6 ms·

Ted from Namecheap here. Donuts, who now operates the .io TLD, is only increasing the wholesale price by ~10%. We are still obviously not happy about this since

by ted0 5y ago

Ted from Namecheap here. Donuts, who now operates the .io TLD, is only increasing the wholesale price by ~10%. We are still obviously not happy about this since it's always our goal to ensure that domain pricing is as accessible as possible to our customers. It would appear that Gandi has just chosen to substantially increase their markup as part of this Donuts update. Our pricing will likely only increase a small amount, if at all.

fady 5y ago
Thanks Ted for the update. I bought my io domain from you guys many years ago when it was $70 or so. Thanks for keeping the price low over the years and for the update.
- ted0 5y ago
  Thanks for choosing us!
ricardo81 5y ago
TBF to Gandhi, IIRC they tend to give favourable prices when you buy domains or deposit funds in bulk. Their opening tier of prices are indeed pricey. Their API is excellent though. I've always found Namecheap to be price competitive and their customer service is pretty good also. API was always a bit basic (think that had a lot to do with enom implementation)
- ted0 5y ago
  I'm sure they do indeed have special pricing for bulk customers. Although, not sure how much has changed with them since they were acquired by private equity a couple of years ago. I do admit that our API needs some love - fortunately we have a lot of major backend updates in the works and a new API will follow at some point. Unrelated but we did roll out a new API (entirely separate from the API you're referring to) for our Auctions platform: https://documenter.getpostman.com/view/12017783/TW6wKUfy https://documenter.getpostman.com/view/12017783/TW6wKUfy. Curious to get your feedback if you're interested in taking it for a spin!
- account42 5y ago
  I'm not sure how giving favorable pricing to bulk purchasers (i.e. mostly squatters) is a positive thing for domains.
hutrdvnj 5y ago
Hey Ted, will Namecheap go public anytime soon?
- ted0 5y ago
  No plans for that. We have never even taken any investment and luckily have been growing substantially over the last few years as a bootstrapped company.
  - ksec 5y ago
    Oh I would love to read the NC journey as a bootstrapped company.
MerelyMortal 5y ago
Former Namecheap customer here, thank you for the transparancy. (I only left Namecheap because of the interface, I found that Dynadot was comparable in price and features, but with a nicer GUI. NC seems like a good company otherwise, so I'm always open to the possibility of switching back.)
- ted0 5y ago
  Sorry to hear you had trouble with our interface. We do have some pretty substantial updates planned for 2022 and would love to have you back. Feel free to shoot any feedback to ted [at] namecheap.com.
  - echelon 5y ago
    Ted, thank you so much for participating in this thread! Namecheap provides excellent service, and I've been a happy customer for years. As someone who owns ~30 domain names split between Namecheap and GoDaddy, it would be incredibly beneficial if you overhauled the primary domain list view. As it stands right now, your domain list UI is bulky and clunky and requires several clickthroughs to show all domains or sort effectively. The first view you see should show a glorified table / spreadsheet view of all domains on the same page by default. A reasonable pagination limit would work for extremely large accounts, but in general I think many people would want to see everything in one place if possible. It would further be fantastic if the domains were immediately sortable on multiple dimensions (name, expiration, tag/category) and had an integrated search box. Tags are also really important. The tag system you have in place right now is rather useless, because you can't leverage it easily from the main view. You have to navigate away to an entirely separate product area, and even then they don't provide much assistance. I tag my domains to group them by project. (eg. vocodes.com, vo.codes, fakeyou.com, fakeyou.app, etc. are grouped together.) It'd be really great for this to feel first class and be integrated into the primary domain view as an additional set of filters. Godaddy used to suck in this department, but they've really upped their game. Their domain list is top notch and gives Namecheap's UI a run for its money, which is a real reversal. You used to have the best in the business. I really abhor GoDaddy since they allowed an old high school friend of mine to break into my account and steal strategywiki.org ~15 years ago. (For those interested, I've posted the story on HN before and it should be searchable.) The only reason I have any business with them at all is because of domain marketplace purchases. Grudges aside, their product has evolved over the last few years and is really good. I'd use it as a reference point.
dannylandau 5y ago
I use Namecheap to host more than 10 domains and some shared hosting, and found customer support to be awesome! Just wanted to mention it. Wondering if you have a special promo plan for guys like me that depend on Namecheap for all their personal and business domains?
- ted0 5y ago
  Check out our tiered pricing. If you qualify, support can set you up! https://www.namecheap.com/domains/tier-pricing/ https://www.namecheap.com/domains/tier-pricing/
beardedman 5y ago
Ted, you guys are awesome. Been a happy customer for the last maybe 7 years. Keep up the good work!
- ted0 5y ago
  So happy to hear that!
acheron 5y ago
Thanks for the great service. I used to have all my registration through Dyn (nee DynDNS.org); when they got bought out by Oracle and started moving everything over I moved to Namecheap. Been perfectly happy since.
- ted0 5y ago
  Woot!
UseStrict 5y ago
No real feedback other than I've been a happy Namecheap customer for years, thanks for the great service.
- ted0 5y ago
  Music to our ears.
cft 5y ago
We left namecheap bc it lived up to its name: we were harassed by defective copyright notices that were copied to namecheap. Instead of forwarding them to us, you sent us an ultimatum that you would drop our DNS. We even had our General Counsel draft you a letter, only to have it repeated. Then we understood that we should just drop the vigilante registrar Have been 7 years with networksolutions and very happy.
RKearney 5y ago
> it's always our goal to ensure that domain pricing is as accessible as possible to our customers. Then why not charge $30 for an .io domain like CloudFlare does instead of $39.98/yr?
- ted0 5y ago
  We would love to and we are always striving to get as close to wholesale as possible but we do have operating costs — domains are essentially our core business and we have 1,000+ CS agents + a large risk/abuse team that works around the clock to focus on the customer experience. Anyone who is selling domains with no markup at all is taking a loss in some form and/or treating it as a loss leader for other products.
forty 5y ago
What about the future increase of .sh? I own one for personal stuff, and it's apparently going to increase from ~40€ to ~73€ which is a bit hard to swallow for personal use.
- ted0 5y ago
  Not familiar with any .sh price increase but it's certainly possible.. If you can swing it, you can add years to your registration(s) now to lock in the current price before any sort of increase.
jbaber 5y ago
I cannot pass up the opportunity to personally thank you for NameCheap.
- ted0 5y ago
  Thank YOU!
mysterydip 5y ago
Thanks for the transparency and great service! I have all but one of my domains there now (register.com had a deathgrip on until I got fed up with their process and let it lapse. Now it sits available for $370, which I'm not willing to shell out)
- ted0 5y ago
  Thank you! Bummer re the premium cost on the name that expired.
riekus 5y ago
Love it that you report on details here. Happy namecheap customer, may GoDaddy burn.
- ted0 5y ago
  coupon code "BYEBYEGD" works for .com transfers ha
ksec 5y ago
Taking this opportunity to ask industry professionals..... What the hell is happening to ".Web"?
- ted0 5y ago
  Still in limbo but looks like Verisign will be able to launch it at some point: http://domainincite.com/27180-verisign-boss-talks-web-launch-timing-and-pricing http://domainincite.com/27180-verisign-boss-talks-web-launch...
  - ksec 5y ago
    >Still in limbo Thx. They won it in 2016 and we are fast coming to 2022. Sigh
Aissen 5y ago
Hi Ted, this seemed a bit outrageous, so I asked the question to Gandi on Twitter. It seems what you're talking about is the "promotion price", see: https://twitter.com/gandi_net/status/1466358344998965253 https://twitter.com/gandi_net/status/1466358344998965253 And since I wasn't the only one to ask, we now know that the actual bulk price will increase 50%: https://twitter.com/gandibar/status/1466313609475198981 https://twitter.com/gandibar/status/1466313609475198981 Which means that Gandi is in fact reducing its relative margin. I'm curious about you opinion on this. In particular, how different are bulk and promotion prices ?

by ted0 5y ago

fady 5y ago

Thanks Ted for the update. I bought my io domain from you guys many years ago when it was $70 or so. Thanks for keeping the price low over the years and for the update.

ted0 5y ago
Thanks for choosing us!

ricardo81 5y ago

TBF to Gandhi, IIRC they tend to give favourable prices when you buy domains or deposit funds in bulk. Their opening tier of prices are indeed pricey. Their API is excellent though. I've always found Namecheap to be price competitive and their customer service is pretty good also. API was always a bit basic (think that had a lot to do with enom implementation)

ted0 5y ago
I'm sure they do indeed have special pricing for bulk customers. Although, not sure how much has changed with them since they were acquired by private equity a couple of years ago. I do admit that our API needs some love - fortunately we have a lot of major backend updates in the works and a new API will follow at some point. Unrelated but we did roll out a new API (entirely separate from the API you're referring to) for our Auctions platform: https://documenter.getpostman.com/view/12017783/TW6wKUfy https://documenter.getpostman.com/view/12017783/TW6wKUfy. Curious to get your feedback if you're interested in taking it for a spin!
account42 5y ago
I'm not sure how giving favorable pricing to bulk purchasers (i.e. mostly squatters) is a positive thing for domains.

hutrdvnj 5y ago

Hey Ted, will Namecheap go public anytime soon?

ted0 5y ago
No plans for that. We have never even taken any investment and luckily have been growing substantially over the last few years as a bootstrapped company.
- ksec 5y ago
  Oh I would love to read the NC journey as a bootstrapped company.

MerelyMortal 5y ago

Former Namecheap customer here, thank you for the transparancy. (I only left Namecheap because of the interface, I found that Dynadot was comparable in price and features, but with a nicer GUI. NC seems like a good company otherwise, so I'm always open to the possibility of switching back.)

ted0 5y ago
Sorry to hear you had trouble with our interface. We do have some pretty substantial updates planned for 2022 and would love to have you back. Feel free to shoot any feedback to ted [at] namecheap.com.
- echelon 5y ago
  Ted, thank you so much for participating in this thread! Namecheap provides excellent service, and I've been a happy customer for years. As someone who owns ~30 domain names split between Namecheap and GoDaddy, it would be incredibly beneficial if you overhauled the primary domain list view. As it stands right now, your domain list UI is bulky and clunky and requires several clickthroughs to show all domains or sort effectively. The first view you see should show a glorified table / spreadsheet view of all domains on the same page by default. A reasonable pagination limit would work for extremely large accounts, but in general I think many people would want to see everything in one place if possible. It would further be fantastic if the domains were immediately sortable on multiple dimensions (name, expiration, tag/category) and had an integrated search box. Tags are also really important. The tag system you have in place right now is rather useless, because you can't leverage it easily from the main view. You have to navigate away to an entirely separate product area, and even then they don't provide much assistance. I tag my domains to group them by project. (eg. vocodes.com, vo.codes, fakeyou.com, fakeyou.app, etc. are grouped together.) It'd be really great for this to feel first class and be integrated into the primary domain view as an additional set of filters. Godaddy used to suck in this department, but they've really upped their game. Their domain list is top notch and gives Namecheap's UI a run for its money, which is a real reversal. You used to have the best in the business. I really abhor GoDaddy since they allowed an old high school friend of mine to break into my account and steal strategywiki.org ~15 years ago. (For those interested, I've posted the story on HN before and it should be searchable.) The only reason I have any business with them at all is because of domain marketplace purchases. Grudges aside, their product has evolved over the last few years and is really good. I'd use it as a reference point.

dannylandau 5y ago

I use Namecheap to host more than 10 domains and some shared hosting, and found customer support to be awesome! Just wanted to mention it. Wondering if you have a special promo plan for guys like me that depend on Namecheap for all their personal and business domains?

ted0 5y ago
Check out our tiered pricing. If you qualify, support can set you up! https://www.namecheap.com/domains/tier-pricing/ https://www.namecheap.com/domains/tier-pricing/

beardedman 5y ago

Ted, you guys are awesome. Been a happy customer for the last maybe 7 years. Keep up the good work!

ted0 5y ago
So happy to hear that!

acheron 5y ago

Thanks for the great service. I used to have all my registration through Dyn (nee DynDNS.org); when they got bought out by Oracle and started moving everything over I moved to Namecheap. Been perfectly happy since.

ted0 5y ago
Woot!

UseStrict 5y ago

No real feedback other than I've been a happy Namecheap customer for years, thanks for the great service.

ted0 5y ago
Music to our ears.

cft 5y ago

We left namecheap bc it lived up to its name: we were harassed by defective copyright notices that were copied to namecheap. Instead of forwarding them to us, you sent us an ultimatum that you would drop our DNS. We even had our General Counsel draft you a letter, only to have it repeated. Then we understood that we should just drop the vigilante registrar Have been 7 years with networksolutions and very happy.

RKearney 5y ago

> it's always our goal to ensure that domain pricing is as accessible as possible to our customers. Then why not charge $30 for an .io domain like CloudFlare does instead of $39.98/yr?

ted0 5y ago
We would love to and we are always striving to get as close to wholesale as possible but we do have operating costs — domains are essentially our core business and we have 1,000+ CS agents + a large risk/abuse team that works around the clock to focus on the customer experience. Anyone who is selling domains with no markup at all is taking a loss in some form and/or treating it as a loss leader for other products.

forty 5y ago

What about the future increase of .sh? I own one for personal stuff, and it's apparently going to increase from ~40€ to ~73€ which is a bit hard to swallow for personal use.

ted0 5y ago
Not familiar with any .sh price increase but it's certainly possible.. If you can swing it, you can add years to your registration(s) now to lock in the current price before any sort of increase.

jbaber 5y ago

I cannot pass up the opportunity to personally thank you for NameCheap.

ted0 5y ago
Thank YOU!

mysterydip 5y ago

Thanks for the transparency and great service! I have all but one of my domains there now (register.com had a deathgrip on until I got fed up with their process and let it lapse. Now it sits available for $370, which I'm not willing to shell out)

ted0 5y ago
Thank you! Bummer re the premium cost on the name that expired.

riekus 5y ago

Love it that you report on details here. Happy namecheap customer, may GoDaddy burn.

ted0 5y ago
coupon code "BYEBYEGD" works for .com transfers ha

ksec 5y ago

Taking this opportunity to ask industry professionals..... What the hell is happening to ".Web"?

ted0 5y ago
Still in limbo but looks like Verisign will be able to launch it at some point: http://domainincite.com/27180-verisign-boss-talks-web-launch-timing-and-pricing http://domainincite.com/27180-verisign-boss-talks-web-launch...
- ksec 5y ago
  >Still in limbo Thx. They won it in 2016 and we are fast coming to 2022. Sigh

Aissen 5y ago

Hi Ted, this seemed a bit outrageous, so I asked the question to Gandi on Twitter. It seems what you're talking about is the "promotion price", see: https://twitter.com/gandi_net/status/1466358344998965253 https://twitter.com/gandi_net/status/1466358344998965253 And since I wasn't the only one to ask, we now know that the actual bulk price will increase 50%: https://twitter.com/gandibar/status/1466313609475198981 https://twitter.com/gandibar/status/1466313609475198981 Which means that Gandi is in fact reducing its relative margin. I'm curious about you opinion on this. In particular, how different are bulk and promotion prices ?