What is Namecheap VPS? Namecheap VPS Features
If your website hosted on the shared server is getting a lot of traffic, you should consider switching from shared hosting to VPS hosting. This is because the VPS hosting offers more resources than the shared hosting. Namecheap is one of the top-rated companies that provide virtual private hosting services to users.
About NC: Namecheap is one of the world’s oldest and best ICANN-accredited domain registrars. It was founded in the 2000 by Richard Kirkendall. In addition to the domain registration, NC sells SSL certificates and offers private email, premium DNS, VPN, and shared hosting. It has more than 10 million customers.
Namecheap offers two VPS plans to users – Pulsar and Quasar. Pulsar is Namecheap’s most popular VPS plan. It provides a server with a 40GB RAID 10 SSD, 2GB of RAM, and a dual-core processor. The websites hosted on this server can transfer up to 1 TB of data. This plan costs $11.88. It costs about $14 a year.
The Quasar plan offers a better configuration than the Namecheap Pulsar plan. It costs $19.88. This plan was earlier priced at $24. Quasar servers have 6GB of RAM, a quad-core processor, and a 120GB SSD (RAID 10). It enables your websites to transfer up to 3TB of data.
Namecheap VPS Features
Virtualization and the Hardware:
Namecheap VPS servers are powered by the KVM virtualization technology, Intel processors, and high-performance SSDs.
Root access:
Namecheap allows you to log into your server as the root user. When you have the root access, you can install a program of your choice, modify essential configuration files, set up firewall rules, and so on.
Free .website Domain:
If you purchase the Namecheap VPS plan, you will get the free .website domain. You can also use this domain to test your websites before publishing them.
Operating Systems:
The Namecheap VPS hosting supports Centos 7, Debian 8/9, and the Ubuntu 14.04/16.04/18.04 operating systems.
US Location:
The company’s VPS servers are in Phoenix, Arizona (USA). You cannot change the location.
99.9% Uptime:
Namecheap is a great company with a good infrastructure. Thus, you can expect 99.9% uptime for your server if there is no hardware or network failure.
LAMP Stacked or Empty: When purchasing a Namecheap VPS plan, you can choose OS or the OS + LAMP (the Linux + Apache + MySQL + PHP) from the list of the operating system drop-down . If you decide on LAMP + OS, Namecheap will install your chosen Linux distro, PHP, MySQL database server, and Apache web server on your VPS.
Control Panel and WHMCS
CPanel is an additional feature that you must purchase by paying a monthly subscription fee of $8.88. If you have previously used a shared hosting service, you may know that you can install many applications with just a few clicks of a button using a tool called Softaculous. If you want to install the software on your virtual server using this tool, you will have to pay $1.50 per month on top of $8.88. In addition to Cpanel, Namecheap offers the Interworx web panel with NodeWorx and SiteWorx tools. NodeWorx allows users to manage the server. SiteWorx will enable you to manage your database, email accounts, and website. Interworx is an excellent alternative to CPanel. Its price is $12 a month.
Upgrades
If 2GB or 6GB of RAM isn’t enough for your apps, you can buy an additional 128MB of RAM for $8. If you run out of server disk storage, you can buy 10 GB of space for $10. Similarly, you can buy the bandwidth, dedicated IP addresses, etc. While purchasing a VPS plan from Namecheap, NC will offer an option to choose how much RAM and storage your server wants.
Support, Payment Methods, Money Back Guarantee, and Discount
NC supports monthly, quarterly, and annual payments using a credit card, debit card, or PayPal. Namecheap’s support staff is available 24 hours a day, all year round. The two VPS plans mentioned above are not managed. Namecheap expects its users to have an excellent technical knowledge of Linux and the software/application or web servers they plan to use.
If your server is down or your websites cannot be accessed due to network failure, you can contact the NC support team via live chat or email or create a new ticket. If you need help with software or configuration, you may have to purchase the Server Manager add-on from Namecheap. Namecheap offered three server management plans:
User Responsible: If you choose this plan, NC Support answers your basic queries, such as creating a backup, resetting a password, etc. You will have to pay up to at least $15 if you want Namecheap staff to upgrade the software, restore or repair the server after a manual configuration error, etc.
Basic: This plan costs $10 and includes essential support + server restore option.
Completed: If you choose this plan, you will enjoy the features of the other two management plans. However, the whole plan costs $25.
If unsatisfied with the support or VPS hosting service, you can ask Namecheap to refund your money.
Note: Namecheap provides refunds only to new customers who apply for a refund within 30 days of purchasing the plan.
Pros
- Transparent pricing.
- Great support.
- Affordable add-ons and premium support.
Cons
- There is no option to install the LEMP stack while purchasing a plan.