Namecheap
A domain and hosting service sold worldwide in US dollars: cheap first years, renewals at two to three times the price, narrow refund windows, chat-only support.
Verdict
Buy here
- A domain you will keep, bought with the renewal price in view
- Free lifetime WHOIS privacy on most extensions, renewal figure beside each price
- First-time shared hosting, which has a 30-day refund window
Buy elsewhere
- Anyone who forgets renewals: .com $18.48, cheapest hosting $5.88 a month
- Anyone who needs phone support (none) or PayPal for auto-renewals (not accepted)
- Anything a day-long outage, as on 13–14 August 2026, would hurt
The rules
- Market
- Prices in USD; available worldwide, with some country-code domains excluded from privacy and refunds.
- Verified · Sep 8
- Pricing
- .com $10.98 first year ($6.79 new-customer special), renews at $18.48; hosting from $2.28 a month, renews at $5.88
Details
On 8 September 2026 the .com registration page showed $10.98 for the first year, or $6.79 as a new-customer special limited to one domain per household, renewing at $18.48 a year. The pattern holds across extensions: .net $11.98 renewing at $18.58, .org $7.98 at $18.98, .io $34.98 at $75.98, .xyz $2.00 at $21.48, plus a mandatory ICANN fee of $0.20 a year on some domains. Shared hosting followed suit — Stellar $2.28 a month for the first year, then $5.88; Stellar Plus $2.98 then $7.88; Stellar Business $4.98 then $11.88 — with one free non-premium domain for the first year per plan. The renewal price printed beside each sale price is what you pay every year afterwards.
Published policy: Namecheap .com registration page, domain list and Shared Hosting page, read 8 Sep 2026
- Verified · Sep 8
- Subscription
- Auto-renewal tries to charge 30 days before expiry, retrying daily; no promo codes; no PayPal
Details
With auto-renew on, Namecheap tries to renew a domain 30 days before its expiry date and, if the charge fails, retries every 24 hours until it succeeds or the domain expires. It draws on your account balance first, then the default card, then any other saved cards in the order you set. PayPal is not accepted for automatic renewals except for Apps Marketplace products, and promo codes are not applied, so the renewal is billed at full price. You switch it off per domain from Domain List → Manage; the article (updated 24 June 2026) does not say whether it is on by default at purchase, so check the toggle after buying.
Published policy: Namecheap knowledgebase — Can I set up automatic billing for my Namecheap services? (updated 24 Jun 2026), read 8 Sep 2026
- Verified · Sep 8
- Returns
- Domains final beyond a discretionary 5-day window; shared hosting 30 days, first-time accounts only; refunds default to credit
Details
The refund policy (updated 31 October 2025) says a new domain registration “may be refundable, at the sole discretion of Namecheap” within five days (120 hours) for a valid reason, subject to registry rules; renewals likewise within five days, but never for .au, .ch, .de, .es, .eu, .fr, .nl, .sg, .ca, .mx and others, nor for premium domains. Shared, reseller and VPS hosting: within 30 days of purchase, first-time accounts only; hosting renewals within 48 hours; dedicated servers within a week of delivery. SSL: 90 days if not issued, 15 days after issuance. Private Email: seven days. Apps: 24 hours. Refunds default to account credit, though card and PayPal purchases “may” return to source; cryptocurrency deposits are never refunded.
Published policy: Namecheap Refund Policy (updated 31 Oct 2025) and knowledgebase money-back article (updated 17 Jun 2026), read 8 Sep 2026
- Verified · Sep 8
- Support
- 24/7 chat and tickets, no phone; Trustpilot 4.2/5; hosting and email offline in a 13–14 Aug 2026 outage
Details
The help centre offers live chat (“We’re always here for you”) and a ticket system “ready and waiting 24/7”; the homepage promises “real people … any time, 24/7”. No phone number is published, and the only email address shown is for feedback. Trustpilot showed 4.2/5 from 21,796 reviews on 8 September 2026 — 73% five-star, 15% one-star — praising quick chat agents and complaining of account lockouts; a self-selected sample. On 13 August 2026 a storm-related cooling failure at the RadiusDC datacentre in Phoenix took namecheap.com, hosting, EasyWP, Private Email, DNS management and billing offline; Namecheap said services were restored on 14 August, called it the first outage of its kind in 25 years, and its statement mentioned no compensation.
Public source: Namecheap Help Center, homepage and outage statement (14 Aug 2026); Domain Name Wire, 14 Aug 2026; Trustpilot profile — read 8 Sep 2026
- Check first · Sep 8
- Payment
- Visa, Mastercard, Amex, Discover, Diners, JCB, UnionPay, PayPal; crypto only via account funds, non-refundable
Details
Namecheap takes Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover, Diners Club, JCB and UnionPay cards directly, and PayPal for one-off purchases. Cryptocurrency is accepted only by first depositing to your account funds — minimum $1 for crypto, $5 for card or PayPal deposits, $100,000 maximum — and those deposits are excluded from refunds. Account funds are also the first source auto-renewal draws on, which is convenient if you keep a balance and a trap if you forget it is there. Prices are in US dollars everywhere; any conversion is your card issuer’s. The payment-methods article was last updated on 4 December 2025.
Published policy: Namecheap knowledgebase — What payment methods do you accept for domain registrations? (updated 4 Dec 2025) and auto-billing article, read 8 Sep 2026
- Verified · Sep 8
- Safety
- Domain privacy free for life on eligible extensions; not on .us, .uk, .ca, .de, .eu, .com.au and others
Details
Namecheap’s Domain Privacy replaces your name, address and email in the public WHOIS record with anonymised details and a rotating forwarding address, and the privacy page says it is “free for life with every new registration or transfer” for eligible extensions. The exclusions are the country codes whose registries forbid it: .us, .uk, .co.uk, .ca, .de, .eu, .fr, .es, .nl, .ch, .in, .sg, .com.au and about two dozen more, so a US-specific .us domain will publish your contact details. Namecheap is an ICANN-accredited registrar with its headquarters at 4600 East Washington Street, Phoenix, Arizona, founded in 2000 and serving customers since 2001. We found no regulator action against it in 2024–2026 in the sources we read.
Published policy: Namecheap Domain Privacy page, About page and homepage, read 8 Sep 2026
- Verified · Sep 8
Domain names
Worth it
- A .com, .net or .org you will keep, renewing at $18.48–18.98 a year
- Multi-year registration locks in today’s renewal rate if you are sure of the name
- Transfers in add a year and usually cost about the renewal price
Skip
- Novelty extensions at $2 for a year: .xyz renews at $21.48, .io at $75.98
- A registration is final after a five-day discretionary window
- Country codes without privacy, and any name you have not checked for trademarks
Check first
- The “renews at” figure and whether the $0.20 ICANN fee applies
- Whether Domain Privacy covers your extension (excluded list on the privacy page)
- The auto-renew toggle in Domain List → Manage, set deliberately
Shared hosting and EasyWP
Worth it
- Stellar shared hosting if the budget absorbs the $2.28 to $5.88 monthly renewal
- Bought as a first-time account, so the 30-day money-back guarantee applies
- The free first-year domain is real but one per plan and not premium
Skip
- Sites that cannot lose a day: August 2026’s outage took hosting and email down
- Hosting renewals get 48 hours for a refund, not 30 days
- The guarantee if you have held a Namecheap account before: first-time accounts only
Check first
- Monthly renewal for your term, and the domain’s separate full-price renewal
- Whether you have held an account before: that voids the 30-day guarantee
- Backups: keep your own, the money-back window does not restore lost content
SSL & Private Email
Worth it
- Paid SSL if a free certificate will not do: many hosting plans include one
- Private Email for a custom address on your domain
- Refunds: 90 days for an unissued certificate, 15 after issuance, seven for Private Email
Skip
- Multi-year certificates before you know the site is staying on that domain
- Email plans priced for a team you do not have
- Refunds default to account credit unless you ask for the source, inside the window
Check first
- Whether your hosting plan already includes a certificate
- The email plan’s renewal price, and the auto-renew setting
- Your product’s refund window: they range from 24 hours to 90 days
Questions
Why does my domain cost more in the second year?
The first year is a sale price, the renewal list price: a .com bought for $6.79 or $10.98 renews at $18.48 plus the $0.20 ICANN fee, and novelty extensions jump further. The renewal price sits beside every offer; promo codes do not apply to auto-renewals.
Can I get a refund on a domain I registered by mistake?
Possibly, and only quickly: a new registration may be refunded at Namecheap’s sole discretion within five days (120 hours) for a valid reason, subject to registry rules; some country codes and premium domains are excluded. After that it is final. Refunds default to account credit.
Can I phone Namecheap?
No. Support is live chat and tickets, both described as 24/7, plus a knowledgebase and status page; the only published email is for feedback. Reviews mostly rate the chat agents well, with a minority describing repetitive automated replies and account lockouts after password resets.
Is WHOIS privacy really free?
Yes, for eligible extensions: the privacy page says it is free for life with every new registration or transfer, swapping your contact details for anonymised ones. It cannot be applied to .us, .uk, .ca, .de, .eu, .com.au and other country codes whose registries forbid it.
Do you earn from these links?
Yes. Links to namecheap.com are affiliate links and we may earn a commission on purchases at no extra cost to you. That does not change the advice: read the renewal price, decide on auto-renew deliberately, and treat a domain registration as final.
About this page
Namecheap publishes no product feed, so this page carries guidance only; the rules and verdict above are what to go on. Nothing here has been tested by us. Links to Namecheap are affiliate links: if you buy through them we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Prices and stock shown with picks come from the merchant’s catalog feed and can change after we last checked them — the merchant’s page is the source of truth. Sources read Sep 8, 2026.