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Namecheap is a first-rate place to buy a domain. Their hosting hands you a server to administer; here you pick a design, change the words in your browser, and the site is live — 99¢ a month.
No mid-term price increases.*
Namecheap's shared hosting is cheap to start and renews higher. Figures approximate — check their current pricing.
Namecheap is best known first as a domain registrar — competitively priced domains and a straightforward purchase flow that a lot of the internet already uses. They also sell shared hosting, built on a control panel and aimed mostly at WordPress and PHP sites. What arrives is an empty general-purpose Linux server, yours to keep patched and configured, with the actual site still to build.
This page compares Namecheap's shared hosting against Lemonade Host, a website builder with the hosting included at 99¢ a month per site. Namecheap's figures below are approximate as of mid-2026 — hosting prices change, so check Namecheap's own pricing page before deciding.
At a glance
Same categories, side by side. Namecheap's numbers are approximate and change — confirm current pricing on their site.
| Feature | Lemonade Host | Namecheap |
|---|---|---|
| Time to live | Same day — pick a design, change the words, publish | Set up the control panel and WordPress, then build |
| Visual editor and templates | Included on every site | Sold as a separate product from the hosting plan |
| Forms, bookings and a cart | Included and working — no second account | WordPress plugins to add, update and maintain |
| Ten landing pages | $9.90/mo — ten sites at 99¢ | A higher multi-site plan tier; confirm current rates |
| Starting price | 99¢/mo, billed $11.88/yr | ~$2.98/mo intro (roughly $2–5/mo range) |
| Renewal price | $11.88/yr — unchanged in year two | ~$6.48/mo after the intro term, approx. |
| Custom domain on the plan | +99¢/mo ($1.98/mo all-in) | Hosting plan alone doesn't include one |
| Buying the domain itself | Bring one from anywhere — theirs included | Yes — competitively priced, and worth using |
| SSL and backups | Both included; backups daily, kept 7 days | SSL often included; backups vary, often a paid tier |
| Ways to publish | Editor, zip upload, Git, CLI, or an AI assistant | Control panel, FTP, File Manager |
| AI publishing | Yes — MCP server | Not offered |
| Portability | Your files, in a folder, movable anytime | Standard Linux hosting; movable via a manual migration |
Namecheap figures are approximate as of mid-2026 and change without notice — check their current pricing page before deciding. Ours are exact and won't move under you.
What's in the price
Namecheap's hosting price funds a general-purpose server stack, and leaves the site itself to you.
PHP, MySQL and a control panel built to run WordPress and other software you install yourself — none of which puts a single word on your homepage.
Chat and ticket support trained on plugin conflicts, database errors and PHP versions — a whole queue of questions that only exist because you're running the software yourself.
The advertised price is commonly a first-term rate. It renews higher — often close to double — once that term ends.
Where Namecheap fits
Namecheap suits someone who wants a competitively priced domain and a general WordPress or PHP hosting account under one login — a genuinely convenient combination if you want to run that software yourself. They're one of the more reputable registrars around, and plenty of people will fairly buy a domain there and point it straight at a site built here.
What their hosting plan doesn't include is the site. That part stays yours to install, theme, configure and maintain. Here it's a design you pick, words you change, and a publish button.
A combination that costs you nothing extra: register or keep your domain at Namecheap, then point it at your Lemonade Host site with two DNS records. Two companies, each doing the part they're actually good at.
One good combination
If you already have — or want — a domain from Namecheap, nothing about that changes when the site is built here.
If you already own one there, nothing needs to move.
Type in the domain you own — no transfer required.
We show you exactly what to add, at your current registrar.
The moment it resolves, a certificate is issued — nothing to buy at either end.
Our side
Cost over one year and three
Ours with a custom domain included, theirs at an approximate intro rate that renews higher after year one.
Namecheap figures are approximate as of mid-2026 and exclude domain registration — confirm current intro and renewal hosting rates on their site before deciding.
Questions
Usually only for the first term. Namecheap's shared hosting commonly starts around $2 to $5 a month and renews higher — often close to double — once that term ends. Lemonade Host's $11.88 a year is the same price in year two as year one.
Yes — that combination works well. Namecheap is a reputable, competitively priced registrar, and you bring the domain you own here from wherever you bought it. Register or keep it there, point it at your Lemonade Host site with two DNS records, and the certificate is issued for you.
On Namecheap's shared hosting, through cPanel, FTP or its File Manager. Here you publish from the editor itself — change the words, press publish — or from a zip upload, a Git repo, a CLI command, or an MCP server that lets an AI assistant do it for you.
Not here. Pick a design from the template library, change the words and pictures in your browser, and publish — with contact forms, bookings and a cart already working. There is no control panel to learn, nothing to patch and no PHP version to keep current. On Namecheap's shared hosting, keeping that general-purpose Linux server in good order is your job.
Keep comparing
An intro rate near $9 a month that renews far higher. See the three-year math.
Another WordPress host, often billed years upfront. See what that costs.
The same job, billed a plan per site. See what ten of them cost.
Designer templates, a plan per site, and a site you can't take with you.
A home for hand-coded pages, on their address.
Built to run a store at scale. See what a site that isn't one costs.
Or see full pricing and what's included with every site.
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