Liquid Web vs Namecheap
Liquid Web and Namecheap compared on measured uptime, response time, pricing and features from our own tests. Liquid Web scores higher overall.
By Jennifer T. · Updated
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Verdict
7.7 out of 10
Liquid WebWins overall
Lansing's managed host since 1997: WordPress plans from $9 with Cloudflare edge CDN and a 100% network SLA, no refunds
6.9 out of 10
The Phoenix registrar's cPanel hosting: three sites for $5.88 at renewal, a 30-day free trial and four data centers
Liquid Web wins 4 of the six sub-scores and comes out ahead overall (7.7 vs 6.9).
How do the scores compare?
Liquid Web leads on 4 sub-scores, Namecheap on 1. Higher is better.
| Liquid Web | Namecheap | |
|---|---|---|
| Performance | 7.5 (better) | 6.5 |
| Uptime | 8.0 (better) | 6.5 |
| Support | 8.0 (better) | 6.5 |
| Features | 8.5 (better) | 7.0 |
| Value | 7.0 | 8.0 (better) |
| Ease of use | 7.5 | 7.5 |
Which one is faster and more reliable?
| Liquid Web | Namecheap | |
|---|---|---|
| Overall score | 7.7 (better) | 6.9 |
| Uptime (published)HostingStep 365 d vs Kripesh Adwani 365 d; methods differ | 99.99% (better) | 99.89% |
| Response time (published)HostingStep vs Kripesh Adwani; methods differ | 496 ms | 19 ms (better) |
Which one costs less?
On renewal, Namecheap is cheaper ($5.88/mo vs $9.00/mo). Intro prices need the listed term.
| Liquid Web | Namecheap | |
|---|---|---|
| Cheapest plan | Essentials WordPress | Stellar |
| Intro price | $9.00/mo | $2.28/mo (better) |
| Renewal price | $9.00/mo | $5.88/mo (better) |
| Required term | 1 months (better) | 12 months |
| Websites | 1 | 3 |
| Storage | 15 GB | 20 GB |
| Money back | 0 days | 30 days (better) |
What does each include?
| Liquid Web | Namecheap | |
|---|---|---|
| Free domain | No | No |
| Free SSL | Free SSL certificates on the WordPress plans | 50 standard certificates for one year on every plan, installed automatically |
| Backups | Daily backups kept 7, 14 or 30 days by tier; Acronis backup storage on managed VPS | Twice a week on Stellar (restored by ticket); Stellar Plus and Business add AutoBackup with 6 daily, 3 weekly and 5 monthly copies |
| Free migration | A self-serve migration tool and migration by a person on every WordPress plan | cPanel-to-cPanel transfers free; manual migration case by case |
| Free CDN | Edge CDN powered by Cloudflare on every WordPress plan; CDN overage is usage-billed | Supersonic CDN with DDoS protection, for domains on Namecheap's hosting nameservers |
| Caching | Object Cache Pro on every WordPress plan | No |
| Staging | Staging sites with visual comparison on Pro and Elite; not on Essentials | No |
| Security | DDoS protection, WAF, Kadence Security Pro and daily malware scans on every plan; Patchstack virtual patching on Elite | Imunify360 (malware scanning, intrusion prevention, machine-learning firewall), KernelCare patching, account isolation, cPanel two-factor login |
| Resource limits | WordPress plans are sized by visitors (50,000 a month on the entry tiers), shared storage and bandwidth; managed VPS plans state vCPU, RAM, SSD and bandwidth | Not stated |
| Data center choice | Lansing, Phoenix, Ashburn and Amsterdam, selected on the purchase screen where a plan offers it | Phoenix, Amsterdam, Singapore or Farnborough at checkout; moving an account later is a billing request |
| Uptime guarantee | 100% network uptime in the SLA with credits up to the monthly charge, claimed within days of an outage; the managed VPS page states 99.9% server uptime | 100% monthly on shared plans; one day of service added per hour of unscheduled downtime, up to one month, claimed by ticket within 10 days |
| Managed VPS | Fully managed from $72 a month for 2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM, 80 GB SSD and 3 TB; cPanel, InterWorx or Plesk; Windows available | Not stated |
| Phone support | 24/7 by phone, chat and ticket | No |
| Windows hosting | On VPS and dedicated servers | No |
| SSH and languages | Not stated | Jailshell SSH, PHP, Perl, Python, Node.js and Ruby scripts |
| Website builder | Not stated | Sitejet AI website builder and an AI assistant for WordPress on every plan |
| Dedicated IP | Not stated | $4.00 a month add-on |
Company facts
| Liquid Web | Namecheap | |
|---|---|---|
| Control panel | Liquid Web's own platform for WordPress plans; cPanel, InterWorx or Plesk on VPS | cPanel with Softaculous |
| Data centers | 4 | 4 |
| Support channels | chat, phone, ticket, knowledge-base | chat, ticket, knowledge-base |
| Founded | 1997 | 2000 |