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Namecheap now offer .io domains
- firloop 13y agoI like the .io TLD but it seems like Namecheap and others haven't really done much to make it cheaper. I can't see myself paying more than $30 a year for a single domain registration, so I've simply used other TLDs when I've had opportunities to register a domain for a project. If .io was cheaper I'd buy a couple of domains in a heartbeat, though.
- slig 13y agoThe upside is that the higher price may be inhibiting squatting and thus you're more likely to find a good name available.
- kintamanimatt 13y agoActually, this is something I've found too, and people seem a little bit more motivated to actually use the domains they've bought. Plus I love this extension for web apps that are used by the tech community because they actually understand understand generic ccTLDs.
- chewmieser 13y agoExactly this. I was able to easily snag a two letter domain name (iz.io) before thanks to the high prices. Eventually let it expire when that startup had run its course though.
- larrys 13y ago"the higher price may be inhibiting squatting" The high price is a result of the fact that the base cost of the domain is much higher than it is for .com/.net/.org/.info. Here is the wholesale .io pricing which is based on volume (doesn't work that way for .com/.net/.org/.info) http://www.nic.io/join.html http://www.nic.io/join.html So for example nic.io regular price is $60 US. Even at the top bracket the best a registrar could do is $30 per domain. This is compared to around $8.xx for .com that a registrar pays (we are a registrar).
- artursapek 13y agoWhat's nice about Namecheap is their UI doesn't suck. I've found nic.io confusing compared to my experience using Namecheap. Why would you expect the domains to get cheaper anyway? That's not really within Namecheap's control.
- kevinbluer 13y agoI guess it could be if they were to be able to buy in significant enough bulk (although not sure how much of that is already factored into the price): http://nic.io/join.html#benefits http://nic.io/join.html#benefits
- rubberband 13y agoI suppose they could, in theory, negotiate a better deal with the nic.io folks, with the pitch that making it easier to register domains will increase overall registration. Like you've said, nic.io isn't the most user friendly experience. I stopped myself a few times when registering, wondering if I was indeed on the correct site (because the official domain registry for a TLD couldn't possibly be this awkward).
- kyrra 13y agoHey, at least it's cheaper than what InterNIC used to charge ($100 initial, then $50/year).
- growt 13y agogandi.net offers a better deal at 29€ for an .io domain.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- blahbl4hblahtoo 13y agoOh good. Now to setup a blog about programming web api's in GO complete with a little round picture of myself.
- wwwarhawk 13y agoHaha. This is the best comment in this thread.
- dlss 13y agoI've never heard of namecheap, but given their name I'm surprised they charge so much more than gandi.net ($39). Is it normal for a company branded as the low cost provider to charge above market for rare goods?
- lignuist 13y ago> Is it normal for a company branded as the low cost provider to charge above market for rare goods? At least I would not be surprised if that would be the case... like those red and white "SALE" stickers that some shops have at their windows during the whole year, while being actually more expensive than other shops.
- arkitaip 13y agoAnd Gandi isn't that cheap to begin with...
- FireBringer 13y agoReally? Where is it cheaper to buy an IO domain? Really curious not trying to be snarky, I have some projects I'd like to put on that domain for fun but $40 or more dollars isn't worth it.
- arkitaip 13y agomoniker.com has a $13 offer for .io right now https://www.moniker.com/co-domain/ https://www.moniker.com/co-domain/
- acron0 13y agoThat link is for .co, not .io domains...
- arkitaip 13y agoApologies, my mistake. Also, when talking about Gandi's pricing I was speaking generally, i.e. they are more expensive than average domain registrars. I've, however, bought domains from them myself and their support and admin are great, so I would totally recommend them.
- clone1018 13y agoDoesn't seem to be avaliable for transfers: "ignite.io cannot be transferred The domain name seems to be invalid or the TLD is not supported. Please make sure you entered the domain name properly and don't add www. in front of the domain name."
- dangoldin 13y agoSame here. I just chatted with customer support and it's currently not supported. The guy I spoke with didn't know whether that was something they were working on.
- Link- 13y agoFor what it's worth, I've been using namecheap for over 2 or 3 years now, with around 10 domains registered with them, and I have to say that their service is quite good. The support is capable and promptly responsive. Very rarely, if ever, have I experienced technical difficulties. Even if it's not the cheapest in the market, the service is worth the extra $
- hardwaresofton 13y agoDo they offer proper DNS services?
- FooBarWidget 13y agoYes. Even email forwarding.
- hkhanna 13y agoYes, I think so. The reason I use Namecheap for all my domains is really because of their DNS services. For example, I have a subdomain that points to my home network router. The public-facing IP address of my home network is dynamically assigned by my upstream ISP, so it changes every couple months. I have a script that runs every day that checks if my IP address has changed, and if so, executes a cURL command to dynamically update the A record of the subdomain. Namecheap provides this HTTP API and dynamic DNS capability. So, you have a good deal of flexibility in configuring the DNS, although of course not as much as running your own DNS server or writing your own zone file. For most people, however, their DNS services should be sufficient. It certainly is for me.
- Semaphor 13y agoGandi has an API, DNS editing in free mode or wizard mode. Multiple versions of zone files etc. Plus they are cheaper than namecheap (at least for .io). And every time I was in contact with their customer service they were helpful and friendly.
- jackalope 13y agoI moved all of my domains from GoDaddy to Namecheap. I host my own DNS. Recently, I decided to take a stab at implementing DNSSEC, but one condition is that your registrar must support it[1], and Namecheap doesn't[2]. I'm in no rush, but it's a little disappointing. I have no idea if DNSSEC is an option when Namecheap hosts your DNS. They've also only recently added support for IPv6 glue records. Nonetheless, I'm happy to be rid of GoDaddy and find the Namecheap interface to be much simpler and easier to use (concise email notifications of logins and account changes are also nice, and readable in more email clients than the noisy upselling HTML garbage that GoDaddy spews out). [1] http://www.internetsociety.org/deploy360/resources/dnssec-registrars/ http://www.internetsociety.org/deploy360/resources/dnssec-re... [2] http://www.icann.org/en/news/in-focus/dnssec/deployment http://www.icann.org/en/news/in-focus/dnssec/deployment
- jscheel 13y agoI love the IO ccTLD, but it's just too expensive to justify on a free side project that doesn't make any money. First-world problem, eh?
- phillmv 13y agoNot coincidentally, that's also why so few .io domains are parked. Overall, I'm OK with this.
- jscheel 13y agoIt's definitely a trade-off. For me, I just ended up doing -io.com :)
- swalsh 13y agoIf the more expensive price tag means a less flikr's and alot more flickers than its worth the money to me.
- null_ptr 13y agoI think this is an understated problem. Vowel-stripping from names has become a part of today's bleeding edge tech culture, but it's really just a work around the crowded domains market. Vowel-stripped names sound and look OK to me today, but I wonder how well they'll stand the test of time 10 years down the road, whether they'll feel reputable or whether we'll see a lot of successful businesses add back a few of their missing a-e-i-o-u's.
- Kerrick 13y agoI think it's a mixed bag. flickr never re-voweled, but twttr did.
- vdaniuk 13y agoVowel stripping is a feature that highly correlates with a tech target audience of a domain. So I'd prefer to see more vowel-stripped domains intended for tech crowd and regular word .com domains for general public.
- kbar13 13y agohexonet and gandi are equally trustworthy and have .io registration for cheaper
- hallas 13y agoA month too late :-) Gonna have to move it :)
- ape4 13y agoI suppose google.io is taken.
- kintamanimatt 13y agoCreated 2002-10-01!
- lingben 13y agothey will automatically buy any and all TLD as a matter of policy
- jffry 13y agoBy Google: http://nic.io/cgi-bin/whois?query=google.io http://nic.io/cgi-bin/whois?query=google.io
- larrys 13y agoCompetitor to namecheap here. [1] [2] We don't offer .io domains. Nor do we offer any of the TLD's that seem to be popular with some startups. Even though we could make money selling them. Like our competitors do. Although popular (with startups) they aren't mainstream with the public. If you become successful you will just end up buying (at a much higher price) the .com equivalent. Or end up having misdirected mail and/or users or investors or bloggers or reporters etc. Whatever .com you can buy now will be much more expensive once the .com owner sees you have funding and a business model and a website. I've been doing domains since the mid 90's. My strong advice is to stay away from anything but .com for your startup. Despite what you may think there are plenty of .com's you can register (try leandomainsearch.com for ideas (I have no affiliation to that at all but use it from time to time). And not all people holding domain names are vultures, cybersquatters whatever you want to call them. Some are actually fairly reasonable (I do some consulting on the side where I help people buy domain names). [1] No we are not looking to get HN business if we were I'd have who we are in my sig. [2] We aren't cheap.
- radiusq 13y agoSo you're saying you don't offer .io's because you're looking out for people who might want to buy the .com equivalent (even though you "could make money selling them")? You sound like a hellava businessman...
- hugofirth 13y agoAm I the only one that thought that [2] from above was a clever reference to being "name.com" until I realised that name sell .io domains? So much for me being all clever haha.
- TheSwordsman 13y agoProbably NetworkSolutions...
- larrys 13y agoNope.
- joeblau 13y agoI'm using http://iwantmyname.com http://iwantmyname.com for http://gitignore.io http://gitignore.io and they have been great. They update their DNS records very quickly and I haven't had any problems with their service and right now they are $49.
- 2mur 13y agoMe too. Very happy with them after I switched off GoDaddy.
- charlus 13y agoI'm using them as well, very helpful and quick customer service with a simple interface.
- mumbi 13y agoAlso using iwantmyname. Happiest I've ever been with a registrar.
- mwilcox 13y agoThey are fantastic. Very supportive of the startup scene here in NZ too.
- bnycum 13y agoI was actually looking at building a site like that a few weeks back. Discovered the .io was taken and was what I wanted to build. Thanks.
- joeblau 13y agoHehe sorry :) and You're welcome. The code is all on GitHub and I actually want to re-architect the site.
- joshdance 13y agoI use Namecheap for my domains. Been a good company so far.
- danepowell 13y agoI switched to Namecheap several years ago and have never looked back. They are one of the only registrars to offer two-factor authentication.
- mingabunga 13y agoDoes anyone recall a few months back a 3 and 4 letter .io search engine someone made and posted here? I can't find it in the HN search.
- kintamanimatt 13y agoHere ya go: http://shortdomainsearch.net/ http://shortdomainsearch.net/
- LukeHoersten 13y agoI've transferred or am transferring about 10 of my domains from places like GoDaddy and 1and1 to NameCheap. I love NameCheap. I typically go for whatever registrar is the cheapest regardless of how crappy the interface is and NameCheap has successfully become the cheapest registrar for a number of my TLDs. The benefit is that their service and web interface are great! I highly recommend.
- MichaelTieso 13y agoI use NameCheap because it's simple. Nothing fancy about it. I hate the crazy amount of popups GoDaddy gives you.
- zokier 13y agoBleh. My personal domain renewal is coming up and Namecheap has gotten lots of recommendations here at HN. But on the other hand I'm bit reluctant to move domains from (my current) Swiss registar to US one, even if they all ultimately are based on ICANN.
- sigkill 13y ago- Out of curiosity, who's your current registrar? - I don't know if you're talking about a ccTLD or a com/net/org but if it's the latter I don't think a non-US registrar can help you since those TLDs are directly under US control.
- zokier 13y agoCurrently at joker.com, and .net domain. Yes, I know escaping US control is ultimately futile, but that doesn't mean that I'd be wanting to give in any more than necessary. Even in the worst-case scenario a Swiss company should be able to communicate about the circumstances, while US based registar might be gagged with NSL or equivalent and I'd be left in the dark.
- ElongatedTowel 13y agoFacing the same problem. The whole US government fear, uncertainty and doubt mess makes me question decisions which probably don't even concern me in the long run. I guess namecheap is about as popular as it gets and most European sellers like gandi aren't as cheap, but there is no way for me to know whether choosing a US based domain seller could ever have any adverse effects on me as an European, whether it's censorship, laws, transfer problems, ownership problems or anything I can't even think of.
- Splendor 13y agoI tried to place an order twice and received this error both times: "There was an error connecting to the registry."
- caiob 13y agoHey, hover.com offers .io domains as well; and I couldn't be happier with them. (not affiliated whatsoever)
- pkrumins 13y ago"as low as $58.88 per year?"
- plink 13y agodang! eie.io is taken.
- easy_rider 13y agoPurchased a domain, went through all the steps, account acc. card info, process transaction. Well funded card etc. Register <snip>.io 11 Year $58.88 Charged: $0.00 $0.00 There was an error connecting to the registry. Free WhoisGuard 1 Year $0.00 Charged: $0.00 Related item failed.
- larkarvin 13y agoI've been using Namecheap for five years, but my .io domain is registered at name.com. I'll move back it to namecheap once it nears expiration just to put all my domains in one place and of to pay 58USD rather than 99USD.