uptime, performance, and customer service BlueHost is the better option when it comes to website hosting services.
It’s not always the lower price that makes the best purchasing decision. Sometimes, value is made up of what is offered in return, in comparison to the hard cost.
In this case, while BlueHost does have more costly shared plan options, their resources and performance more than makeup for it and provide the best hosting experience at a still reasonable price.
More articles –