8 ms·

Be careful with namecheap. I used to use them for everything (and still have several domains registered with them), but one of my domains was a short word on an

Be careful with namecheap. I used to use them for everything (and still have several domains registered with them), but one of my domains was a short word on an obscure TLD. This year they increased the price by 15x, and support tried to pass the blame by claiming "the registry decided it's a premium domain." The registry may decide whether a domain is "premium" or not, but I had no issues transferring it to Google Domains and paying less than what I was paying before.

Klinky 6y ago
I've been moving domains from Namecheap to Porkbun due to ever increasing renewal prices, it's something like $5 cheaper per domain with Porkbun. I didn't see the 15x increase you saw though.
- steventey 6y ago
  Hmmm...I'm debating between Porkbun, Iwantmyname and Domain.com - which one do you guys think I should add next?
  - joering2 6y ago
    Suggest checking out Dynadot - they always run some promos and I typically get .com for 99 cents first year. Then they are $8.99 including proxy/privacy. I had many of issues over the years that were flawlessly solved with Dynadot chat support. Issues I was unable to fix with NameCheap (who has all customer support team in Eastern-block of Europe, so "made in America" does not apply), and also GoDaddy gave me issues. Besides I had a small back-and-forth battle here on HN with Namecheap CEO (I won), but needless to say it showed how unprofessional and childish the CEO of such popular company can be. Also Namesilo is gaining some traction. Reliable, worth trying, but no chat help.
    - steventey 6y ago
      Thanks a lot for these suggestions - I've noted them down and will check them out! And re: Namecheap CEO's behavior - that's quite sad to hear. Nonetheless, my experience with them has been mostly positive though :')
      - stedaniels 6y ago
        The _argument_ that Joe _won_:https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17179415 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17179415
  - beckingz 6y ago
    I've been pleased with iwantmyname. They also do some cool organizational stuff and are pretty transparent.
  - bhartzer 6y ago
    I would take a look at Epik.com, customer support is good, and prices are decent. I like their new nameliquidate service, a reverse auction for domains. I usually post domains there that I’m not going to renew.
  - jasonid 6y ago
    I can vouch for iwantmyname. Great customer support that went above and beyond what they had to. They even worked with Protonmail to get my custom domain functioning.
    - steventey 6y ago
      Got it! Thanks guys - Iwantmyname actually reached out to me but I wasn't sure how legit they were since I've never used their product, but after you guys' testimonials, I think I'll add them to the next version of One Word Domains! :D
  - oborseth 6y ago
    Porkbun, but I'm biased.
pmachinery 6y ago
Yeah I've never used or seen the appeal of Namecheap except when they run promos. They are anything but cheap otherwise. It may not be worth it for one or two names but transferring domains is easy (and can be done even when expired) and it can make sense to move to another registrar to save money - transfer prices are often lower than renewal prices - or if the current registrar starts to be a dick. I've never used Godaddy, which often had 99c/$1 coupons, but noticed on tld-list.com that their .COM renewal price is $18.17. Not sure what people are getting for paying twice as much as everywhere else.
- cirno 6y ago
  > Not sure what people are getting for paying twice as much as everywhere else. Really, really, really bad customer support. Like they'll answer your phone calls, but they won't actually help you at all. Especially with billing issues.
rumanator 6y ago
Oddly enough I've moved my stuff to namecheap because GoDaddy decided to bump their 0.99$/year domains to 40$.
tobyjsullivan 6y ago
Can you clarify if this was a gTLD or a ccTLD? Being so used to standardized pricing with .com's, this never even occurred to me as a risk. For anyone unfamiliar with premium TLD pricing: - it's common for .com's to be sold on the aftermarket for high prices but the renewal prices are standardized. So if I invest $36k on buying appletini.com, I know I will be able to renew it for ~$10/yr. - gTLD's like .land or .tech seem to set premium prices at the registrar level and apply to renewals. This means if I want apps.wiki, it's going to cost me $3,180/yr every year. The risk I'm now wondering about: If I build a successful brand around a gTLD, can that registrar retroactively classify that domain as a "premium" and just start 10x-ing my renewal price every year? If this is possible, I cannot imagine how any serious site could be built on a gTLD.
- pmachinery 6y ago
  I was thinking it would have to be one of the new gTLDs, where 'normal' rules don't seem to apply, but I think .co also asks silly money for any remotely decent name, and that's technically a ccTLD, even though I doubt anyone buys it as such. > gTLD's like .land or .tech seem to set premium prices at the registrar level and apply to renewals. This means if I want apps.wiki, it's going to cost me $3,180/yr every year. AIUI premium domains renew at a relatively normal price, so there may be a rule that states they can't charge premium rates for renewals (and therefore decide later your name is a premium), but in the domain world I wouldn't rule anything out. I wouldn't personally use anything but .com/.net/.org or ccTLD for a serious site anyway.
- boustrophedon 6y ago
  It was the .club gTLD
donmcronald 6y ago
How long did you have the domain registered before they changed it to a premium domain? That seems like something that might violate the base registry agreement. Section 2.10(c): > The parties acknowledge that the purpose of this Section 2.10(c) is to prohibit abusive and/or discriminatory Renewal Pricing practices imposed by Registry Operator without the written consent of the applicable registrant at the time of the initial registration of the domain and this Section 2.10(c) will be interpreted broadly to prohibit such practices. I ask because I have a similar domain.
- boustrophedon 6y ago
  It was registered in 2014. I didn't care enough to try and fight them about it after talking with customer support, and Google domains was cheaper anyway. EDIT: I sent an email to ICANN asking about this issue since I still have domains registered with namecheap. I will update here if they respond.
  - donmcronald 6y ago
    That's awesome since you have a domain that it actually happened to they should give you an answer. Mine is just a good domain that I'm hoping it doesn't happen to. Since the types and values of premium domains can vary a lot, I think the ability for a registry to arbitrarily declare a domain as premium presents a huge risk of abuse. I've searched a lot for info relating the rules for premium domains and I've never found anything. I'm super interested to hear what ICANN tells you.
  - donmcronald 6y ago
    Hey. Did ICANN ever reply to you?
    - boustrophedon 6y ago
      They did, but it wasn't particularly clear. --- Thank you for contacting ICANN Global Support. I apologize for the difficulties you are experiencing. Unfortunately, ICANN does not control the sale or pricing of domain names. Registry operators and registrars are free to charge a premium for certain names at their discretion, assuming they are otherwise in compliance with the terms and conditions of their agreements. You may refer to the registrar's domain registration agreement to identify what the specified rates and restrictions are. A registry operator or registrar may not implement/impose abusive or discriminatory renewal pricing practices without the written consent of the applicable registrant at the time of initial registration. This includes, for example, the requirement for advance notification of any price increase and the right to renew the registration at the price prior to such increase for a period of up to 10 years (i.e., the price may be locked in). For more information about your rights and responsibilities as a domain name holder (registrant), please see our registrant rights and responsibilities page: https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/benefits-2013-09-16-en https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/benefits-2013-09-16-en. With reference to the Expired Registration Recovery Policy (https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/errp-2013-02-28-en https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/errp-2013-02-28-en), Registrars must make their renewal fees, post-expiration renewal fees (if different), and redemption/restore fees reasonably available to registered name holders and prospective registered name holders at the time of registration of a gTLD name. At a minimum, these fees must be clearly displayed on the registrar's website and a link to these fees must be included in the registrar's registration agreements. You may also contact the registry operator for (TLD) for more information on the pricing of their domains. You can find the registry's contact information via this link: https://www.iana.org/domains/root/db https://www.iana.org/domains/root/db If you feel the Registrar's fees were not properly disclosed or posted on their website, you may submit the Registrar Standards Complaint form (https://forms.icann.org/en/resources/compliance/complaints/registrars/standards-complaint-form https://forms.icann.org/en/resources/compliance/complaints/r...) to ICANN’s Contractual Compliance Team. They will review your complaint and reply to you within 5 business days.
cstrat 6y ago
I had the same thing happen! I bought a domain a long while back, it auto-renewed and charged me more than $500 for 1 year. I've never used the domain properly and would have just let it lapse, they did warn me of the pending auto-renewal but I ignored it thinking it would cost $30 or something. This was for a `.club` TLD.
- steventey 6y ago
  That's crazy! Tbh it's kind of a jerk move on the domain registrar's side - by labeling a certain TLD as "Premium" they get to charge extra on the renewal/registration fees. Pretty unethical I'd say :(
- boustrophedon 6y ago
  Mine was also .club, seems like they might be doing something fishy. I emailed ICANN about it and I'll update the comment above if I get a reply.

Klinky 6y ago

I've been moving domains from Namecheap to Porkbun due to ever increasing renewal prices, it's something like $5 cheaper per domain with Porkbun. I didn't see the 15x increase you saw though.

steventey 6y ago
Hmmm...I'm debating between Porkbun, Iwantmyname and Domain.com - which one do you guys think I should add next?
- joering2 6y ago
  Suggest checking out Dynadot - they always run some promos and I typically get .com for 99 cents first year. Then they are $8.99 including proxy/privacy. I had many of issues over the years that were flawlessly solved with Dynadot chat support. Issues I was unable to fix with NameCheap (who has all customer support team in Eastern-block of Europe, so "made in America" does not apply), and also GoDaddy gave me issues. Besides I had a small back-and-forth battle here on HN with Namecheap CEO (I won), but needless to say it showed how unprofessional and childish the CEO of such popular company can be. Also Namesilo is gaining some traction. Reliable, worth trying, but no chat help.
  - steventey 6y ago
    Thanks a lot for these suggestions - I've noted them down and will check them out! And re: Namecheap CEO's behavior - that's quite sad to hear. Nonetheless, my experience with them has been mostly positive though :')
    - stedaniels 6y ago
      The _argument_ that Joe _won_:https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17179415 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17179415
- beckingz 6y ago
  I've been pleased with iwantmyname. They also do some cool organizational stuff and are pretty transparent.
- bhartzer 6y ago
  I would take a look at Epik.com, customer support is good, and prices are decent. I like their new nameliquidate service, a reverse auction for domains. I usually post domains there that I’m not going to renew.
- jasonid 6y ago
  I can vouch for iwantmyname. Great customer support that went above and beyond what they had to. They even worked with Protonmail to get my custom domain functioning.
  - steventey 6y ago
    Got it! Thanks guys - Iwantmyname actually reached out to me but I wasn't sure how legit they were since I've never used their product, but after you guys' testimonials, I think I'll add them to the next version of One Word Domains! :D
- oborseth 6y ago
  Porkbun, but I'm biased.

pmachinery 6y ago

Yeah I've never used or seen the appeal of Namecheap except when they run promos. They are anything but cheap otherwise. It may not be worth it for one or two names but transferring domains is easy (and can be done even when expired) and it can make sense to move to another registrar to save money - transfer prices are often lower than renewal prices - or if the current registrar starts to be a dick. I've never used Godaddy, which often had 99c/$1 coupons, but noticed on tld-list.com that their .COM renewal price is $18.17. Not sure what people are getting for paying twice as much as everywhere else.

cirno 6y ago
> Not sure what people are getting for paying twice as much as everywhere else. Really, really, really bad customer support. Like they'll answer your phone calls, but they won't actually help you at all. Especially with billing issues.

rumanator 6y ago

Oddly enough I've moved my stuff to namecheap because GoDaddy decided to bump their 0.99$/year domains to 40$.

tobyjsullivan 6y ago

Can you clarify if this was a gTLD or a ccTLD? Being so used to standardized pricing with .com's, this never even occurred to me as a risk. For anyone unfamiliar with premium TLD pricing: - it's common for .com's to be sold on the aftermarket for high prices but the renewal prices are standardized. So if I invest $36k on buying appletini.com, I know I will be able to renew it for ~$10/yr. - gTLD's like .land or .tech seem to set premium prices at the registrar level and apply to renewals. This means if I want apps.wiki, it's going to cost me $3,180/yr every year. The risk I'm now wondering about: If I build a successful brand around a gTLD, can that registrar retroactively classify that domain as a "premium" and just start 10x-ing my renewal price every year? If this is possible, I cannot imagine how any serious site could be built on a gTLD.

pmachinery 6y ago
I was thinking it would have to be one of the new gTLDs, where 'normal' rules don't seem to apply, but I think .co also asks silly money for any remotely decent name, and that's technically a ccTLD, even though I doubt anyone buys it as such. > gTLD's like .land or .tech seem to set premium prices at the registrar level and apply to renewals. This means if I want apps.wiki, it's going to cost me $3,180/yr every year. AIUI premium domains renew at a relatively normal price, so there may be a rule that states they can't charge premium rates for renewals (and therefore decide later your name is a premium), but in the domain world I wouldn't rule anything out. I wouldn't personally use anything but .com/.net/.org or ccTLD for a serious site anyway.
boustrophedon 6y ago
It was the .club gTLD

donmcronald 6y ago

How long did you have the domain registered before they changed it to a premium domain? That seems like something that might violate the base registry agreement. Section 2.10(c): > The parties acknowledge that the purpose of this Section 2.10(c) is to prohibit abusive and/or discriminatory Renewal Pricing practices imposed by Registry Operator without the written consent of the applicable registrant at the time of the initial registration of the domain and this Section 2.10(c) will be interpreted broadly to prohibit such practices. I ask because I have a similar domain.

boustrophedon 6y ago
It was registered in 2014. I didn't care enough to try and fight them about it after talking with customer support, and Google domains was cheaper anyway. EDIT: I sent an email to ICANN asking about this issue since I still have domains registered with namecheap. I will update here if they respond.
- donmcronald 6y ago
  That's awesome since you have a domain that it actually happened to they should give you an answer. Mine is just a good domain that I'm hoping it doesn't happen to. Since the types and values of premium domains can vary a lot, I think the ability for a registry to arbitrarily declare a domain as premium presents a huge risk of abuse. I've searched a lot for info relating the rules for premium domains and I've never found anything. I'm super interested to hear what ICANN tells you.
- donmcronald 6y ago
  Hey. Did ICANN ever reply to you?
  - boustrophedon 6y ago
    They did, but it wasn't particularly clear. --- Thank you for contacting ICANN Global Support. I apologize for the difficulties you are experiencing. Unfortunately, ICANN does not control the sale or pricing of domain names. Registry operators and registrars are free to charge a premium for certain names at their discretion, assuming they are otherwise in compliance with the terms and conditions of their agreements. You may refer to the registrar's domain registration agreement to identify what the specified rates and restrictions are. A registry operator or registrar may not implement/impose abusive or discriminatory renewal pricing practices without the written consent of the applicable registrant at the time of initial registration. This includes, for example, the requirement for advance notification of any price increase and the right to renew the registration at the price prior to such increase for a period of up to 10 years (i.e., the price may be locked in). For more information about your rights and responsibilities as a domain name holder (registrant), please see our registrant rights and responsibilities page: https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/benefits-2013-09-16-en https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/benefits-2013-09-16-en. With reference to the Expired Registration Recovery Policy (https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/errp-2013-02-28-en https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/errp-2013-02-28-en), Registrars must make their renewal fees, post-expiration renewal fees (if different), and redemption/restore fees reasonably available to registered name holders and prospective registered name holders at the time of registration of a gTLD name. At a minimum, these fees must be clearly displayed on the registrar's website and a link to these fees must be included in the registrar's registration agreements. You may also contact the registry operator for (TLD) for more information on the pricing of their domains. You can find the registry's contact information via this link: https://www.iana.org/domains/root/db https://www.iana.org/domains/root/db If you feel the Registrar's fees were not properly disclosed or posted on their website, you may submit the Registrar Standards Complaint form (https://forms.icann.org/en/resources/compliance/complaints/registrars/standards-complaint-form https://forms.icann.org/en/resources/compliance/complaints/r...) to ICANN’s Contractual Compliance Team. They will review your complaint and reply to you within 5 business days.

cstrat 6y ago

I had the same thing happen! I bought a domain a long while back, it auto-renewed and charged me more than $500 for 1 year. I've never used the domain properly and would have just let it lapse, they did warn me of the pending auto-renewal but I ignored it thinking it would cost $30 or something. This was for a `.club` TLD.

steventey 6y ago
That's crazy! Tbh it's kind of a jerk move on the domain registrar's side - by labeling a certain TLD as "Premium" they get to charge extra on the renewal/registration fees. Pretty unethical I'd say :(
boustrophedon 6y ago
Mine was also .club, seems like they might be doing something fishy. I emailed ICANN about it and I'll update the comment above if I get a reply.