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Ted from Namecheap here. I cannot speak to GoDaddy's practices. However, I can say that for Namecheap, this is not something we would ever even consider doing.

by ted0 6y ago

Ted from Namecheap here. I cannot speak to GoDaddy's practices. However, I can say that for Namecheap, this is not something we would ever even consider doing. In my experience though, lookups are more complex than most think. We are querying so many different sources to give you availability status, some of which are less reliable than others. For example, with smaller TLDs like .ai or .is, lookups may be less reliable than a well-oiled machine like Verisign, which operates the .com and .net TLDs, among others. As a result, sometimes with a less reliable registry, there can be false positives, resulting in the registrar showing a domain as "available" when it is actually registered. In addition to registry connection reliability, there are also many different aftermarket sources that registrars often pull from. You know when you see a Premium domain (registered and usually higher priced) in search? That could be coming from any number of 3rd party aftermarket platforms, which also can have varying reliability and/or stale listings. Lastly, you have to consider that some registrars handle the "drop window" differently than others. If a domain deletes and is removed from the zone, ergo, becoming available again, some registrars have a buffer period before they show it as available again. It does not appear that Felons.io had ever been registered before, which makes this case pretty strange.

cyrialize 6y ago
A coworker of mine recommended you guys. The service is fantastic! Thank you so much.
webbrahmin 6y ago
A happy namecheap customer here. Moved from Godaddy to namecheap because they revealed me as the owner of a domain I was using for activism. Caused me a lot of harassment.
- ted0 6y ago
  Glad to hear you're happy. Always willing to help if you ever need anything: ted [at] namecheap.com
- NetOpWibby 6y ago
  Yeesh, that’s terrible.
- abc-xyz 6y ago
  Here’s a HNer claiming Namecheap dumped his personal info without even informing him of having done so: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18063667 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18063667
harel 6y ago
Thanks for that. I've moved all my domains to you guys during one of the other go daddy fiascos (pick one) and never looked back. You guys are great. Thanks!
- ted0 6y ago
  Right on!
Flowsion 6y ago
I've been using Namecheap for domains and domain searches since at least 2009. I haven't used any of their other services, besides their WHOISGuard offerings. I have never had issues with them stealing domains after searches or any other problems w/ my account.
- ted0 6y ago
  Thank you for being a longtime customer. We appreciate you!
  - tamar 6y ago
    Me too!
- httpsterio 6y ago
  Same, I have a few local tld's I have to buy elsewhere but after moving away from Gandi some five years ago I haven't had the need to look back. Namecheap doesn't upsell like godaddy and it's affordable, if not the cheapest for many tld's. It's also a breeze to config dns rules with them.
IncRnd 6y ago
I am very happy with the domains that I have purchased from namecheap. We host our own sites and email servers, so namecheap's fast ala-carte service has worked great for us for a few years.
timcederman 6y ago
Hi Ted - can you speak to Namecheap's stance on bulk spam domain registrations and the fact that Namecheap does nothing to stop it? There has been (at least in the Bay Area) a large increase in text spam. They all have a very similar format, e.g. pretending you missed a delivery, and try to get you to click on a link, usually a .info domain. They are all hosted on Alibaba Cloud, but they are registered in bulk via Namecheap. Your legal and abuse team says they have no obligation to prevent such registrations, but to instead take it up with the FTC or the hosting, both of which do nothing either. Here's a recent article about the problem with bulk registrations and spam: https://www.spamhaus.org/news/article/795/weaponizing-domain-names-how-bulk-registration-aids-global-spam-campaigns https://www.spamhaus.org/news/article/795/weaponizing-domain... edit: I highly recommend reading the article for more context on why bulk domain registration is problematic. Note the DOJ filed a temporary restraining order again Namecheap, and the office of the NY AG also contacted them due to their role in spam and scams. To address some of the questions and comments below: > A registrar is simple: request a domain, they check you match the requirement for said domain rules, take your money and register the domain for you. Very simple, very stupid, very non-opiniated. Where do you draw the line on this? How do you feel about registering hate speech in a domain name, or someone else's trademark? Clearly there needs to be some level of regulation. > do they have any obligation to investigate the purouse people want to use the domains for Do domain hosts have any obligation to investigate what people are hosting? Does Google have an obligation to remove results from search? There are clearly multiple parties to hosting content on the web, and it's a shared responsibility to keep folks doing the right thing > Are you asking Namecheap to take unilateral action against domain registrations with no due process? No - what makes you think that's what I was asking?
- toomuchtodo 6y ago
  Are you asking Namecheap to take unilateral action against domain registrations with no due process? As a Namecheap customer, I do not support such behavior, nor is it their mandate as a registrar. If the problem is with mobile provider spam filtering and where the sites are hosted, that is where the abuse issue should be dealt with, with continued complaints to regulatory bodies (ie, the FTC and the FCC).
- 6y ago
WanderPanda 6y ago
Namecheap is the only registrar I can really recommend. Gets out of your way in most cases, has a very competent support for the other cases
lordnacho 6y ago
Namecheap is so much better than godaddy. Interface : just give me the records. I don't want to buy more stuff. Somehow namecheap lets me but the same extras like email, without badgering me. Godaddy is just ads ads ads and interfaces to sell stuff to people who aren't tech savvy. Squatting: this definitely happens with godaddy, like the OP says. Never use them, it's a disgusting practice. I use namecheap for dozens of domains. I only used godaddy once because I couldn't get the tld on namecheap.
- TobTobXX 6y ago
  > I only used godaddy once because I couldn't get the tld on namecheap. Interesting... I'd love to get a .as domain, but Namecheap don't offer that. Does GoDaddy have more TLDs or where would you suggest to look for obscure TLDs?
  - ted0 6y ago
    we haven't seen a lot of demand for .as but if there are other folks on here that want it, we could consider onboarding it! Just upvote this comment to +1 ;)
    - loceng 6y ago
      Consider my upvote that I'd be interested in buying .as domains on Namecheap.
    - lordnacho 6y ago
      How about making sure you have all the countries? I think it was .it that I couldn't find.
      - ted0 6y ago
        We'd love that! Although, some are trickier to support than others.
        6y ago
gabereiser 6y ago
and this is why Namecheap is awesome. Use them instead.
gervwyk 6y ago
jip. I can say the same. namecheap has been excellent for the past few years. even though I do not spend a lot with them, i’ve used their live customer support in a few cases and has helped me out where needed. Kudos to the team!
danellis 6y ago
But can you please start handling .name domains? I have one last domain I want to transfer from Gandi. Your support agent spent five minutes trying to convince me that I didn't own a domain in xxx.yyy.name format, and that the reason it wasn't transfering is because I should be using yyy.name, before talking to a supervisor and finding out that you don't handle them anyway.
- ted0 6y ago
  We do support .name now.
  - danellis 6y ago
    Really? Because when I try to transfer xxx.yyy.name, it says: "Uh-oh! Your domain yyy.name is not eligible for transfer to us." I don't own yyy.name. I own xxx.yyy.name. (Of course xxx and yyy are placeholders here.) Edit: xxx.yyy.name comes from the .name registry, just like xxx.co.uk comes from the .uk registry.
    - sgtfrankieboy 6y ago
      Only the owner of yyy.name can do those kind of transfers. Your xxx.yyy.name is a subdomain of yyy.name and thus beholden to it. Unless it's something like a .co.uk domain, which with you mentioning .name isn't the case.
      - danellis 6y ago
        Who is the owner of yyy.name, though? I'd say that's the registry itself.
    - kugelblitz 6y ago
      I don't think you can transfer because the domain doesn't belong to you. yyy.name is the domain, you're "renting" from whoever owns that domain name.
      - 6y ago
brlewis 6y ago
If a domain is unavailable, does the query on namecheap still go to third parties? Is it possible for third parties to snap up an available domain they know has just been queried?
- ted0 6y ago
  When I say third parties, these are the registries (that operate each domain extension or TLD) that we query for availability. I've never heard of this happening and it's not likely that it would ever happen.
shadowprofile77 6y ago
Since you're here answering questions, what do you have to say about your policy of selling certain unregistered domains as premium offerings for a higher price simply because their names are considered more marketable? I know that this is far from unique to namecheap and at least you disclose it as a practice (albeit in a somewhat roundabout manner) but it seems to me as a sort of abuse of registrar privilege. In other words, if a domain is not yet registered to any buyer, should it not be available for a standard price like other unclaimed offerings?
- ted0 6y ago
  I think what you're describing are Registry Premium domains. This is typically unregistered inventory that the registry withholds and sells at a higher price point. They are usually higher quality keywords. We don't set the price on these. Our registry partners do.
  - indigodaddy 6y ago
    Strikes me as a bullshit practice though
    - ted0 6y ago
      Not our practice. Registry partners set our pricing and we try to give you the best price possible.
      - shadowprofile77 6y ago
        I still dislike the practice, but my apologies for the more curt earlier comment. My assumption was that the practice was indeed your own. I had maybe confounded registry with registrar. That said, in general terms, who would these registry partners be for unclaimed domains, who then set elevated "premium" prices?
        dylz 6y ago
        The underlying TLD holder. Usually all dictionary words, domains below 3chars, domains below 4chars, etc.
sloshnmosh 6y ago
Hello Ted. A bit off-topic but I was wondering if you were aware of the massive amount of malicious sites that use NameCheap? And do you have a better way of going about flagging these sites other than the “abuse” email that shows when doing a WhoIs lookup?
- ted0 6y ago
  Abuse@namecheap.com is indeed the best channel. Our Twitter reps are quite responsive too. The abuse team reviews every case. In some cases, it can also be effective to reach out to the "host" too.
  - adam1210 6y ago
    Does the abuse team always reply to abuse reports? I've had one open since the 5th with no activity and I'm unsure if it is just being ignored.
    - selsta 6y ago
      I have reported a large amount of phishing domains and never received a reply, they also never got taken down.
      - ted0 6y ago
        There is a backlog. Like I said, they're a very busy team and are quite thorough in their review. Feel free to ping @namecheap on Twitter with the ticket number and they may be able to help escalate, depending on the severity of the case.
- __lazybyte 6y ago
  Probably because they've got great service, I guess.
jjeaff 6y ago
Are you sure about that? I feel like I may have had an issue with this with Name Cheap in the past. At least, the 2 day window thing. And I'm pretty sure eNom did this and namecheap used to be an eNom reseller.
renewiltord 6y ago
I've loved Namecheap for as long as I've had it. I only switched to Google Domains because that gives me auto-verification in GCP.
- ted0 6y ago
  How can we win you back?!
  - renewiltord 6y ago
    Well, when .dev came out, there was a scramble and Google Domains was being slow af and you guys weren't, so I have my .dev on a 10 year with you. So I guess the answer for what worked in the past is: you let me register when I could. The reasons I transferred to Google Domains are: * I found the interface easier to use: fewer clicks to DNS, email, etc. * The features are easily visible * Auto-verification in GCP I understand, of course, if you can't deal with or prioritize any of these. Hope the feedback helps.
    - ted0 6y ago
      I can't speak to any plans re: auto-verification but we are always looking at improving our dashboard UX. Big things coming there. I should also add that we have direct relationships with almost all of our registry partners now. Even Google Domains, Route53, and Cloudflare don't support a lot of TLDs and/or resell some core TLDs through resellers, not directly through the registries. It's important for many reasons.
  - drkstr 6y ago
    Hi Ted, for what it's worth, this is the first time I've heard of you all, and based on your responses here alone, you converted a sale away from Google Domains today. I look forward to being yet another happy customer!
  - boustrophedon 6y ago
    Not the parent but I specifically transferred away from namecheap because you attempted to increase my renewal on a .club domain by 15x, claiming my previously-registered domain was now a premium domain. Google Domains charged me the regular price. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23292774 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23292774
robotnikman 6y ago
Ah Namecheap, the first and only domain registrar I've ever used, first used them to get a name for a Minecraft server I hosted almost a decade ago :) Definitely would recommend. Haven't used Godaddy myself, but i've heard horror stories from others
- ted0 6y ago
  A decade! Thank you for that.
- pdxandi 6y ago
  Same here. Been on Namecheap for as long as I can remember with quite a few domains.
- qxxx 6y ago
  I used to use goDaddy like 15 years ago... than moved to namecheap. namecheap is so much better. I needed the godaddy support few times, it was always a terrible experience. And the UI was always bloated with unnecessary crap.
amingilani 6y ago
I once forgot to renew a domain name and was so late that it had dropped from my interface. Namecheap went ahead and renewed it for me since it hadn't gone into the pool yet—for no extra cost. Been using you for 15 years now, really happy. Even though I wish the website were faster :)
- ted0 6y ago
  <3 We're working really hard to make the site faster. While there are still areas where there's room for improvement, we're regularly deploying performance updates (e.g. search, and most recently the cart).
ribalda 6y ago
Are you considering support .dk domains anytime soon?
- ted0 6y ago
  Not on our radar at the moment but I'll do what I did above. If there are another upvotes on this comment, we'll consider adding .dk to our onboarding queue.
swalsh 6y ago
It's funny, I don't even remember why I moved to Namecheap, but I remember years ago getting angry at Godaddy, and then transferring everything. You guys have a great service. No regrets since the move.
- markdown 6y ago
  Might have been because of the Godaddy CEO killing elephants or something. I vaguely recall some drama about that.
- zizee 6y ago
  I switched from GoDaddy to namecheap because GoDaddy was supporting SOPA (stop online privacy act) https://www.zdnet.com/article/wikipedia-is-leaving-go-daddy-because-of-sopa/ https://www.zdnet.com/article/wikipedia-is-leaving-go-daddy-...
suyash 6y ago
Lately I've noticed websites dynamically changing price for domain names using AI to determine how valuable that name is? I don't like that practice, it used to be same price for all domains names of certain kind (.org, .in, .com etc) but now not just the TLD but also what name you pick can dramatically increase the price.
j2bax 6y ago
Hey Ted! Been my favorite registrar for over a decade. Just registered a genius domain that I thought of the other night !:)
- ted0 6y ago
  We need to introduce some sort of "lifer" discount code for these decade+ customers! Thank you for your business!
  - glxxyz 6y ago
    I switched to Namecheap what feels like pretty recently; 2007! ;)
  - j2bax 6y ago
    I support this idea!!!
Tokkemon 6y ago
Namecheap is one of the best registrars ever. I am constantly transferring domains there because they're just so much better than the others.
joe33433 6y ago
If my domains primary users are from USA, i would definitely register at Namecheap, but my primary users are from india. My understanding is that its better to register with local registrar(not godadday ofcourse) to avoid DNS latency, To my knowledge Namecheap does not have servers in india. I am new to domain registering and would appreciate your take on this issue. Thanks
- plumeria 6y ago
  My two cents. You can use any registrar you like. Just need to update the nameservers to a DNS provider close to your user base (e.g. AWS Route 53 in India).
- akent 6y ago
  Buying a domain is not the same as hosting the DNS for that domain.
- jlgaddis 6y ago
  > My understanding is that its better to register with local registrar(not godadday ofcourse) to avoid DNS latency, ... Your understanding is incorrect. There are no issues with registering a domain via Namecheap when your users are in India (or anywhere else). Once you've registered a domain, you can use any nameservers that you like -- regardless of their geographical location. You could use the free DNS service Namecheap includes with your domain registration, nameservers from the provider of your choice in India, or something like AWS Route 53, Cloudflare, or Google DNS, which all use anycast and have DNS servers around the globe (I don't know which of them, if any, have servers specifically in India, however).
- xnyan 6y ago
  This is a common misconception but not correct. Namecheap offers free DNS services with your registration and there’s nothing wrong with them, but due to my individual requirements, cost and perf considerations I have my domains registered with namecheap but the nameservers are hosted on cloudflare. It’s really easy to separate the two.
- davchana 6y ago
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
sparkywolf 6y ago
Hey Ted, I currently use google domains and while I'm pretty happy with that one service I would like to switch away from Google entirely and that is one of the last services of theirs I use. What case can you make for why I should switch to namecheap?
- ted0 6y ago
  I guess my main point here is: if shit hits the fan and you lose access to your DNS, your domain is hijacked, or there is some other urgent catastrophic event, who would be easier to reach to remedy your issue? I'm a senior executive posting here offering up my email and as an industry veteran, I frankly do not even know who runs Google Domains. We're a bootstrapped founder-run company with a 20-year track record and even after all those years, we're still passionate about making customers happy.
  - iakov 6y ago
    Every time I had to get in touch with support person at Namecheap I've had very good experience. No matter if I had a presales question or was asking for technical advice, there was a real person to talk to, via live chat or email. I'm a very satisfied Namecheap customer :-)
lmarcos 6y ago
I would love to hear some objective arguments to use Namecheap instead of Gandi (which I'm currently using). The only reason I'm still using Gandi it's because it works and I never had any troubles with them (although my requirements are super simple). Would anyone recommend me to switch?
OakNinja 6y ago
I’ve used a fair share of registrars, and Namecheap is the best! I just miss .SE domains, I have quite a few of them and would really like to move them over to Namecheap. Keep up the great service, it’s really unique among registrars to be user friendly, cheap, well documented and without bloat and ads. Love it!
- ted0 6y ago
  Who else wants .se? ;) Upvote and I'll see what I can do.
softwarerero 6y ago
I have only one domain on namecheap, but since a few month I cannot access it any more. There is a captcha service (hcaptcha) before it which totally locks me out.
- commoner 6y ago
  You might be using a VPN that is blocked by Namecheap. Try turning off the VPN and then logging in. If this is inconvenient, you can transfer the domain to a registrar that does not block VPNs. As far as I am aware, Namecheap is the only one that does.
docapotamus 6y ago
Just to highlight this a little bit more! I've used Namecheap for years (a lot of) and moved all domains my company owns over three years ago, and there is a lot of them. All went flawlessly and I have nothing but praise for the service it's amazing. Only problem in the company settings is multiple users but other than that no issues.
suifbwish 6y ago
The best way to do this securely is to do a whois lookup on the domain via command line to see if it has a registered date or not. Only way to steal ideas then is if someone works for the icann lookup db
- ted0 6y ago
  Command line is a great way to query whois. It actually doesn't even ever hit ICANN. The request goes straight to the whois server.
Freaken 6y ago
Hey Ted, Is there a way to migrate a bunch of domain names from Godaddy to Namecheap ? We own about 200 domain names and I would like nothing more than to drop Godaddy for Namecheap, but I cannot justify the manpower (basically just me) required to migrate domains one by one. Thanks.
- social_quotient 6y ago
  subscribed - Same issue here.
- ted0 6y ago
  Yes, we have a concierge service. If you shoot me an email, I'll help kick off the process for you: ted [at] namecheap.com.
mintone 6y ago
I can’t tell you how much I recommend namecheap, the service you provide is excellent as a registrar. You’ve been my recommendation for 7+ years for hundreds of clients and as long as you continue in the path you’ve followed, will be for a long time.
HenryBemis 6y ago
Thank you for joining the discussion. Any chance Namecheap can provide catch-all mailboxes? I don't care to have 10 different mailboxes, I was stuck with GoDaddy and now with Wild West Domains just because the have "catch-all", so I can register to services with different email addresses (e.g. paypal55@mydomain.com, ebay44@mydomain.com) so I can also track who got hacked/sold my email ;) If you do provide it, since I don't see "catch-all" on your three email options (Starter-Pro-Ultimate). If you do offer it, can you please consider adding it to the key specs?
burnte 6y ago
I use Namecheap and I'm happy. However, this is known behavior from GoDaddy. You can't really say a lot because you're a competitor, but I can because I've seen them do it and many other shady things to customers.
rayalez 6y ago
I have switched to Namecheap from GoDaddy, and it's been great. I've been using Namecheap for a few years now, and never had an issue. Just wanted to add my opinion to the thread and thank you guys for a very good service.
ryan-allen 6y ago
I've used namecheap for over a decade, very happy customer :)
IgorPartola 6y ago
That’s really good insight, thank you. I am curious why everything isn’t just tied into Whois since that is what I typically use to do quick lookups. Also, will Namecheap ever add a second factor method that isn’t SMS? Security aside, logging in just feels clunky.
- renata 6y ago
  I'm using Google Authenticator. It looks like they also support U2F now: https://www.namecheap.com/security/2fa-two-factor-authentication/ https://www.namecheap.com/security/2fa-two-factor-authentica....
  - ted0 6y ago
    That is correct. We support TOTP and U2F.
systematical 6y ago
Not affiliated with namecheap but I only use namecheap.
Jetroid 6y ago
I have used namecheap as my first and only registrar since I made my first website in 2013. Those free .me domains in the GitHub student pack paid off for you guys in my case. Always had great service, including quick resolution when I tried to register .id shortly after they allowed international registration (and encountered a few speedbumps). Thanks for the good work!
timmit 6y ago
I did transfer my names from GD to NC last month :) :) :)
davchana 6y ago
My experience with Namecheap, Dynadot, Godaddy, Hexonet is, in current times, I prefer Dynadot, then Namecheap, then Hexonet & never Godaddy. I found Dynadot prices very competitive, Namecheap is not shoving ads but dns management is not easy, & is expensive. Hexonet offers way more tlds, have robust search, & retains domains in cart for months if you are not ready. Dynadot record manager is better. Hexonet is expensive. Godaddy used to be my choice in around 2012-2016, but not any more. Shameless plug, one of my total three blog posts is about my journey of Domains https://davinder.net/my-journey-with-domains/ https://davinder.net/my-journey-with-domains/
- ted0 6y ago
  We are good friends with the folks over at Dynadot!
- m00x 6y ago
  I found namecheap to be way cheaper in most cases. I was gonna use google's new domain product since I'm a huge Google fanboy, but it ended up being 10x pricier in some cases and the interface isn't as powerful (maybe for the better, but ymmv).
  - davchana 6y ago
    Out of maybe total 10-15 domains I own now, most are .com .net .in .us & a single .one. Com renewal at dynadot is 9, at Namecheap it is 13. transfers are same, around 9. Net renewal is again $11/15 at Dyna/Namecheap. Transfers are same, $11. .in renewals are $7/$12, transfers same $7. I mostly prefers renewals because of inertia of moving nameservers and or other DNS records. I sometime transfer between namecheap and Dynadot. Most of my purchases are multi year. *All prices rounded roughly to nearest dollar. +1 for having same experience at Google, living in Google verse 24/7, but google.domains is expensive.
SethKinast 6y ago
I used NameCheap for around 10 years, until they bungled up an order I made. I renewed a .com for an additional 9 years. When the order processed, it turns out domains can only be extended out to a maximum of 10 years, and this domain was still a few years away from expiry. The order didn't go through and I wasn't charged. The next day I got an email from NameCheap saying that they had manually charged me $80ish, renewed the domain for 3 years, and put the rest in the NameCheap wallet. None of which I asked for. I went back and forth a couple times with support saying they would cancel my domain if I wanted the money refunded, when all I wanted was for this transaction I didn't ask for to be undone. After they "made an exception" I transferred everything to PorkBun, which works just as nicely.
- midasz 6y ago
  So you made a mistake, namecheap made an exception because they understood mistakes happen, and then you moved to a different registrar... where you wouldn't make that mistake? Agree it's not a good look to let the customer think the order was failed and then it proceeding anyways, but I can think of a situation where it was a desired outcome - like you wanted to extend the domain and they moved to do that.
terrycody 6y ago
Namecheap is best for domain register, no need more discussion, and their support is the best. Some drawbacks of NC are some support need sharpen their skills and response more quickly, but in overall, I am really happy with everything namecheap did, and would love advise anyone try it.
viraptor 6y ago
Can you tell us how does the potential reservation impact the availability? I started a checkout for a .com.au domain on namecheap. When I restarted it a day later, the domain was marked as unavailable. After contacting namecheap support, it turns out I could buy it after all. To be honest, my initial reaction was "I've been godaddy'd" since the messages don't indicate anything different.
- ted0 6y ago
  Unfortunately, .com.au is one of the very few TLDs where we don't have a direct relationship with the registry. This was likely the cause, since we have to rely on an another provider to sell these domains. Sorry about your experience though!
selsta 6y ago
Unrelated but I have reported phishing domains to Namecheap and they have completely ignored all abuse tickets for over a month now. How should I proceed here?
- stevenjohns 6y ago
  Exactly the same boat! Namecheap offshores all their abuse to their “legal” department - underpaid level one support in Eastern Europe. Namecheap is abused to prop up the largest SMS phishing scam in Australia and they do not care to enforce their TOS to stop it.
  - ted0 6y ago
    See my post above: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24509104 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24509104 This is a skilled in-house team that is working hard on these cases. We absolutely do enforce our ToS but we do not takedown domains without due diligence.
oedmarap 6y ago
I'm close to the 100 domain mark with Namecheap, and it's the registrar I use and recommend for both clients and myself. The UX, prices, and grace-periods are second to none.
- ted0 6y ago
  100, nice! Have you inquired about special account pricing? Sometimes we offer this to big accounts with lots of domains.
stevenjohns 6y ago
Hi Ted! It’s good to hear you won’t be stealing domains. It would be even better to hear that Namecheap starts enforcing their TOS and doing something about your registrar being used for hundreds of thousands of SMS scams in Australia by the same botnet.
stanislavb 6y ago
Thanks for chiming in, Ted! Another happy customer here. Namecheap has been my registrar of choice, too, and I have slowly moved most of my domain names to it. I also believe that Namecheap is not involved in any shady practices. In the light of this thread, I've shared my experience with domain names search and how to perform it securely without worrying that someone will grab your name https://stanbright.com/domain-name-search/ https://stanbright.com/domain-name-search/
- SpaceNugget 6y ago
  I currently use namecheap. Ironically it's actually one of their biggest mistakes that convinced me to stay with them. When namecheap rolled out its custom 2fa authenticator app thing I started to look for alternatives but stuck it out long enough for them to switch to u2f and reading the 'we took the wrong turn' kind of explanation post they made was enough for me to have a bit of faith that they listen to their users AND act on it.
  - ted0 6y ago
    We definitely made a mistake here but glad to hear you're happy now. 2FA support has been a huge focus for us in the last couple years.
emmelaich 6y ago
I went to register.com to renew some domains I had, register.com reported them as expired! And then I remembered I had transferred them to namecheap a year ago. You guys are the best.
windex 6y ago
Hi Ted, a query, I see godaddy registered domains being available on my O365's outlook custom domains for email, is it possible that namecheap would do something like that as well?
- ted0 6y ago
  Not sure I fully understand. Can you elaborate? We don't currently sell O365.
  - windex 6y ago
    https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/admin/setup/add-domain?view=o365-worldwide https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/admin/setup/a...
platetone 6y ago
Moved all my domains and many of my friends' domains to namecheap a few years back. I'm always impressed by how quick and informed customer support is whenever I have an issue. Good job, guys.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
ConcernedCoder 6y ago
It's not strange if it's their business to pre-register anything you might be remotely interested in, so that they can profit more when they "sell" it to you...
monkeywork 6y ago
Namecheap and Tucows/Hover/OpenSRS are the only folks I would trust with domain name registrations.
- xmodem 6y ago
  I recently bought a premium domain on Hover. A week later it was still showing a for-sale page and hadn't been transferred to my account. So I bought it again directly from the registrar that was advertising it, and I had control of it instantly. A few days later I was contacted by Hover support saying they were unable to acquire it. I'm now in the process of transferring everything to Namecheap.
crx07 6y ago
I can speak to GoDaddy's practices. This exact same thing happened to me. I've never searched another domain through them again.
commoner 6y ago
Namecheap blocks you from logging in if you are connected to some VPNs. Attempting to log in returns an error saying that the username/password is incorrect, and you won't be able to interact with Namecheap until you turn off the VPN. If you are using one of these VPNs, Namecheap is simply not a feasible option. There are less expensive options than both GoDaddy and Namecheap that do not have any of these issues. The renewal rate for a .com domain is $17.99/year at GoDaddy, $8.88/year at Namecheap, $8.56/year at Porkbun, and $8.03/year at Cloudflare. https://www.cloudflare.com/products/registrar/ https://www.cloudflare.com/products/registrar/ https://porkbun.com/products/domains https://porkbun.com/products/domains
- Namidairo 6y ago
  A bit understandable from an anti-fraud point of view. Seems a bit strange that someone would be willing to hand over their Name, Address and payment for a domain, but not willing to show up not behind a VPN.
  - commoner 6y ago
    I am not aware of any other domain registrar that blocks VPNs, so the fact that Namecheap does is a drawback that is particular to Namecheap. It's inconvenient to turn off a VPN just to use Namecheap. Although Namecheap already has my information, if I have more than one browser tab open and need to do something on another site while interacting with Namecheap, I would be exposed to an unprotected connection with not only Namecheap but also the other site. This is unacceptable considering that other registrars don't have anti-VPN restrictions.
  - dannyw 6y ago
    It’s more intended to protect against hackers hacking your account.
rawoke083600 6y ago
Yea namecheap USED to be my go to place for domain names, but too many times have your interface crap out on me. Or even some my DNS records reverted/lost their info. Like how do you "loose" my dns entries !? I now use porkbun.com - what a pleasure to use !
shiftpgdn 6y ago
Really? Because Namecheap recently lost one of my domains due to an API error on your side, resulting in SEDO picking it up. Namecheap has absolutely refused to help recover the domain even though it's 100% in your court.
- ted0 6y ago
  Sedo is not a registrar. Do you mean that you tried to renew the domain via API and it failed, resulting the domain being deleted?
  - shiftpgdn 6y ago
    No. I renewed through the normal Namecheap checkout process and the renewal failed somewhere inside Namecheap. I guess there isn't any sort of process to catch a successful order where the renewal date doesn't change. As a result of Namecheap not doing their due diligence as a registrar my domain got deleted and picked up by SEDO.
sumgame 6y ago
Namecheap is awesome. I switched from godaddy's predatory practices to namecheap, couldn't be happier. To be honest most providers suck. Another common scam these guys run is skinning you for renewals, its just messed up that sometimes i have to pay double to triple the price of buying the domain for renewals.
amitheonlyone 6y ago
The problem I have with Namecheap is that I can't make purchases with Indian debit cards while with Godaddy, Bank transfer, UPI and Indian Debit cards are accepted. I have a few domains which I really want to switch to another provider and checked out Namecheap twice but had payment issues. I even tried Paypal which didn't work either.
- phynax 6y ago
  Thats weird - I've been using PayPal for years with Namecheap Perhaps try loading your wallet first and then paying from your balance. (Not ideal i know, but it may work)
- ted0 6y ago
  Not aware of this issue but I'll have the team look into it. Have you tried adding account funds? https://ap.www.namecheap.com/profile/billing/Topup https://ap.www.namecheap.com/profile/billing/Topup
jagtesh 6y ago
I love namecheap. Been a satisfied customer for close to a decade. I have to thank Drew Houston for this. Many many years ago, when YC was newish - I read a blog post featuring Drew. He registered the first Dropbox domain (getdropbox.com I think) on Namecheap. That's when I decided to give Namecheap a try, and I'm so glad I did. Haven't been disappointed since. Thank you!
- ted0 6y ago
  I actually didn't know that Drew had registered getdropbox.com with us! That's awesome. Thanks for being a customer.
tallanvor 6y ago
You need to fix your support for ipv4+ipv6 glue records. There's really no excuse for not letting me configure this via the web interface.
phynax 6y ago
+1 for Namecheap - I've been using you guys for many years and across multiple businesses - I don't even consider using another registrar anymore. On the flip side, when I hear GoDaddy used in any sentence - The hairs on the back of my neck stand up :(
WarOnPrivacy 6y ago
I've been super happy with Namecheap's domain services. After 15 years, I've no plans to go anywhere else. I've been less happy with Namecheap's abuse responses, unfortunately. I quit trying to report NC registered domains (or NC hosting), that were being used for clearly malicious activity.
ungerik 6y ago
I think it was within the last 2 years when I searched for domains on Namecheap. They were shown as registered and I was offered to buy them for a premium price. When I searched on another other provider, it was shown as available and I bought it there. Will never use Namecheap again.
python-3 6y ago
Been using Namecheap for 2 years now. Love it. Also Louis Rossman mentioned you in his latest video. That's what brought me here. https://youtu.be/i05uGLFZe2Y https://youtu.be/i05uGLFZe2Y
neycoda 6y ago
Frankly I think what GoDaddy does here should be illegal, because it causes an unethical inflation of prices and undercuts other domain searchers and registrars, causing them to need to compete on a price-gouging scheme. Maybe NameCheap should investigate a lawsuit or lobby Congress for some ethical practices here that don't cause artificial pricing and spending.
jgowdy 6y ago
Just so you know, this is a complete lie and total slander of GoDaddy. https://domaininvesting.com/godaddy-still-not-frontrunning-d https://domaininvesting.com/godaddy-still-not-frontrunning-d... The whois information is masked, because that's what we do to protect customer privacy. https://domaininvesting.com/godaddy-whois-records-no-more-co https://domaininvesting.com/godaddy-whois-records-no-more-co... It's registered to someone in New York, not to GoDaddy. Registrant Organization: Registrant State/Province: New York Registrant Country: US
momeunier 6y ago
Verisign is a well-oiled machine indeed. Remember this? https://www.cnet.com/news/suit-filed-over-verisign-domain-redirect/ https://www.cnet.com/news/suit-filed-over-verisign-domain-re...
jhoutromundo 6y ago
Another customer extremelly satisfied with Namecheap. Your "beast mode" has saved me countless times.

by ted0 6y ago

cyrialize 6y ago

A coworker of mine recommended you guys. The service is fantastic! Thank you so much.

webbrahmin 6y ago

A happy namecheap customer here. Moved from Godaddy to namecheap because they revealed me as the owner of a domain I was using for activism. Caused me a lot of harassment.

ted0 6y ago
Glad to hear you're happy. Always willing to help if you ever need anything: ted [at] namecheap.com
NetOpWibby 6y ago
Yeesh, that’s terrible.
abc-xyz 6y ago
Here’s a HNer claiming Namecheap dumped his personal info without even informing him of having done so: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18063667 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18063667

harel 6y ago

Thanks for that. I've moved all my domains to you guys during one of the other go daddy fiascos (pick one) and never looked back. You guys are great. Thanks!

ted0 6y ago
Right on!

Flowsion 6y ago

I've been using Namecheap for domains and domain searches since at least 2009. I haven't used any of their other services, besides their WHOISGuard offerings. I have never had issues with them stealing domains after searches or any other problems w/ my account.

ted0 6y ago
Thank you for being a longtime customer. We appreciate you!
- tamar 6y ago
  Me too!
httpsterio 6y ago
Same, I have a few local tld's I have to buy elsewhere but after moving away from Gandi some five years ago I haven't had the need to look back. Namecheap doesn't upsell like godaddy and it's affordable, if not the cheapest for many tld's. It's also a breeze to config dns rules with them.

IncRnd 6y ago

I am very happy with the domains that I have purchased from namecheap. We host our own sites and email servers, so namecheap's fast ala-carte service has worked great for us for a few years.

timcederman 6y ago

Hi Ted - can you speak to Namecheap's stance on bulk spam domain registrations and the fact that Namecheap does nothing to stop it? There has been (at least in the Bay Area) a large increase in text spam. They all have a very similar format, e.g. pretending you missed a delivery, and try to get you to click on a link, usually a .info domain. They are all hosted on Alibaba Cloud, but they are registered in bulk via Namecheap. Your legal and abuse team says they have no obligation to prevent such registrations, but to instead take it up with the FTC or the hosting, both of which do nothing either. Here's a recent article about the problem with bulk registrations and spam: https://www.spamhaus.org/news/article/795/weaponizing-domain-names-how-bulk-registration-aids-global-spam-campaigns https://www.spamhaus.org/news/article/795/weaponizing-domain... edit: I highly recommend reading the article for more context on why bulk domain registration is problematic. Note the DOJ filed a temporary restraining order again Namecheap, and the office of the NY AG also contacted them due to their role in spam and scams. To address some of the questions and comments below: > A registrar is simple: request a domain, they check you match the requirement for said domain rules, take your money and register the domain for you. Very simple, very stupid, very non-opiniated. Where do you draw the line on this? How do you feel about registering hate speech in a domain name, or someone else's trademark? Clearly there needs to be some level of regulation. > do they have any obligation to investigate the purouse people want to use the domains for Do domain hosts have any obligation to investigate what people are hosting? Does Google have an obligation to remove results from search? There are clearly multiple parties to hosting content on the web, and it's a shared responsibility to keep folks doing the right thing > Are you asking Namecheap to take unilateral action against domain registrations with no due process? No - what makes you think that's what I was asking?

toomuchtodo 6y ago
Are you asking Namecheap to take unilateral action against domain registrations with no due process? As a Namecheap customer, I do not support such behavior, nor is it their mandate as a registrar. If the problem is with mobile provider spam filtering and where the sites are hosted, that is where the abuse issue should be dealt with, with continued complaints to regulatory bodies (ie, the FTC and the FCC).
6y ago

WanderPanda 6y ago

Namecheap is the only registrar I can really recommend. Gets out of your way in most cases, has a very competent support for the other cases

lordnacho 6y ago

Namecheap is so much better than godaddy. Interface : just give me the records. I don't want to buy more stuff. Somehow namecheap lets me but the same extras like email, without badgering me. Godaddy is just ads ads ads and interfaces to sell stuff to people who aren't tech savvy. Squatting: this definitely happens with godaddy, like the OP says. Never use them, it's a disgusting practice. I use namecheap for dozens of domains. I only used godaddy once because I couldn't get the tld on namecheap.

TobTobXX 6y ago
> I only used godaddy once because I couldn't get the tld on namecheap. Interesting... I'd love to get a .as domain, but Namecheap don't offer that. Does GoDaddy have more TLDs or where would you suggest to look for obscure TLDs?
- ted0 6y ago
  we haven't seen a lot of demand for .as but if there are other folks on here that want it, we could consider onboarding it! Just upvote this comment to +1 ;)
  - loceng 6y ago
    Consider my upvote that I'd be interested in buying .as domains on Namecheap.
  - lordnacho 6y ago
    How about making sure you have all the countries? I think it was .it that I couldn't find.
    - ted0 6y ago
      We'd love that! Although, some are trickier to support than others.
      - 6y ago

gabereiser 6y ago

and this is why Namecheap is awesome. Use them instead.

gervwyk 6y ago

jip. I can say the same. namecheap has been excellent for the past few years. even though I do not spend a lot with them, i’ve used their live customer support in a few cases and has helped me out where needed. Kudos to the team!

danellis 6y ago

But can you please start handling .name domains? I have one last domain I want to transfer from Gandi. Your support agent spent five minutes trying to convince me that I didn't own a domain in xxx.yyy.name format, and that the reason it wasn't transfering is because I should be using yyy.name, before talking to a supervisor and finding out that you don't handle them anyway.

ted0 6y ago
We do support .name now.
- danellis 6y ago
  Really? Because when I try to transfer xxx.yyy.name, it says: "Uh-oh! Your domain yyy.name is not eligible for transfer to us." I don't own yyy.name. I own xxx.yyy.name. (Of course xxx and yyy are placeholders here.) Edit: xxx.yyy.name comes from the .name registry, just like xxx.co.uk comes from the .uk registry.
  - sgtfrankieboy 6y ago
    Only the owner of yyy.name can do those kind of transfers. Your xxx.yyy.name is a subdomain of yyy.name and thus beholden to it. Unless it's something like a .co.uk domain, which with you mentioning .name isn't the case.
    - danellis 6y ago
      Who is the owner of yyy.name, though? I'd say that's the registry itself.
  - kugelblitz 6y ago
    I don't think you can transfer because the domain doesn't belong to you. yyy.name is the domain, you're "renting" from whoever owns that domain name.
    - 6y ago

brlewis 6y ago

If a domain is unavailable, does the query on namecheap still go to third parties? Is it possible for third parties to snap up an available domain they know has just been queried?

ted0 6y ago
When I say third parties, these are the registries (that operate each domain extension or TLD) that we query for availability. I've never heard of this happening and it's not likely that it would ever happen.

shadowprofile77 6y ago

Since you're here answering questions, what do you have to say about your policy of selling certain unregistered domains as premium offerings for a higher price simply because their names are considered more marketable? I know that this is far from unique to namecheap and at least you disclose it as a practice (albeit in a somewhat roundabout manner) but it seems to me as a sort of abuse of registrar privilege. In other words, if a domain is not yet registered to any buyer, should it not be available for a standard price like other unclaimed offerings?

ted0 6y ago
I think what you're describing are Registry Premium domains. This is typically unregistered inventory that the registry withholds and sells at a higher price point. They are usually higher quality keywords. We don't set the price on these. Our registry partners do.
- indigodaddy 6y ago
  Strikes me as a bullshit practice though
  - ted0 6y ago
    Not our practice. Registry partners set our pricing and we try to give you the best price possible.
    - shadowprofile77 6y ago
      I still dislike the practice, but my apologies for the more curt earlier comment. My assumption was that the practice was indeed your own. I had maybe confounded registry with registrar. That said, in general terms, who would these registry partners be for unclaimed domains, who then set elevated "premium" prices?
      - dylz 6y ago
        The underlying TLD holder. Usually all dictionary words, domains below 3chars, domains below 4chars, etc.

sloshnmosh 6y ago

Hello Ted. A bit off-topic but I was wondering if you were aware of the massive amount of malicious sites that use NameCheap? And do you have a better way of going about flagging these sites other than the “abuse” email that shows when doing a WhoIs lookup?

ted0 6y ago
Abuse@namecheap.com is indeed the best channel. Our Twitter reps are quite responsive too. The abuse team reviews every case. In some cases, it can also be effective to reach out to the "host" too.
- adam1210 6y ago
  Does the abuse team always reply to abuse reports? I've had one open since the 5th with no activity and I'm unsure if it is just being ignored.
  - selsta 6y ago
    I have reported a large amount of phishing domains and never received a reply, they also never got taken down.
    - ted0 6y ago
      There is a backlog. Like I said, they're a very busy team and are quite thorough in their review. Feel free to ping @namecheap on Twitter with the ticket number and they may be able to help escalate, depending on the severity of the case.
__lazybyte 6y ago
Probably because they've got great service, I guess.

jjeaff 6y ago

Are you sure about that? I feel like I may have had an issue with this with Name Cheap in the past. At least, the 2 day window thing. And I'm pretty sure eNom did this and namecheap used to be an eNom reseller.

renewiltord 6y ago

I've loved Namecheap for as long as I've had it. I only switched to Google Domains because that gives me auto-verification in GCP.

ted0 6y ago
How can we win you back?!
- renewiltord 6y ago
  Well, when .dev came out, there was a scramble and Google Domains was being slow af and you guys weren't, so I have my .dev on a 10 year with you. So I guess the answer for what worked in the past is: you let me register when I could. The reasons I transferred to Google Domains are: * I found the interface easier to use: fewer clicks to DNS, email, etc. * The features are easily visible * Auto-verification in GCP I understand, of course, if you can't deal with or prioritize any of these. Hope the feedback helps.
  - ted0 6y ago
    I can't speak to any plans re: auto-verification but we are always looking at improving our dashboard UX. Big things coming there. I should also add that we have direct relationships with almost all of our registry partners now. Even Google Domains, Route53, and Cloudflare don't support a lot of TLDs and/or resell some core TLDs through resellers, not directly through the registries. It's important for many reasons.
- drkstr 6y ago
  Hi Ted, for what it's worth, this is the first time I've heard of you all, and based on your responses here alone, you converted a sale away from Google Domains today. I look forward to being yet another happy customer!
- boustrophedon 6y ago
  Not the parent but I specifically transferred away from namecheap because you attempted to increase my renewal on a .club domain by 15x, claiming my previously-registered domain was now a premium domain. Google Domains charged me the regular price. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23292774 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23292774

robotnikman 6y ago

Ah Namecheap, the first and only domain registrar I've ever used, first used them to get a name for a Minecraft server I hosted almost a decade ago :) Definitely would recommend. Haven't used Godaddy myself, but i've heard horror stories from others

ted0 6y ago
A decade! Thank you for that.
pdxandi 6y ago
Same here. Been on Namecheap for as long as I can remember with quite a few domains.
qxxx 6y ago
I used to use goDaddy like 15 years ago... than moved to namecheap. namecheap is so much better. I needed the godaddy support few times, it was always a terrible experience. And the UI was always bloated with unnecessary crap.

amingilani 6y ago

I once forgot to renew a domain name and was so late that it had dropped from my interface. Namecheap went ahead and renewed it for me since it hadn't gone into the pool yet—for no extra cost. Been using you for 15 years now, really happy. Even though I wish the website were faster :)

ted0 6y ago
<3 We're working really hard to make the site faster. While there are still areas where there's room for improvement, we're regularly deploying performance updates (e.g. search, and most recently the cart).

ribalda 6y ago

Are you considering support .dk domains anytime soon?

ted0 6y ago
Not on our radar at the moment but I'll do what I did above. If there are another upvotes on this comment, we'll consider adding .dk to our onboarding queue.

swalsh 6y ago

It's funny, I don't even remember why I moved to Namecheap, but I remember years ago getting angry at Godaddy, and then transferring everything. You guys have a great service. No regrets since the move.

markdown 6y ago
Might have been because of the Godaddy CEO killing elephants or something. I vaguely recall some drama about that.
zizee 6y ago
I switched from GoDaddy to namecheap because GoDaddy was supporting SOPA (stop online privacy act) https://www.zdnet.com/article/wikipedia-is-leaving-go-daddy-because-of-sopa/ https://www.zdnet.com/article/wikipedia-is-leaving-go-daddy-...

suyash 6y ago

Lately I've noticed websites dynamically changing price for domain names using AI to determine how valuable that name is? I don't like that practice, it used to be same price for all domains names of certain kind (.org, .in, .com etc) but now not just the TLD but also what name you pick can dramatically increase the price.

j2bax 6y ago

Hey Ted! Been my favorite registrar for over a decade. Just registered a genius domain that I thought of the other night !:)

ted0 6y ago
We need to introduce some sort of "lifer" discount code for these decade+ customers! Thank you for your business!
- glxxyz 6y ago
  I switched to Namecheap what feels like pretty recently; 2007! ;)
- j2bax 6y ago
  I support this idea!!!

Tokkemon 6y ago

Namecheap is one of the best registrars ever. I am constantly transferring domains there because they're just so much better than the others.

joe33433 6y ago

If my domains primary users are from USA, i would definitely register at Namecheap, but my primary users are from india. My understanding is that its better to register with local registrar(not godadday ofcourse) to avoid DNS latency, To my knowledge Namecheap does not have servers in india. I am new to domain registering and would appreciate your take on this issue. Thanks

plumeria 6y ago
My two cents. You can use any registrar you like. Just need to update the nameservers to a DNS provider close to your user base (e.g. AWS Route 53 in India).
akent 6y ago
Buying a domain is not the same as hosting the DNS for that domain.
jlgaddis 6y ago
> My understanding is that its better to register with local registrar(not godadday ofcourse) to avoid DNS latency, ... Your understanding is incorrect. There are no issues with registering a domain via Namecheap when your users are in India (or anywhere else). Once you've registered a domain, you can use any nameservers that you like -- regardless of their geographical location. You could use the free DNS service Namecheap includes with your domain registration, nameservers from the provider of your choice in India, or something like AWS Route 53, Cloudflare, or Google DNS, which all use anycast and have DNS servers around the globe (I don't know which of them, if any, have servers specifically in India, however).
xnyan 6y ago
This is a common misconception but not correct. Namecheap offers free DNS services with your registration and there’s nothing wrong with them, but due to my individual requirements, cost and perf considerations I have my domains registered with namecheap but the nameservers are hosted on cloudflare. It’s really easy to separate the two.
davchana 6y ago

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

sparkywolf 6y ago

Hey Ted, I currently use google domains and while I'm pretty happy with that one service I would like to switch away from Google entirely and that is one of the last services of theirs I use. What case can you make for why I should switch to namecheap?

ted0 6y ago
I guess my main point here is: if shit hits the fan and you lose access to your DNS, your domain is hijacked, or there is some other urgent catastrophic event, who would be easier to reach to remedy your issue? I'm a senior executive posting here offering up my email and as an industry veteran, I frankly do not even know who runs Google Domains. We're a bootstrapped founder-run company with a 20-year track record and even after all those years, we're still passionate about making customers happy.
- iakov 6y ago
  Every time I had to get in touch with support person at Namecheap I've had very good experience. No matter if I had a presales question or was asking for technical advice, there was a real person to talk to, via live chat or email. I'm a very satisfied Namecheap customer :-)

lmarcos 6y ago

I would love to hear some objective arguments to use Namecheap instead of Gandi (which I'm currently using). The only reason I'm still using Gandi it's because it works and I never had any troubles with them (although my requirements are super simple). Would anyone recommend me to switch?

OakNinja 6y ago

I’ve used a fair share of registrars, and Namecheap is the best! I just miss .SE domains, I have quite a few of them and would really like to move them over to Namecheap. Keep up the great service, it’s really unique among registrars to be user friendly, cheap, well documented and without bloat and ads. Love it!

ted0 6y ago
Who else wants .se? ;) Upvote and I'll see what I can do.

softwarerero 6y ago

I have only one domain on namecheap, but since a few month I cannot access it any more. There is a captcha service (hcaptcha) before it which totally locks me out.

commoner 6y ago
You might be using a VPN that is blocked by Namecheap. Try turning off the VPN and then logging in. If this is inconvenient, you can transfer the domain to a registrar that does not block VPNs. As far as I am aware, Namecheap is the only one that does.

docapotamus 6y ago

Just to highlight this a little bit more! I've used Namecheap for years (a lot of) and moved all domains my company owns over three years ago, and there is a lot of them. All went flawlessly and I have nothing but praise for the service it's amazing. Only problem in the company settings is multiple users but other than that no issues.

suifbwish 6y ago

The best way to do this securely is to do a whois lookup on the domain via command line to see if it has a registered date or not. Only way to steal ideas then is if someone works for the icann lookup db

ted0 6y ago
Command line is a great way to query whois. It actually doesn't even ever hit ICANN. The request goes straight to the whois server.

Freaken 6y ago

Hey Ted, Is there a way to migrate a bunch of domain names from Godaddy to Namecheap ? We own about 200 domain names and I would like nothing more than to drop Godaddy for Namecheap, but I cannot justify the manpower (basically just me) required to migrate domains one by one. Thanks.

social_quotient 6y ago
subscribed - Same issue here.
ted0 6y ago
Yes, we have a concierge service. If you shoot me an email, I'll help kick off the process for you: ted [at] namecheap.com.

mintone 6y ago

I can’t tell you how much I recommend namecheap, the service you provide is excellent as a registrar. You’ve been my recommendation for 7+ years for hundreds of clients and as long as you continue in the path you’ve followed, will be for a long time.

HenryBemis 6y ago

Thank you for joining the discussion. Any chance Namecheap can provide catch-all mailboxes? I don't care to have 10 different mailboxes, I was stuck with GoDaddy and now with Wild West Domains just because the have "catch-all", so I can register to services with different email addresses (e.g. paypal55@mydomain.com, ebay44@mydomain.com) so I can also track who got hacked/sold my email ;) If you do provide it, since I don't see "catch-all" on your three email options (Starter-Pro-Ultimate). If you do offer it, can you please consider adding it to the key specs?

burnte 6y ago

I use Namecheap and I'm happy. However, this is known behavior from GoDaddy. You can't really say a lot because you're a competitor, but I can because I've seen them do it and many other shady things to customers.

rayalez 6y ago

I have switched to Namecheap from GoDaddy, and it's been great. I've been using Namecheap for a few years now, and never had an issue. Just wanted to add my opinion to the thread and thank you guys for a very good service.

ryan-allen 6y ago

I've used namecheap for over a decade, very happy customer :)

IgorPartola 6y ago

That’s really good insight, thank you. I am curious why everything isn’t just tied into Whois since that is what I typically use to do quick lookups. Also, will Namecheap ever add a second factor method that isn’t SMS? Security aside, logging in just feels clunky.

renata 6y ago
I'm using Google Authenticator. It looks like they also support U2F now: https://www.namecheap.com/security/2fa-two-factor-authentication/ https://www.namecheap.com/security/2fa-two-factor-authentica....
- ted0 6y ago
  That is correct. We support TOTP and U2F.

systematical 6y ago

Not affiliated with namecheap but I only use namecheap.

Jetroid 6y ago

I have used namecheap as my first and only registrar since I made my first website in 2013. Those free .me domains in the GitHub student pack paid off for you guys in my case. Always had great service, including quick resolution when I tried to register .id shortly after they allowed international registration (and encountered a few speedbumps). Thanks for the good work!

timmit 6y ago

I did transfer my names from GD to NC last month :) :) :)

davchana 6y ago

My experience with Namecheap, Dynadot, Godaddy, Hexonet is, in current times, I prefer Dynadot, then Namecheap, then Hexonet & never Godaddy. I found Dynadot prices very competitive, Namecheap is not shoving ads but dns management is not easy, & is expensive. Hexonet offers way more tlds, have robust search, & retains domains in cart for months if you are not ready. Dynadot record manager is better. Hexonet is expensive. Godaddy used to be my choice in around 2012-2016, but not any more. Shameless plug, one of my total three blog posts is about my journey of Domains https://davinder.net/my-journey-with-domains/ https://davinder.net/my-journey-with-domains/

ted0 6y ago
We are good friends with the folks over at Dynadot!
m00x 6y ago
I found namecheap to be way cheaper in most cases. I was gonna use google's new domain product since I'm a huge Google fanboy, but it ended up being 10x pricier in some cases and the interface isn't as powerful (maybe for the better, but ymmv).
- davchana 6y ago
  Out of maybe total 10-15 domains I own now, most are .com .net .in .us & a single .one. Com renewal at dynadot is 9, at Namecheap it is 13. transfers are same, around 9. Net renewal is again $11/15 at Dyna/Namecheap. Transfers are same, $11. .in renewals are $7/$12, transfers same $7. I mostly prefers renewals because of inertia of moving nameservers and or other DNS records. I sometime transfer between namecheap and Dynadot. Most of my purchases are multi year. *All prices rounded roughly to nearest dollar. +1 for having same experience at Google, living in Google verse 24/7, but google.domains is expensive.

SethKinast 6y ago

I used NameCheap for around 10 years, until they bungled up an order I made. I renewed a .com for an additional 9 years. When the order processed, it turns out domains can only be extended out to a maximum of 10 years, and this domain was still a few years away from expiry. The order didn't go through and I wasn't charged. The next day I got an email from NameCheap saying that they had manually charged me $80ish, renewed the domain for 3 years, and put the rest in the NameCheap wallet. None of which I asked for. I went back and forth a couple times with support saying they would cancel my domain if I wanted the money refunded, when all I wanted was for this transaction I didn't ask for to be undone. After they "made an exception" I transferred everything to PorkBun, which works just as nicely.

midasz 6y ago
So you made a mistake, namecheap made an exception because they understood mistakes happen, and then you moved to a different registrar... where you wouldn't make that mistake? Agree it's not a good look to let the customer think the order was failed and then it proceeding anyways, but I can think of a situation where it was a desired outcome - like you wanted to extend the domain and they moved to do that.

terrycody 6y ago

Namecheap is best for domain register, no need more discussion, and their support is the best. Some drawbacks of NC are some support need sharpen their skills and response more quickly, but in overall, I am really happy with everything namecheap did, and would love advise anyone try it.

viraptor 6y ago

Can you tell us how does the potential reservation impact the availability? I started a checkout for a .com.au domain on namecheap. When I restarted it a day later, the domain was marked as unavailable. After contacting namecheap support, it turns out I could buy it after all. To be honest, my initial reaction was "I've been godaddy'd" since the messages don't indicate anything different.

ted0 6y ago
Unfortunately, .com.au is one of the very few TLDs where we don't have a direct relationship with the registry. This was likely the cause, since we have to rely on an another provider to sell these domains. Sorry about your experience though!

selsta 6y ago

Unrelated but I have reported phishing domains to Namecheap and they have completely ignored all abuse tickets for over a month now. How should I proceed here?

stevenjohns 6y ago
Exactly the same boat! Namecheap offshores all their abuse to their “legal” department - underpaid level one support in Eastern Europe. Namecheap is abused to prop up the largest SMS phishing scam in Australia and they do not care to enforce their TOS to stop it.
- ted0 6y ago
  See my post above: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24509104 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24509104 This is a skilled in-house team that is working hard on these cases. We absolutely do enforce our ToS but we do not takedown domains without due diligence.

oedmarap 6y ago

I'm close to the 100 domain mark with Namecheap, and it's the registrar I use and recommend for both clients and myself. The UX, prices, and grace-periods are second to none.

ted0 6y ago
100, nice! Have you inquired about special account pricing? Sometimes we offer this to big accounts with lots of domains.

stevenjohns 6y ago

Hi Ted! It’s good to hear you won’t be stealing domains. It would be even better to hear that Namecheap starts enforcing their TOS and doing something about your registrar being used for hundreds of thousands of SMS scams in Australia by the same botnet.

stanislavb 6y ago

Thanks for chiming in, Ted! Another happy customer here. Namecheap has been my registrar of choice, too, and I have slowly moved most of my domain names to it. I also believe that Namecheap is not involved in any shady practices. In the light of this thread, I've shared my experience with domain names search and how to perform it securely without worrying that someone will grab your name https://stanbright.com/domain-name-search/ https://stanbright.com/domain-name-search/

SpaceNugget 6y ago
I currently use namecheap. Ironically it's actually one of their biggest mistakes that convinced me to stay with them. When namecheap rolled out its custom 2fa authenticator app thing I started to look for alternatives but stuck it out long enough for them to switch to u2f and reading the 'we took the wrong turn' kind of explanation post they made was enough for me to have a bit of faith that they listen to their users AND act on it.
- ted0 6y ago
  We definitely made a mistake here but glad to hear you're happy now. 2FA support has been a huge focus for us in the last couple years.

emmelaich 6y ago

I went to register.com to renew some domains I had, register.com reported them as expired! And then I remembered I had transferred them to namecheap a year ago. You guys are the best.

windex 6y ago

Hi Ted, a query, I see godaddy registered domains being available on my O365's outlook custom domains for email, is it possible that namecheap would do something like that as well?

ted0 6y ago
Not sure I fully understand. Can you elaborate? We don't currently sell O365.
- windex 6y ago
  https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/admin/setup/add-domain?view=o365-worldwide https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/admin/setup/a...

platetone 6y ago

Moved all my domains and many of my friends' domains to namecheap a few years back. I'm always impressed by how quick and informed customer support is whenever I have an issue. Good job, guys.

deleted 6y ago

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ConcernedCoder 6y ago

It's not strange if it's their business to pre-register anything you might be remotely interested in, so that they can profit more when they "sell" it to you...

monkeywork 6y ago

Namecheap and Tucows/Hover/OpenSRS are the only folks I would trust with domain name registrations.

xmodem 6y ago
I recently bought a premium domain on Hover. A week later it was still showing a for-sale page and hadn't been transferred to my account. So I bought it again directly from the registrar that was advertising it, and I had control of it instantly. A few days later I was contacted by Hover support saying they were unable to acquire it. I'm now in the process of transferring everything to Namecheap.

crx07 6y ago

I can speak to GoDaddy's practices. This exact same thing happened to me. I've never searched another domain through them again.

commoner 6y ago

Namecheap blocks you from logging in if you are connected to some VPNs. Attempting to log in returns an error saying that the username/password is incorrect, and you won't be able to interact with Namecheap until you turn off the VPN. If you are using one of these VPNs, Namecheap is simply not a feasible option. There are less expensive options than both GoDaddy and Namecheap that do not have any of these issues. The renewal rate for a .com domain is $17.99/year at GoDaddy, $8.88/year at Namecheap, $8.56/year at Porkbun, and $8.03/year at Cloudflare. https://www.cloudflare.com/products/registrar/ https://www.cloudflare.com/products/registrar/ https://porkbun.com/products/domains https://porkbun.com/products/domains

Namidairo 6y ago
A bit understandable from an anti-fraud point of view. Seems a bit strange that someone would be willing to hand over their Name, Address and payment for a domain, but not willing to show up not behind a VPN.
- commoner 6y ago
  I am not aware of any other domain registrar that blocks VPNs, so the fact that Namecheap does is a drawback that is particular to Namecheap. It's inconvenient to turn off a VPN just to use Namecheap. Although Namecheap already has my information, if I have more than one browser tab open and need to do something on another site while interacting with Namecheap, I would be exposed to an unprotected connection with not only Namecheap but also the other site. This is unacceptable considering that other registrars don't have anti-VPN restrictions.
- dannyw 6y ago
  It’s more intended to protect against hackers hacking your account.

rawoke083600 6y ago

Yea namecheap USED to be my go to place for domain names, but too many times have your interface crap out on me. Or even some my DNS records reverted/lost their info. Like how do you "loose" my dns entries !? I now use porkbun.com - what a pleasure to use !

shiftpgdn 6y ago

Really? Because Namecheap recently lost one of my domains due to an API error on your side, resulting in SEDO picking it up. Namecheap has absolutely refused to help recover the domain even though it's 100% in your court.

ted0 6y ago
Sedo is not a registrar. Do you mean that you tried to renew the domain via API and it failed, resulting the domain being deleted?
- shiftpgdn 6y ago
  No. I renewed through the normal Namecheap checkout process and the renewal failed somewhere inside Namecheap. I guess there isn't any sort of process to catch a successful order where the renewal date doesn't change. As a result of Namecheap not doing their due diligence as a registrar my domain got deleted and picked up by SEDO.

sumgame 6y ago

Namecheap is awesome. I switched from godaddy's predatory practices to namecheap, couldn't be happier. To be honest most providers suck. Another common scam these guys run is skinning you for renewals, its just messed up that sometimes i have to pay double to triple the price of buying the domain for renewals.

amitheonlyone 6y ago

The problem I have with Namecheap is that I can't make purchases with Indian debit cards while with Godaddy, Bank transfer, UPI and Indian Debit cards are accepted. I have a few domains which I really want to switch to another provider and checked out Namecheap twice but had payment issues. I even tried Paypal which didn't work either.

phynax 6y ago
Thats weird - I've been using PayPal for years with Namecheap Perhaps try loading your wallet first and then paying from your balance. (Not ideal i know, but it may work)
ted0 6y ago
Not aware of this issue but I'll have the team look into it. Have you tried adding account funds? https://ap.www.namecheap.com/profile/billing/Topup https://ap.www.namecheap.com/profile/billing/Topup

jagtesh 6y ago

I love namecheap. Been a satisfied customer for close to a decade. I have to thank Drew Houston for this. Many many years ago, when YC was newish - I read a blog post featuring Drew. He registered the first Dropbox domain (getdropbox.com I think) on Namecheap. That's when I decided to give Namecheap a try, and I'm so glad I did. Haven't been disappointed since. Thank you!

ted0 6y ago
I actually didn't know that Drew had registered getdropbox.com with us! That's awesome. Thanks for being a customer.

tallanvor 6y ago

You need to fix your support for ipv4+ipv6 glue records. There's really no excuse for not letting me configure this via the web interface.

phynax 6y ago

+1 for Namecheap - I've been using you guys for many years and across multiple businesses - I don't even consider using another registrar anymore. On the flip side, when I hear GoDaddy used in any sentence - The hairs on the back of my neck stand up :(

WarOnPrivacy 6y ago

I've been super happy with Namecheap's domain services. After 15 years, I've no plans to go anywhere else. I've been less happy with Namecheap's abuse responses, unfortunately. I quit trying to report NC registered domains (or NC hosting), that were being used for clearly malicious activity.

ungerik 6y ago

I think it was within the last 2 years when I searched for domains on Namecheap. They were shown as registered and I was offered to buy them for a premium price. When I searched on another other provider, it was shown as available and I bought it there. Will never use Namecheap again.

python-3 6y ago

Been using Namecheap for 2 years now. Love it. Also Louis Rossman mentioned you in his latest video. That's what brought me here. https://youtu.be/i05uGLFZe2Y https://youtu.be/i05uGLFZe2Y

neycoda 6y ago

Frankly I think what GoDaddy does here should be illegal, because it causes an unethical inflation of prices and undercuts other domain searchers and registrars, causing them to need to compete on a price-gouging scheme. Maybe NameCheap should investigate a lawsuit or lobby Congress for some ethical practices here that don't cause artificial pricing and spending.

jgowdy 6y ago

Just so you know, this is a complete lie and total slander of GoDaddy. https://domaininvesting.com/godaddy-still-not-frontrunning-d https://domaininvesting.com/godaddy-still-not-frontrunning-d... The whois information is masked, because that's what we do to protect customer privacy. https://domaininvesting.com/godaddy-whois-records-no-more-co https://domaininvesting.com/godaddy-whois-records-no-more-co... It's registered to someone in New York, not to GoDaddy. Registrant Organization: Registrant State/Province: New York Registrant Country: US

momeunier 6y ago

Verisign is a well-oiled machine indeed. Remember this? https://www.cnet.com/news/suit-filed-over-verisign-domain-redirect/ https://www.cnet.com/news/suit-filed-over-verisign-domain-re...

jhoutromundo 6y ago

Another customer extremelly satisfied with Namecheap. Your "beast mode" has saved me countless times.