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Namecheap has gone downhill imho meaning it is no longer the best discount registrar. Meanwhile some more registrars have popped up in the past five years that

Namecheap has gone downhill imho meaning it is no longer the best discount registrar. Meanwhile some more registrars have popped up in the past five years that have better service and are cheaper. Porkbun is one. I also had great experience with namesilo. The only reason I could see people going with nanecheap is they already have an account there or they listen to other people who haven’t evaluated the registrar situation lately.

enkay 3y ago
Between the desperately slow web app and awful customer support, I don't understand how anyone uses or recommends namecheap. Cloudflare is the go to unless they don't have the tld.
- paulgb 3y ago
  Careful with Cloudflare, they don't let you change nameservers[1]: > Registrant agrees to use Cloudflare’s nameservers. REGISTRANT ACKNOWLEDGES AND AGREES THAT IT MAY NOT CHANGE THE NAMESERVERS ON THE REGISTRAR SERVICES, AND THAT IT MUST TRANSFER TO A THIRD PARTY REGISTRAR IF IT WISHES TO CHANGE NAMESERVERS. So it's a no-go if you want to use Route 53 or something like that. [1] https://www.cloudflare.com/domain-registration-agreement/ https://www.cloudflare.com/domain-registration-agreement/
  - notnmeyer 3y ago
    haha, wow... how shitty of them.
  - henriquez 3y ago
    It’s so they can better MitM your traffic, for your protection.
    - slig 3y ago
      You do not have to use their "cloud MitM" feature, it's just the NS that you can't change.
      - henriquez 3y ago
        They could switch your A records and still MitM your whole site. Granted I’m sure that would only happen if their CEO was really mad, but it just requires too much trust for my comfort.
- hardcopy 3y ago
  Cloudflare registrar is poor recommendation because you are forced to use Cloudflare dns. I learned this the hard way when I had to use route 53 dns and had to wait 60 days to transfer. I don’t know how this is allowed, registrars should be required to let you set custom dns.
- jacooper 3y ago
  The idea cloudflare binds you to cloudflare DNS, if you don't want to use it you are out of luck.
  - jacooper 3y ago
    The problem* thanks auto correct.
- LightHugger 3y ago
  Cloudflare has a history of randomly hijacking the site without notification if they don't like you. So no.
  - henriquez 3y ago
    Only in extreme cases where their CEO disapproves of you.
moffkalast 3y ago
Do any of them keep their word regarding renewal costs? The prices for the initial year always seem good and the next year is shown as something that's usually higher but still reasonable, but what stops them from continuing the trend and just jacking it up once you're invested and force you to either pay anything they want or lose the domain? All of the budget registrars seem shady enough to run that sort of racket, it's predatory pricing 101 after all.
- Symbiote 3y ago
  Normal TLDs like .COM, .ORG, .CO.UK, .FR and so on have stable prices. Massive price inflation seems to happen with new or trendy TLDs, where an initial $5/year can become $50/year or more.
  - al_borland 3y ago
    It seems like once someone owns a domain there should be a limit on how much the price can go up per year. Where I live, property tax is done this way to prevent pricing people out of their homes as they age. Property taxes are reevaluated whenever a home is purchased by a new owner. With domains being a digital home, it seems it would make sense to have laws in place that would treat them the same way.
    - thfuran 3y ago
      Given how expensive property is in much of California, I'm not sure that's the model to adopt.
Shorel 3y ago
I moved away from it many years ago. To a French one =)
- erinnh 3y ago
  Hope you don’t mean Gandi. That went downhill even faster than namecheap. https://arstechnica.com/civis/threads/psa-gandi-net-bought-out-eliminating-included-email-raising-prices.1490573/ https://arstechnica.com/civis/threads/psa-gandi-net-bought-o...
  - throwaway167 3y ago
    Veering on a tangent, I've been pretty happy with Netim as a French (not just .fr) registrar and replacement for Gandi.
yardie 3y ago
I moved most of my domains from Namecheap to Cloudflare. I've never had a problem with domain names. But their renewal system is a little aggressive. They send a renewal email 60 days before. At 30 days it automatically renews. So I have a few domains that I forgot to transfer and have to wait another year.
- tzs 3y ago
  Why do you have to wait a year? Are the domains under one of the few TLDs that where any time on the domain over one year gets lost on transfer? I actually had no idea such TLDs existed, but apparently they do [1]. [1] https://docs.aws.amazon.com/Route53/latest/DeveloperGuide/domain-transfer-to-route-53-expiration.html https://docs.aws.amazon.com/Route53/latest/DeveloperGuide/do...

enkay 3y ago

Between the desperately slow web app and awful customer support, I don't understand how anyone uses or recommends namecheap. Cloudflare is the go to unless they don't have the tld.

paulgb 3y ago
Careful with Cloudflare, they don't let you change nameservers[1]: > Registrant agrees to use Cloudflare’s nameservers. REGISTRANT ACKNOWLEDGES AND AGREES THAT IT MAY NOT CHANGE THE NAMESERVERS ON THE REGISTRAR SERVICES, AND THAT IT MUST TRANSFER TO A THIRD PARTY REGISTRAR IF IT WISHES TO CHANGE NAMESERVERS. So it's a no-go if you want to use Route 53 or something like that. [1] https://www.cloudflare.com/domain-registration-agreement/ https://www.cloudflare.com/domain-registration-agreement/
- notnmeyer 3y ago
  haha, wow... how shitty of them.
- henriquez 3y ago
  It’s so they can better MitM your traffic, for your protection.
  - slig 3y ago
    You do not have to use their "cloud MitM" feature, it's just the NS that you can't change.
    - henriquez 3y ago
      They could switch your A records and still MitM your whole site. Granted I’m sure that would only happen if their CEO was really mad, but it just requires too much trust for my comfort.
hardcopy 3y ago
Cloudflare registrar is poor recommendation because you are forced to use Cloudflare dns. I learned this the hard way when I had to use route 53 dns and had to wait 60 days to transfer. I don’t know how this is allowed, registrars should be required to let you set custom dns.
jacooper 3y ago
The idea cloudflare binds you to cloudflare DNS, if you don't want to use it you are out of luck.
- jacooper 3y ago
  The problem* thanks auto correct.
LightHugger 3y ago
Cloudflare has a history of randomly hijacking the site without notification if they don't like you. So no.
- henriquez 3y ago
  Only in extreme cases where their CEO disapproves of you.

moffkalast 3y ago

Do any of them keep their word regarding renewal costs? The prices for the initial year always seem good and the next year is shown as something that's usually higher but still reasonable, but what stops them from continuing the trend and just jacking it up once you're invested and force you to either pay anything they want or lose the domain? All of the budget registrars seem shady enough to run that sort of racket, it's predatory pricing 101 after all.

Symbiote 3y ago
Normal TLDs like .COM, .ORG, .CO.UK, .FR and so on have stable prices. Massive price inflation seems to happen with new or trendy TLDs, where an initial $5/year can become $50/year or more.
- al_borland 3y ago
  It seems like once someone owns a domain there should be a limit on how much the price can go up per year. Where I live, property tax is done this way to prevent pricing people out of their homes as they age. Property taxes are reevaluated whenever a home is purchased by a new owner. With domains being a digital home, it seems it would make sense to have laws in place that would treat them the same way.
  - thfuran 3y ago
    Given how expensive property is in much of California, I'm not sure that's the model to adopt.

Shorel 3y ago

I moved away from it many years ago. To a French one =)

erinnh 3y ago
Hope you don’t mean Gandi. That went downhill even faster than namecheap. https://arstechnica.com/civis/threads/psa-gandi-net-bought-out-eliminating-included-email-raising-prices.1490573/ https://arstechnica.com/civis/threads/psa-gandi-net-bought-o...
- throwaway167 3y ago
  Veering on a tangent, I've been pretty happy with Netim as a French (not just .fr) registrar and replacement for Gandi.

yardie 3y ago

I moved most of my domains from Namecheap to Cloudflare. I've never had a problem with domain names. But their renewal system is a little aggressive. They send a renewal email 60 days before. At 30 days it automatically renews. So I have a few domains that I forgot to transfer and have to wait another year.

tzs 3y ago
Why do you have to wait a year? Are the domains under one of the few TLDs that where any time on the domain over one year gets lost on transfer? I actually had no idea such TLDs existed, but apparently they do [1]. [1] https://docs.aws.amazon.com/Route53/latest/DeveloperGuide/domain-transfer-to-route-53-expiration.html https://docs.aws.amazon.com/Route53/latest/DeveloperGuide/do...