Cloudways vs Namecheap
Cloudways and Namecheap compared on measured uptime, response time, pricing and features from our own tests. Cloudways scores higher overall.
By Jennifer T. · Updated
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Verdict
CloudwaysWins overall
DigitalOcean's managed cloud layer: servers from $11 a month on five clouds, billed hourly, staging and caching included
The Phoenix registrar's cPanel hosting: three sites for $5.88 at renewal, a 30-day free trial and four data centers
Cloudways wins 4 of the six sub-scores and comes out ahead overall (7.8 vs 6.9).
How do the scores compare?
Cloudways leads on 4 sub-scores, Namecheap on 2. Higher is better.
Which one is faster and more reliable?
Which one costs less?
On renewal, Namecheap is cheaper ($5.88/mo vs $14.00/mo). Intro prices need the listed term.
| Cloudways | Namecheap | |
|---|---|---|
| Cheapest plan | DigitalOcean Premium Micro | Stellar |
| Intro price | $14.00/mo | $2.28/mo (better) |
| Renewal price | $14.00/mo | $5.88/mo (better) |
| Required term | 1 months (better) | 12 months |
| Websites | unlimited | 3 |
| Storage | 25 GB | 20 GB |
| Money back | 0 days | 30 days (better) |
What does each include?
| Cloudways | Namecheap | |
|---|---|---|
| Free domain | No | No |
| Free SSL | Let's Encrypt certificates on every application | 50 standard certificates for one year on every plan, installed automatically |
| Backups | On-demand and scheduled server backups with one-click restore; offsite storage billed at $0.033 per GB per server | Twice a week on Stellar (restored by ticket); Stellar Plus and Business add AutoBackup with 6 daily, 3 weekly and 5 monthly copies |
| Free migration | Free migration of existing sites | cPanel-to-cPanel transfers free; manual migration case by case |
| Free CDN | No | Supersonic CDN with DDoS protection, for domains on Namecheap's hosting nameservers |
| Caching | Lightning Stack (NGINX), Object Cache Pro and Redis included on every plan | No |
| Staging | Advanced staging and cloning on every plan | No |
| No | Not stated | |
| Resource limits | A whole server per customer: 1 to 8 GB RAM and 1 to 4 vCPU on the listed sizes, larger sizes and other providers available | Not stated |
| Data center choice | The provider's regions, chosen per server: DigitalOcean 9, Vultr 30, Linode 25, AWS 28, Google Cloud 28 | Phoenix, Amsterdam, Singapore or Farnborough at checkout; moving an account later is a billing request |
| Uptime guarantee | No | 100% monthly on shared plans; one day of service added per hour of unscheduled downtime, up to one month, claimed by ticket within 10 days |
| Security | Built-in firewall with IP blocking, WordPress vulnerability scanner, bot protection and dedicated firewalls per the pricing page | Imunify360 (malware scanning, intrusion prevention, machine-learning firewall), KernelCare patching, account isolation, cPanel two-factor login |
| Free trial | 3 days without a credit card | Not stated |
| Phone support | No | No |
| Windows hosting | No | No |
| SSH and languages | Not stated | Jailshell SSH, PHP, Perl, Python, Node.js and Ruby scripts |
| Website builder | Not stated | Sitejet AI website builder and an AI assistant for WordPress on every plan |
| Dedicated IP | Not stated | $4.00 a month add-on |