Hostgator and Namecheap are two common web hosts and domain registrars, and they are two different platforms that can be used in place of each other and are one of the driving forces behind this article. This article will help you easily decide which hosting provider you should use as we highlight the differences between these two hosting providers.
Several aspects and attributes need to be considered to know the best host for your websites, such as speed, security, ease of use, and technical support. As such, this blog comes in two different parts. We will briefly talk about Namecheap and Hostgator in the first section. In the second section, the longest part, we will draw out the comparisons between the two web hosts by considering the attributes and factors we discussed earlier. Without a doubt, after reading this Hostgator vs. Namecheap comparison, you should be able to choose the best hosting company for your particular requirements.
Everything you should know about Namecheap
Namecheap is one of the market leaders when it comes to domain name registrars. They also offer highly affordable and reliable web hosting services. This ICANN-accredited domain name registrar and web host is based in Phoenix, Arizona. Indeed, Namecheap has garnered acclaim as a budget hosting provider with over 11 million registered users and 10 million domains hosted.
The platform was founded in 2000 by Richard Kirkendall. Today, it remains one of the most popular web hosts, service providers, and domain registrars alongside GoDaddy.
What you need to know about Hostgator
Another web hosting service with a lot of recognition and praise is Hostgator. It belongs to the EIG group of hosting services and offers affordable hosting plans and the free use of Weebly website builder, which makes it easy for any user to build a website. As stated earlier, Hostgator is also quite popular, so comparing these two hosting providers does not come as a surprise.
The hosting company was founded in a dorm room in 2002 at Florida Atlantic University, even though the headquarters was later moved to Atlanta. The web hosting service provides shared hosting plans, excellent customer service, and a cPanel dashboard to manage your website.
Drawing out the differences between Hostgator vs. Namecheap and analyzing how they stand against each other
At this point, the next thing in line is to bring out the weaknesses and strengths of these two web hosting services and weigh them against each other. However, this will only be done against the backdrop of certain features and factors. Under each, we’ll highlight the advantage one has over the other to show you how this affects your final decision between the duo.
Speed
The number one factor that will be put under review is speed. Simply put, we want to determine which one is faster out of Hostgator vs. Namecheap. Even though both platforms have upgraded to SSD storage to maximize their boot time and speed, their speeds vary a bit and noticeably.
The first one to be reviewed under this factor will be Hostgator. This web hosting platform’s average page load speed has recently been around 2.80 seconds. Several issues have been reported at their data centers that could have made things somewhat unstable, especially considering the occasional high page load times. Despite this, Hostgator has put in concerted efforts to maintain consistency, so even at its worst, the average page load speed never goes beyond 15 seconds.
Moving on to Namecheap, we see a slight difference between their respective speeds. Like Hostgator, this web hosting service has also tried its best to maintain consistency and the average page load speed is around 3.09 seconds. Disappointingly, however, the highest recorded in recent times is 72.72 seconds, sincerely speaking, which is damn high. Although some experts believe it is improvable by caching headers and compression, that is not the focus of this article.
The conclusion to be made is a simple one. It is obvious that Hostgator’s load speeds are better, and it is the clear winner here.
Uptime consistency
The second factor we will consider in this article is uptime consistency, and we will set the pace again with Hostgator.
Hostgator makes a promise of 99.9% uptime consistency. In addition, HostGator has made significant investments in some recent hardware updates, such as the Opteron 6000 series CPU combined with DDR3 ECC RAM. All these recent developments have definitely occasioned substantial improvement in terms of uptime guarantee. They have recorded the best uptimes out of all the hosting platforms available on the market. Based on the evidence, the average uptime guarantee of Hostgator has been 99.97% which is really impressive. The best to be recorded is 100%, with the worst being 97.5%. And all this progress has been made despite the issues they had at their data center, which makes it even more commendable.
Namecheap, like Hostgator, also promises 99.9% consistency in its guarantee. In fact, they even go a bit extra by promising to give you credits if they do not deliver their promise. But of course, what happens, in reality, is noticeably different. Like Hostgator, though, they have also invested in some of the most powerful hardware and latest software firewalls. They also use the newest server models by companies such as HP, Dell, and the like.
As highlighted earlier, the uptime tests we ran have produced results slightly but yet noticeably different. The average result of the tests is 99.93%, with 100% being the best ever and 92.0% the worst ever recorded. Again, the verdict will favor Hostgator, and Hostgator definitely has a better uptime consistency than Namecheap, even though the latter’s average is relatively okay.
Security
We move on to the next feature that will be used to highlight the dissimilarity between Hostgator vs. Namecheap, which is security. When selecting a web hosting platform, security is one of the most important factors to consider. No one likes being subject to unnecessary attacks against their account.
Here, we will once again be starting the analysis with Hostgator. This web hosting service has taken the necessary steps to fully secure its servers and shield your account from vulnerability to these attacks. Such measures taken include an extensive firewall rule as well as big ModSecurity rule sets. For proper understanding (since those terms are unfamiliar), they are just attack-detection rules that can be used by anyone with Modsecurity or other compatible web application firewalls.
There are also other types of protection provided by Hostgator to ensure the security of your account with the platform. One such is network-level flood protection, which ensures things are adequately dealt with when there is heavy flooding. Such flooding is usually a form of attack created to bring a service or network down by congesting it with a large amount of traffic. Some other security methods will not be discussed here to save time, and we will mainly discuss the most essential points.
Namecheap does not joke either when it comes to security for their clients. In fact, the hosting provider also uses some of the best available software and hardware firewalls coupled with in-house security for protecting your account. Furthermore, to protect your website from all forms of attack, Namecheap has a feature known as Leech Protect that enables you to set a limit on logins. In addition, it also boasts several other security features that have been added to its systems, such as virus scanners, DDoS protection, SSL certificates, hotlink protection, WhoisGuard, and DNSSEC, to mention a few.
Making the final decision in this respect is challenging, if not impossible. Both platforms have solid and reliable security measures to ensure your website’s safety. Thus, it is no surprise that no severe breaches or incidents that can comprise the security of servers have been reported about any of the two in recent times. It is, therefore, a tie between them.
Hosting Plans and Pricing
We move on to the next feature on this list we are using to draw out the differences between Hostgator vs. Namecheap, which is hosting plans and pricing. It is undeniable that most of the decisions we make are influenced by pricing. It won’t be surprising that this factor is a foremost consideration for most people reading this article.
As expected, we set the pace with Hostgator, which offers you three major but different types of hosting. They have a shared plan covering three packages: the Hatchling package, the Baby package, and the Business package. The Hatchling package, being the cheapest, goes for a really cost-effective $2.75 per month.
Some excellent features are available in Hostgator’s shared hosting plans, such as unmetered disk space & bandwidth, unlimited emails, and one free domain name under the Hatchling plan. The Baby plan also includes all these things coupled with unlimited domains. Finally, all the shared plans come with a free SSL certificate, website templates, and a control panel.
We move on quickly to Namecheap, which also has a wide range of hosting services, the most common among them being shared hosting. Namecheap offers you three hosting packages like Hostgator’s: The Stellar Package, the Stellar Plus Package, and the Stellar Business package. The Stellar is, of course, the cheapest of the three, as it retails at $2.18 per month. However, one thing about this shared hosting plan is that Namecheap limits the storage space even though it offers the subscriber up to 3 domains for free and gives you unlimited websites in the next higher plan.
Once again, the verdict here seems challenging to determine as Namecheap’s pricing is also quite attractive. However, it should be noted that Hostgator has many amazing discounts and offers as well as the best value for your money. In any case, the decision remains yours to make. Namecheap is cheaper for the 1st year; however, in terms of overall value for money and features offered, HostGator is our preferred choice.
Technical Support
Without wasting much time, we jump on to the next feature on the list and continue to evaluate Hostgator vs. Namecheap, which happens to be technical support.
Regarding technical support, Hostgator offers 24/7 support, and they can assist you via email, phone, and live chat. They have an unparalleled drive and passion for always attending to customers every time, which is such a rare quality. In addition, they also boast a robust Knowledge base where you can get resolutions to all types of problems you might be faced with, as well as relevant information on even the most complex of all topics.
Namecheap is also dedicated to providing the highest level of customer support. The platform offers several support channels such as emails, 24/7 Live Chat, and tickets. In addition to all these, they have a resource center stacked with video tutorials that can help you with specific issues and add to your repertoire of knowledge. Moreover, they also have community forums where you can meet with like minds and discuss issues together. The only flaw in Namecheap’s support system is the failure to offer phone support. Phone support is a helpful way to get in touch immediately if something goes wrong with your website and you need urgent assistance.
Both web hosting platforms seem to have an excellent technical support system and are eagerly ready to attend to their customers. However, the absence of phone support is a massive dent to Namecheap, so we would have to give the edge to HostGator again in this round.
Options and Features
The next point we are considering has to do with features. We want to know which of Namecheap and Hostgator has the most valuable features.
Starting with Hostgator, as usual, the platform’s flexibility is one of its most outstanding qualities. Its plans support many languages like Ruby on Rails, Python, Perl, and PHP. However, they have only one database system, which is MySQL. Moreover, they also provide unlimited email accounts and FTP coupled with unlimited storage and bandwidth.
Similarly, Namecheap supports multiple languages like Perl, PHP, and a handful more but has database support for both PostgreSQL and MySQL. Finally, Namecheap also has an instrument called Softaculous that allows you to install software that can upgrade your site’s functionality and easily add more apps from their app store.
Although this section is not conclusive, the verdict here is a bit more straightforward. Both web hosting platforms have some really cool features, but the edge will probably go to Namecheap.
Ease of use
The last factor that will be considered in this article as we wrap up the comparison between Hostgator vs. Namecheap is simplicity or ease of use. The objective here is to choose the more user-friendly of the two because that can be a massive benefit for beginners just getting started.
Expectedly, we start with Hostgator, which uses the most recent cPanel software, which makes navigating all its functions and features, such as linking domain names, installing CMS, and a whole lot more, an easy experience for the average user. In addition, the drag-and-drop website building option is available, simplifying things for any novice. What’s more, Hostgator also boasts an e-commerce solution that packs lots of tools that can assist you with building your website.
With Namecheap, navigating through its functions is probably even more effortless. Its web hosting interface is intuitive and user-friendly, so you don’t have to worry even if you’re a beginner, as you are good to go. Connecting a domain you bought from them to their hosting package is simple, as they have a cPanel that will break down the entire process for you. Additionally, the platform’s shared hosting plan has a website builder that comes with it and includes other things like multi-language support, plug-ins, and a host of others.
In conclusion, these two are both easy to use. However, it seems Namecheap does better than Hostgator in this regard. Indeed, if you want to create a website quickly, NameCheap is the way to go, and it is the winner in this category.
Hostgator vs. Namecheap: The Verdict
This Hostgator vs. Namecheap comparison is close, but we seem to tilt toward one of these two at the end of the day. Due to its better uptime and loading time, Hostgator offers more value for money than its counterpart. However, even if you choose Namecheap, you will still enjoy great benefits. We sincerely hope you found the article interesting. Please let us know if you have any questions, and we will respond as soon as possible.