If you’re looking to launch a new website for your business with as little fuss as possible, there’s a good chance you’ve come across two names: Namecheap and GoDaddy. As two of the most popular domain registration and website hosting services on the market, even a quick search is likely to uncover these two options. But which one is the right choice for your business?
This article compares Namecheap vs. GoDaddy head to head to help you pick the best option for your website needs.
Starting price
$1.99 per month
Standout Features
Free domain name & SSL for a year
On Bluehost’s Website
Starting price
$2.75 per month (for first 36 months)
Standout Features
Free SSL certificate, free website transfer
On HostGator’s Website
Starting price
$2.75 per month
Standout Features
Customizable templates, Easy drag-and-drop technology, SSL certificate
On Web.com’s Website
Namecheap vs. GoDaddy snapshot
Pricing and plans
*Prices are subject to change. Both Namecheap and GoDaddy are currently offering one-year promotional prices that aren’t reflected in the information above.
See MoreSee Less
Namecheap
Namecheap’s plans are tightly focused on domain registration and web hosting, and its prices reflect this. On average, Namecheap’s plans come in at about half — or even a third — of the price of GoDaddy’s comparable plans. Of course, GoDaddy offers more features, but if you’re just looking to register and host a domain, Namecheap will save you money.
GoDaddy
GoDaddy’s pricing structure allows users to purchase services a la carte — for example, transferring a domain costs $10.99, including a year of registration — but users can also opt for packages that bundle services together at a discount compared to the cost of paying for them individually. While Namecheap also offers bundles, those bundles are a lot more streamlined, combining core features like web hosting and domain registration at a discount, for example. GoDaddy’s bundles, on the other hand, include features like payment processing, email marketing and e-commerce.
GoDaddy’s plans are more expensive across the board; however, that added cost reflects added functionality on top of domain registration and web hosting, including marketing tools, e-commerce features, social media, analytics and more.
Verdict: Namecheap lives up to its moniker to win the pricing battle
While GoDaddy’s bundles can help users save money in specific situations compared to paying for the same features a la carte, you’ll still be paying significantly more than you would with Namecheap if all you need to do is register and host a website. Users also must commit to a yearlong subscription when signing up for a GoDaddy plan. Namecheap, on the other hand, offers basic domain registration and web hosting for about half as much as GoDaddy and throws in a website builder and some AI tools to boot.
Key features
In general, you can do a little bit more with GoDaddy than you can with Namecheap. The question small-business owners should ask themselves is, “Do I need those extra features?” For example, if lawnmower A and lawnmower B are exactly the same except that lawnmower B also includes an air freshener and a hand dryer, it’s not really going to improve your ability to mow your lawn. With that in mind, let’s take a closer look at each product’s feature set.
Namecheap
In addition to its signature offerings — domain registration and web hosting — Namecheap also offers the following capabilities. Some of these features, like the website builder and email management, are included in the basic domain and hosting plan, while others, like the marketing tools and dedicated servers, require you to subscribe to a more expensive plan or access these services as add-ons.
- Domain transfer
- Handshake domains (Decentralized domain names that use blockchain)
- Bulk domain search
- Domain auctions
- Website builder
- Shared hosting
- WordPress hosting
- Virtual private server (VPS) hosting
- Dedicated servers
- Email management
- Marketing tools (graphic design, logo maker)
- Security (SSL certificates, hacked website fix, content delivery network, VPN, 2FA, anti-spam)
Namecheap also has an app store with 16 add-ons (e.g., Google Workspace and business formation) ranging in price from free to up to $35/month.
GoDaddy
As a larger company, GoDaddy offers more options than Namecheap. Here’s a sample of some of what GoDaddy offers on top of domain registration and web hosting. Some are included in its basic domain and hosting plan, while others require you to subscribe to a more expensive plan or access these services as an add-on.
- Email marketing
- SEO
- Website builder (templates, themes, image library)
- WordPress hosting
- Creative studio
- Social media management (Facebook, Instagram, Yelp)
- Google Maps listings
- Website backup
- SERP tracking
- Analytics (e-commerce, social media, marketing)
- Reputation management
- Calendar sync
- Payment processing
- Client management
- Online marketplace sync (Amazon, Etsy, eBay, Walmart)
- Chatbots
- Invoicing
- Content management (images, email newsletter, blog)
As you can see, GoDaddy offers a lot of features on top of the core domain registration and web hosting functionality. It’s really up to small-business owners to decide whether they’ll actually get any use out of those extra features or if they’d be better off using a different tool. For example, many businesses might already have a trusted tool in place for their email marketing needs.
GoDaddy doesn’t offer an open app marketplace for its web builder, though there is an app market specifically for e-commerce add-ons like payment gateways and shipping solutions.
Verdict: GoDaddy does more than Namecheap
When it comes down to it, GoDaddy simply offers a lot more functionality than Namecheap. If you’re trying to decide between these two services, you just need to decide whether or not GoDaddy’s unique features — such as analytics, creative studio and social media management — are worth the added cost.
Performance and security
The reliability and security of your business website are critically important, not just for a positive user experience but also for protecting the integrity of your business. When it comes to performance and security, Namecheap and GoDaddy each offer strong service, but there are some minor differences that we’ll examine below.
Namecheap
One of the biggest problems you can run into with a web hosting service is your business website going down unexpectedly. Namecheap guarantees 99.9% uptime on its reseller and virtual private server (VPS) accounts, and 100% on its shared, business and dedicated server accounts. Dedicated server hosting — which means your business doesn’t have to share its server hardware — is available through Namecheap, but the pricing changes frequently so it’s best to check the site for the most up-to-date prices.
Namecheap users get 20GB of solid-state drive (SSD) storage on the basic bundle and 50GB on the premium bundle. It also offers unmetered storage on the mid-tier plan, which means that users have unlimited storage as long as they adhere to Namecheap’s acceptable use policy (i.e., not streaming large multimedia files).
As for security, Namecheap offers a free SSL certificate for the first year and after that, prices start at $11 per year. All accounts include 2FA (two-factor authentication). Users can add a virtual private network (VPN) to their account starting at 99 cents/month for the first year, and $6.88/month after that when billed monthly. Namecheap also includes Whois privacy free with all accounts.
GoDaddy
Similar to Namecheap, GoDaddy guarantees 99.9% uptime on all of its accounts. This means that if your business website goes down for more than around 45 minutes each month, you can request a partial credit on your account to make up for the downtime.
GoDaddy no longer offers dedicated servers, so users are limited to virtual private servers (VPS) if they don’t want to use a shared server. Generally, virtual private servers are more cost-effective than dedicated servers, but dedicated servers are more powerful and secure. A virtual private server should be more than enough to meet the needs of most small businesses, but enterprise businesses and businesses with high performance and/or security demands might decide that a dedicated server is worth the added cost. GoDaddy offers eight different VPS plans starting at $8.99/month on a three-year term. The plans vary based on CPU (1-32), RAM (2GB-128GB), SSD storage limits (40GB-1.5TB) and more.
GoDaddy’s VPS plans include a free SSL certificate for the first year. After that first year, GoDaddy’s SSL certificate plans start at $69.99/year with a three-year term and go up to $399.99/year depending on the number of websites and subdomains.
GoDaddy doesn’t offer a built-in VPN, but it does sell security packages that include features like daily scans and monitoring, firewall, backups, DDoS protection and more for between $6.99 and $16.99/month with a two-year term.
Verdict: Namecheap offers more security options for less
Both services offer lots of options for keeping your business website secure and online, but Namecheap does so at a substantially lower cost and also offers some options that GoDaddy doesn’t, like dedicated servers, native VPN and included Whois privacy.
Ease of use
Searching for and registering an available domain should happen without too much friction, and once your website is online, it should stay that way without much additional effort on your part. To gauge ease of use for these two services, we reached out to business leaders who said they’ve used GoDaddy and/or Namecheap and looked at user reviews on Trustpilot.
Namecheap
Online reviews generally praise Namecheap’s ease of use for its straightforward control panel and intuitive web builder. The users we heard from seemed to agree with this sentiment.
Namecheap’s cPanel control panel (Source: Namecheap)
“I’ve dabbled with other domain registration services but I now exclusively use Namecheap,” said Laide Olambiwonnu, founder of Pickytarian, a compostable dinnerware business. “Their domain search is intuitive and clean.”
Teresha Aird, cofounder and CMO at Offices.net, said that this user-friendliness also holds true for Namecheap’s hosting service.
“Namecheap has consistently delivered the fundamental needs that most small businesses would seek in a hosting provider: affordability, reliability and a user-friendly interface,” she said. “We have now hosted hundreds of domains with Namecheap without any issues, so they have gradually become our first choice.”
GoDaddy
Like Namecheap, online reviewers had positive things to say about GoDaddy’s user-friendliness, citing its modern, sleek user interface and control panel. The business owners we heard from echoed this assessment as well.
GoDaddy’s website builder (Source: GoDaddy Canada YouTube)
“We chose GoDaddy because it is incredibly user-friendly,” said LaDell Carter, founder and lead travel designer at Royal Expression Travels. “For small businesses without a dedicated web designer or tech team, GoDaddy is an excellent option due to its 24-hour support and comprehensive functions necessary for running a website.”
One theme that came up repeatedly was that less tech-savvy businesses appreciated the breadth of services offered by GoDaddy.
“GoDaddy’s user-friendly interface and comprehensive support services made it an attractive choice for us,” said Stephanie Alston, CEO of BGG Enterprises, a staffing agency that specializes in multicultural talent. “They offer a wide range of services, including domain management, email hosting and website building tools, which helped streamline our online presence.”
Verdict: Namecheap and GoDaddy are both easy to use
Registering a new domain and hosting your business website shouldn’t give business owners a lot of headaches, and both Namecheap and GoDaddy seem to understand and prioritize user-friendliness. Based on the users we heard from — including some who have used both services — neither web host stood clearly above the other.
Customer support
When it’s 2 a.m. and you’re just trying to figure out why your business website is down, you need responsive customer service to help you resolve any issues and get your website back online as soon as possible.
Both Namecheap and GoDaddy offer some form of 24/7 support on all plans, but there are some differences in how that support is delivered. We also asked business leaders who have used Namecheap and GoDaddy customer service to share their thoughts.
Namecheap
Namecheap offers 24/7 support through live chat and an email ticket system. The company’s website says users can expect a response within two hours, but typical response times are faster than that.
Namecheap’s 24/7 live chat support (Source: Namecheap)
For less urgent issues, Namecheap users can attempt to find answers in an extensive knowledge base. Namecheap doesn’t offer any kind of phone support, at least not through its contact page.
Namecheap users generally have positive things to say about customer support.
“After many years of using GoDaddy I switched to Namecheap,” said MonicaFaye Hall, founder of The Digital Hall marketing agency. “Namecheap offers more in-depth support with SSL implementation and other domain-related issues. Less time spent trying to find solutions has been my experience with Namecheap (since 2018). No matter the time of day, I can reach a Namecheap solutions expert.”
Keon Georges, founder and CEO of digital marketing agency Vision Cue Media, said that Namecheap’s lack of phone support hasn’t been an issue.
“Namecheap is more personable and is always available no matter the time or location. If they’re not able to assist they’ll redirect you to someone who can better assist with your situation,” he said. “I prefer and have continued to use Namecheap since 2017 when I first started my online journey. Although you can’t speak to someone on the phone, the online support chat is always available to assist. I’ve tried other brands in the same space and have always reverted back to Namecheap.”
Namecheap also maintains an up-to-date status page to alert users to any known outages, issues and planned maintenance.
GoDaddy
GoDaddy provides 24/7 support through phone, text and live chat. So, if you’re the type of business owner who really likes being able to pick up the phone and talk to a human to get a problem solved, GoDaddy’s customer support could be a big selling point.
“They’re very helpful on the phone if there are any tech issues,” said Esther Kiss, CEO of Born To Influence. “We don’t have a dedicated IT person in-house, and I wanted to make sure we’ll be able to set everything up ourselves. I’ve been with GoDaddy for over a decade … their team is very helpful if I have any questions or need to make any changes to the setup of the dozen domains we own. I love that they are reliable and go above and beyond to explain exactly what we need to do, step by step, to get our projects underway.”
Users can attempt to resolve less-urgent issues through GoDaddy’s guides, how-to videos, webinars, AI tutorials and community forum.
When we reached out to GoDaddy through its live chat support to ask a question about dedicated servers, we received a clear and thorough answer within minutes from a friendly representative.
GoDaddy also provides a system status page with live updates on any known issues.
GoDaddy’s system status page (Source: GoDaddy)
A few business owners did point out that more complex issues can take a while to resolve over the phone with GoDaddy’s customer support, with one user reporting hold times of 15 minutes or longer.
Verdict: GoDaddy’s 24/7 support options are second to none
The business owners we heard from had lots of good things to say about Namecheap’s customer support options, but it’s hard to compete with all of the different ways GoDaddy users can get help, including phone support.
Summary: Namecheap helps businesses register and host a website with less hassle and cost
Small-business leaders who are looking to register and host a new business website will likely be wowed by all the features that GoDaddy offers. And several of the business owners we heard from did find value in having all those features in one place. But all that extra functionality comes at a steeper price, and several of the business leaders we heard from did complain about GoDaddy’s frequent upselling.
“Their upsell practices — particularly for domain privacy — have become a mounting concern,” said Aird. “Over time, these added costs have spurred us into exploring more cost-effective options … Including privacy protection as a standard feature without additional costs would add considerable value for SMBs like us that are already managing tight budgets.”
On the other hand, Namecheap doesn’t do nearly as much as GoDaddy. But users agreed that it performs its core services — registering domains and hosting business websites — reliably and at a much lower cost than GoDaddy.
For these reasons, we give Namecheap the edge when it comes to small-business domain registration and web hosting.
When should you choose Namecheap?
Businesses that just want to register and host a new domain for a low price and don’t need a lot of extra help or want to pay for lots of add-on features should choose Namecheap.
When should you choose GoDaddy?
Businesses that really want the option to pick up the phone and get tech support and have room in their budget to pay for add-on features like email marketing, social media management and analytics will likely find value in GoDaddy.
Related: Check out some other GoDaddy comparisons from CNN Underscored Money:
Starting price
$1.99 per month
Standout Features
Free domain name & SSL for a year
On Bluehost’s Website
Starting price
$2.75 per month (for first 36 months)
Standout Features
Free SSL certificate, free website transfer
On HostGator’s Website
Starting price
$2.75 per month
Standout Features
Customizable templates, Easy drag-and-drop technology, SSL certificate
On Web.com’s Website
Frequently asked questions (FAQs)
Which is better, GoDaddy or Namecheap?
Namecheap and GoDaddy are both widely considered to be reliable domain registration and website hosting service providers. While GoDaddy offers more functionality, Namecheap is a better value when it comes to simple domain registration and web hosting.
Is Namecheap cheaper than GoDaddy?
Based on the price of their starter packages, it’s cheaper to register a domain and host a website on Namecheap than on GoDaddy.
What are the disadvantages of Namecheap?
Namecheap doesn’t offer phone support, and its feature set is mostly limited to domain registration and web hosting.
What are the disadvantages of GoDaddy?
Some business owners complain that GoDaddy has a tendency to upsell additional features at a significant increase in cost. GoDaddy also doesn’t offer dedicated servers or VPNs.
Can you transfer a domain between GoDaddy and Namecheap?
Yes. GoDaddy users can transfer an eligible domain to Namecheap by enabling domain transfer in GoDaddy and submitting the transfer in Namecheap. Domain transfers can take anywhere from 30 minutes to eight days and come with associated fees. Users who wish to transfer a domain between GoDaddy and Namecheap should contact each service’s customer support for complete instructions.
What is the best web hosting service?
Our research found that some of the best web hosting services on the market include GreenGeeks (best for eco-conscious businesses), Namecheap (best for businesses on a budget), DreamHost (best for WordPress users who want shared hosting) and Wix (best for entrepreneurs with multiple businesses).