Namecheap vs GoDaddy (2024 Comparison) (2024)

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Since its inception in 2000, Namecheap has been a leader in affordable domain names and web hosting. The company now manages over 16 million domains and offers hosting plans with unmetered bandwidth and free site migration. One unique selling point is that it offers 30 domain-based mailboxes on the base plan—usually, providers make you pay more for that many email addresses.

GoDaddy, on the other hand, is a bigger company, hosting over 84 million domain names for 20 million customers. Still, it keeps things customer-focused with 24/7 support—great if your site goes down at 3 a.m. and you need immediate help. Its website builder is also a huge benefit if you’re not familiar with coding, as it lets you customize your site exactly to your liking with a drag-and-drop interface.

Overall, Namecheap is a great option if you have a small budget but still want reliable, straightforward hosting. GoDaddy, however, comes with more features that bigger businesses may enjoy—but the price reflects that

When it comes to basic offerings, Namecheap and GoDaddy are nearly neck and neck. Where they differ the most is pricing.

Storage and Bandwidth

Storage for Namecheap and GoDaddy is capped at 20GB and 10GB on the base plans, respectively. Namecheap does offer unmetered storage on its mid-tier plan, but this is capped at 50GB on its top plan. GoDaddy, on the other hand, increases its storage by increments of 25GB, with a max of 75GB on the top plan.

Both offer unmetered bandwidth, which is preferable to unlimited bandwidth. Unmetered bandwidth means you can transfer as much data as you want—it just might be speed limited at a certain point.

Website Migration

Namecheap offers free cPanel-to-cPanel transfers. It guarantees it will handle your migration in 24 hours and with less than 15 minutes of downtime, or your first year of hosting will be free. However, this migration is limited to cPanel-based hosting accounts and WordPress sites, making it limited.

GoDaddy includes a free automated site migrator tool that works with WordPress sites. You can also choose to do a manual migration if you only want to move certain parts of the site. If you have another type of site, you can move it using FTP and FileZilla or using the WHM Transfer Tool or Plesk Migrator extension.

Customer Support

GoDaddy seems to have superior customer service. In addition to having 24/7 live chat, you can also call in and speak to a real person—which is sometimes a lot easier when you have to explain a complicated issue. You can even get help via text message if you’re trying to fix an issue while on the go. For self-service, GoDaddy offers plenty of how-to videos, blog guides and even a helpful community to answer your questions.

Namecheap doesn’t have a phone number to call, so you’re limited to 24/7 chat and support tickets. It also offers a thorough knowledge base center, guru guides and how-to videos if you want to learn more on your own.

As the name might suggest, Namecheap is far cheaper than GoDaddy. The base Stellar plan starts at $1.98 per month for the first year (renews at $4.48 per month). This plan includes 30 domain-based mailboxes, three websites and unlimited parked domains.

Stellar Plus costs just $2.98 per month for the first year ($6.48 after), and Stellar Business is $4.98 per month ($9.48 after). With Stellar Plus, you’ll get unlimited hosted domains, mailboxes and subdomains. Stellar Business increases your file limit to 600,000 and gives you your own personal name servers.

GoDaddy, on the other hand, is a lot more expensive for similar offerings. Its four plans range from $4.99 per month to $14.99 per month ($17.99 after).

The cheapest plan, Web Hosting Economy, only lets you have one website, five FTP users and 25GB of storage. Web Hosting Deluxe ($9.99 per month for the first year, $13.99 after) ups it to 10 websites, 25 FTP users and 50GB of storage. For $14.99 per month for the first year ($17.99 after), you can get the Web Hosting Ultimate plan, which hosts up to 25 websites, 50 FTP users and 75GB of storage.

Finally, the Web Hosting Maximum plan hosts 50 websites, 75 FTP users and 100GB of storage.

Both GoDaddy and Namecheap have decent online reviews from customers. GoDaddy reviewers praise its 24/7 customer support and ability to reach a live, friendly human when you need it. However, other reviews have complained of problems transferring a domain over, as well as problems with renewing domains that lead to them being listed at higher prices in the future.

Namecheap customers, on the other hand, love the price, user-friendly platform and timely support. Some users did have trouble with inaccurate documentation, unhelpful support representatives and severe penalties for terms of service violations.

Overall, though, both companies have generally favorable online reputations.

In the battle of Namecheap vs. GoDaddy, both come out on top in a lot of categories. For example, both made our list of the best domain name registrars and best WordPress hosting services. Namecheap is also one of the top cheap web hosting services, while GoDaddy makes the list of overall best web hosting services.

Still, it’s entirely possible that neither of these products is what you’re looking for. If that’s the case, we’ve selected several alternatives that offer a unique spin on web hosting.

Bottom Line

Namecheap is one of the most affordable players in the game, making it an excellent option for companies that really can’t afford a more premium service. Even with its low prices, it still provides good value if you don’t need a ton of features.

GoDaddy is a more proven name in web hosting, and because of that, it can charge more. While the cost might not necessarily be worth what you get, GoDaddy is still a reliable choice for businesses that prefer tons of freebies and good customer service.

Namecheap is best for:

• Businesses with a tight budget
• Businesses that won’t need a huge web presence
• Businesses looking for unlimited mailboxes

GoDaddy is best for:

• Businesses that want a trusted name
• Businesses that want to integrate e-commerce and marketing features
• Businesses that want a robust and easy-to-use site builder