Namecheap launches free public DNS
namecheap.com
namecheap.com
Just FYI
Regardless, their pricing practices are utterly irrelevant to the topic at hand.
They charge around $13 for a renewal but include whois anonymization and have awesome customer service, a great web dashboard, and nice security options. Can't ask for more myself, and it will take a lot to make me switch.
That has not been my experience. I've been a Namecheap customer since 2005 (though now only for TLDs that aren't supported by my preferred registrars), and each time I visit their website it seems slower than the last. The interface is better than GoDaddy or 1and1 were the last time I used them, but that's a very low bar. I wouldn't call it good.
At one point they overhauled the frontend to add some loading animation to make it feel faster, but the backend has only gotten worse. Saving any changes is way slower than any other service I use with regularity.
I was going to take some measurements to back up this post, but...
> Namecheap is under maintenance and will be back soon
> Our site namecheap.com is currently undergoing an emergency maintenance to upgrade our systems in order to better serve you.
I won't be using this new service.
That said, this announcement and emergency maintenance combo is not a good sign to me. Sigh.
Curious what you're using now?
* the price of a domain would change after placing it in my cart or purchasing it (the purchase would be refunded, but it was still frustrating.)
* WhoisGaurd renewal messages and "warnings"; I needed a registrar that provides whois privacy - without a fuss.
* namecheap's dashboard only shows 5 domains on the first page, and they are not sorted by soonest to expire.
* slowness experienced when using their website
* their competitors are cheaper
https://tld-list.com/ is pretty nice for comparing pricing.
I tried a single .uk domain away from them, after a week it still hadn't happened
their support kept making excuses: .uk domain transfers are different and normally slow, it's in the queue... except transfer has been instant at every other registrar I've ever used
thankfully .uk has an automatic system you can use as a domain owner to bypass shitty registrars (but it does cost money). after another week or so of excuses I bit the bullet and used it
after that I transferred my remaining domains
(separately: there's also the time they repeatedly chased me up for $1 they over-refunded me after another set of their mistakes)
They are super slow to move when something goes wrong and are generally untruthful. Should've realized they're not to be used for important things when their name has the word "cheap"
Edit: wanted to mention that they were the best registrar bar none early 2000s. No one could even compete. Now they are horrible.