EasyWP blocked plugins: the full list and what to use instead

Published 2 November 20265 min read

EasyWP is Namecheap's managed WordPress hosting, and it runs WordPress with a few things switched off. Most plugins install and work normally. A short list will not run at all, and a less obvious group installs fine and then fails, because the PHP functions it relies on are disabled across the whole platform.

Namecheap documents both, in two separate knowledge base articles that are easy to miss until something breaks. Below is the combined picture as of November 2026, with what to use for each job instead.

The EasyWP link on this page is an affiliate link: if you sign up through it we earn a commission, at no extra cost to you.

Caching is done for you, so most cache plugins are pointless

Every EasyWP site comes with Namecheap's own EasyWP plugin preinstalled. It provides three layers of caching (Varnish for pages, OPcache for PHP, and a Redis object cache) and puts a button at the top of the WordPress dashboard to clear the cache by hand after a change.

Namecheap's position is that you do not need any additional caching plugins. Only two are actually blocked, redis-cache and wp-memcached-manager, because they duplicate what is already running. Page-cache plugins are not on the list; they are simply redundant, and two page caches mean two places to clear whenever a page changes. Namecheap's FAQ says minification plugins for CSS and JavaScript can still be used.

The 19 plugins Namecheap blocks, and why

Namecheap blocks these for performance, security or compatibility, and says the list is not final: plugins that turn out to slow sites down can be added. Most are blocked for database load, which on a shared platform affects more than one site. This is the list as published in November 2026, by slug, with Namecheap's stated reason.

accesspress-social-pro: slows WordPress down
ad-blocking-detector: unnecessary database load
auto-upload-images: security issues
contextual-related-posts: unnecessary database load
currencyr: interferes with EasyWP's caching
custom-field-template: slows WordPress down
everest-backup: unnecessary filesystem load
media-deduper-pro: unnecessary database load
redis-cache: not needed, EasyWP has its own cache
similar-posts: unnecessary database load
simple-session-support: outdated
ultimate-social-deux: slows WordPress down
woo-alidropship: not compatible with EasyWP
wordpress-database-reset: security issues
wordpress-popular-posts: unnecessary database load
wp-memcached-manager: not needed, EasyWP has its own cache
wp-optimizer: unnecessary filesystem load
wp-tab-widget: unnecessary database load
wp-stats-manager: unnecessary database load

Plugins that are not on the list and still fail

The list is the visible part. A separate Namecheap article lists 81 PHP functions disabled on every EasyWP site, and they cannot be switched back on for an individual site. They include everything that runs a shell command (exec, shell_exec, system, passthru, proc_open, popen), the pcntl_* process functions, the posix_* functions, putenv, disk_free_space and phpinfo. The one exception is ioncube_loader, which Namecheap will enable on request for plugins encoded with ionCube.

So any plugin that shells out will break even though nothing blocks its installation: backup tools that call mysqldump or zip from the command line, image optimisers that run a binary on the server, and anything that forks a background process. Some fall back to pure PHP and some just error. If a plugin's documentation mentions command-line tools, test it on EasyWP before you rely on it.

Access is narrower too. Files are reached over SFTP; there is no SSH, cPanel or plain FTP, which also means no WP-CLI. The database is available through phpMyAdmin, but connecting to an external database is not allowed. WordPress Multisite is not supported, and Namecheap advises against running EasyWP on a subdomain.

The 50-email limit that catches stores and busy forms

Email sent through PHP's mail() function is capped at 50 a day per site. WordPress sends through mail() unless you configure something else, so contact form notifications, WooCommerce order emails, password resets and plugin alerts all draw from those 50. A store with a good day, or a form that attracts spam, runs out quickly, and the emails after that do not go out.

Namecheap does not limit mail sent through a third-party SMTP service. Connect WP Mail SMTP, FluentSMTP or a similar plugin to a transactional mail provider and the cap stops applying. It is worth doing on day one rather than after the first missing order email.

What to use for each blocked job

Related posts. contextual-related-posts and similar-posts were blocked for database load. The block editor's Query Loop block can show posts from the same category with no plugin at all. For automatic related posts under every article, a small plugin that runs one query per post and caches the result does the job without the load; the build at the end of this page is exactly that.

Popular posts and stats. wordpress-popular-posts and wp-stats-manager were blocked for the same reason: counting views means a database write on every visit. Analytics that run off your server, such as Google Analytics through Site Kit, give you the numbers without touching the site's database.

Social sharing. The two social plugins on the list were blocked for slowing WordPress down. Plain share links (an ordinary link to each network's share URL) need no plugin script at all.

Backups. Backups are managed from the EasyWP dashboard. If you also want an off-site copy, choose a backup plugin that works in pure PHP and test a restore, given the disabled shell functions.

Updates. Namecheap's FAQ notes that third-party plugins and themes need updating by hand, while WordPress core takes its minor and security updates automatically. A weekly update digest is a simple way to notice when something is waiting.

Questions

Is WP Rocket blocked on EasyWP?

No. WP Rocket is not on Namecheap's published list. Namecheap's view is that extra caching plugins are unnecessary because EasyWP already caches pages with Varnish, so WP Rocket's page cache adds little and gives you a second cache to clear. A redundant plugin is also more code that can break: a WP Rocket bug took whole sites down after WordPress 7.1.

Can I ask Namecheap to unblock a plugin?

Namecheap's documentation does not describe an exception process for the blocked list; its HelpDesk is the contact. Disabled PHP functions are a firmer no: they are switched off platform-wide and cannot be enabled for one site, with ioncube_loader the only one available on request.

Build it in Steem

The button opens the builder with this guide's prompt filled in, so you can change anything before it runs. Nothing is built, and nothing is charged, until you send it.

Build this pluginAbout 55 credits. The free plan includes enough for one.

Read the prompt (176 words)

Build a lightweight related posts plugin that is safe to run on managed hosts that block heavy related-posts plugins. After the content of each single blog post, show up to four other published posts from the same category, newest first, never including the current post, each with its featured image at medium size, its title and its date, in a simple responsive grid. Use a single query per post that asks only for what it needs and does not count total rows, and cache the resulting list of post IDs in a transient for twelve hours, cleared whenever a post is published, updated or deleted. If the category has fewer than two other posts, fall back to posts that share a tag. Add a settings page under Settings > Related Posts with the number of posts to show (2 to 6), the heading text above the grid, and a checkbox to turn the grid off. Create no custom database tables, record no views, load no JavaScript, and keep the CSS small and scoped to the grid.