Namecheap to Donate $1 to EFF for Every Domain Transfer on December 29th

https://www.namecheap.com/moveyourdomainday.aspx

by flueedo • 15 years ago

568 94 15 years ago

Namecheap is really taking advantage of Godaddy's misstep. I say good for them! Godaddy deserves whatever is coming at them right now.

josscrowcroft2• 15 years ago

Yeah, they are absolutely going to town on this one. Can't say I blame them - I'm surprised not more companies have come out of the woodwork to step in as the break-up rebound target.

frou_dh• 15 years ago

Not related to recent events, but I remember Hover.com had an advertising run on the TWiT network that was essentially: We're not horrible like Go Daddy, transfer today!

mbrzuzy• 15 years ago

I was literally thinking the exact same thing.

GoDaddy is an already shady company, hopefully they take a big hit from this and change the way they do things.

rhizome7• 15 years ago

Think bigger: hopefully they declare bankruptcy and no longer have the resources to participate in policy decisions.

They should be considered a Corporation Non-Grata.

aiurtourist• 15 years ago

I'd like to switch to !GoDaddy, and Namecheap seems popular. Are there any useful pro/cons I should know about Namecheap before switching?

DodgyEggplant• 15 years ago

Tried to read their Terms of Service, long as hell

pork• 15 years ago

Switched over after the elephant cull, haven't regretted it at all. Clean interface, and very easy flow for new domains. Only gripe is that they don't have a mobile site.

miles_matthias2• 15 years ago

Or a mobile app like godaddy does? I like searching for available domains on my phone sometimes and godaddy's app does that well. Does anyone know of any alternative iPhone apps for searching for available domains?

rubyrescue• 15 years ago

i've also used dynadot which i like a lot. They have a pretty useful API, and good customer service. However, their pricing is only as good as namecheap if you spend more than $500 USD/year on domains.

pwaring• 15 years ago

I've never had a problem using Namecheap, their support tickets tend to be answered quickly and their prices are reasonable. They also used to charge $17.76 for a two year .uk domain registration, which was amusing.

kolektiv• 15 years ago

I've always used them, and they've been flawless for me. Not "amazing service", but "I haven't needed any service" because everything just worked properly. From what I hear they are responsive when you need them as well. I'd recommend them.

rhizome7• 15 years ago

One con is that unlike Joker and Gandi (and surely others), Namecheap is located in Los Angeles, CA and is therefore subject to US court judgements, US Internet policy, and US privacy laws (or lack thereof).

regularfry• 15 years ago

Isn't part of the whole current kerfuffle that the DoJ considers any Verisign tld under US jurisdiction?

benmccann• 15 years ago

I've used GoDaddy in the past and was frustrated by their interface. Namecheap's is much better. Also, I've gotten $2 SSL certs and very cheap private domain registration from them as well.

cdr• 15 years ago

NameCheap "doesn't support SOPA", but they're capitalizing on GoDaddy's missteps more than having any firm moral objection to SOPA. Their opposition to SOPA is very qualified, they publicly say they support new IP legislation, and they may well support whatever comes after SOPA.

I use gandi.net personally - Gandi has long supported internet freedom and is based outside of the US.

micro-ram• 15 years ago

Yes, but as stated above Gandi is just a reseller of .COM & .NET gTLD's from Verisign which is still US based.

dangrossman4• 15 years ago

Pro: They've refused to disable domains or turn over private WHOIS data to lawyers representing trademark holders and celebrities. GoDaddy's standard response to an abuse complaint is to yank the domain same day, Namecheap's is to say "get a court order or GTFO".

Con: Transfers are absurdly slow. It took 'em 5-6 hours to initiate the transfer after I ordered. I approved the transfer on both ends instantly. Within the hour the root registry showed the domains moved to Namecheap/enom ownership. 12 hours later, Namecheap still shows everything as pending in their interface. That means I have no management of my own domains -- if I needed to change nameservers or such I'm SOL.

jgeralnik• 15 years ago

They are being very careful not to mention any specific domain registrars. I wonder who they are talking about...

ck23• 15 years ago

Just keep in mind if you transfer to NameCheap - make sure you are happy with their full price for renewals - because you will NEVER get a discount for renewing. They only give new transfers in special pricing.

Ironically you'll be able to transfer back to GoDaddy in a year when they make some kind of "come back to us" offer for a few dollars to transfer in.

josscrowcroft2• 15 years ago

That is also definitely bound to happen... "Come back to Go Daddy and we'll give you a free renewal next year! [If you agree to these shady terms and conditions]"

ck23• 15 years ago

One thing GoDaddy cannot stop is a transfer out after 60 days of a transfer in. Most registrars count on laziness which is surprisingly effective.

Remember .com/net prices go up January 15th (I think).

pbreit3• 15 years ago

Namecheap's posted renewal rate is less than GoDaddy's. Does GoDaddy discount on renewals? Other registrars?

username3• 15 years ago

GoDaddy has coupon codes for renewals.

dangrossman4• 15 years ago

GoDaddy often has percentage-off-order coupons that would work on renewals.

rkudeshi• 15 years ago

Coupons for GoDaddy renewals are generally available if you check RetailMeNot.com or other such sites. The codes tend to change every month/quarter, but I don't think I've ever renewed with them for more than ~$9.

Terretta2• 15 years ago

> make sure you are happy with their full price for renewals - because you will NEVER get a discount for renewing

This comment is flat wrong.

I have a couple hundred domains with NameCheap. I always get a discount on renewal.

No, you can't just Google "Namecheap Coupon %thismonth%" but you can hop on chat, ask politely, and be given one. It's not the same full discount, but it's a discount nonetheless, and takes but a few seconds.

The problem with expecting to pay the same for renewals as the initial term is that the annual rates are raised to the registrars, so their costs go up year to year, leaving pennies per domain at the rates you pay Namecheap and eventually putting them in the red if the rate to you didn't rise.

ck23• 15 years ago

Bulk discounts begin at 50 domains. That's far from the average person.

(and if you have that many domains you can do better than NameCheap prices too)

microtonal• 15 years ago

That's nice, but it remains to be seen if this is not just cheap (no pun intended) exploitation of sentiments. Some registrars, such as Gandi have always supported various causes (such as EFF, Creative Commons, Debian, etc.). How much does Namecheap donate of regular domain registrations, etc.? What have they done in the past for digital rights?

Also, as some people said before. This attack on Godaddy maybe a godsent diversion for SOPA supporters.

pbreit3• 15 years ago

I don't understand the notion that this is somehow a distraction to the real SOPA fight. Maybe I'm alone in this issue having heightened my knowledge, opposition and action against the bill?

jedbrown• 15 years ago

Go Daddy is totally insignificant in the scheme of things. The list of SOPO supporters is very deep and monopolizes many industries. Can you work out an effective boycott of all major record and movie producers, all major television networks, publishers (Elsevier, Macmillan, HarperCollins, and various coalitions), pharmaceuticals and beauty products (Pfizer, PhRMA, L'Oreal, Revlon, etc), banking (Visa, MasterCard, American Bankers Association), sports (NFL, MLB), Apple, and Microsoft?

http://judiciary.house.gov/issues/Rogue%20Websites/SOPA%20Su...

Hurting Go Daddy over this is fine, but I suspect it is inconsequential to whether SOPA passes, and most of the key supporters aren't concerned about boycotts anyway.

sunchild• 15 years ago

"Also, as some people said before. This attack on Godaddy maybe a godsent diversion for SOPA supporters."

Are you taking a position on this? Or are you content to just hint that others might possibly have done so elsewhere...maybe.

dangrossman4• 15 years ago

Namecheap has a history of ignoring and fighting abuse complaints from lawyers trying to shut down free speech with spurious trademark and libel claims without a court case. GoDaddy has a history of immediately pulling DNS of a domain after spurious complaints without a court order. This is in line with how Namecheap has operated for years.

GigabyteCoin2• 15 years ago

I don't think that it is Namecheap's duty to donate any portion of their profits to the EFF, CC, Deb, etc... If I want to support those initiatives, I will make the donation myself (and get the tax refund).

Namecheap does quite a bit more than GoDaddy in terms of protecting you.

To GoDaddy, you are some cow that needs milking. (re: fines for various "infractions" that GoDaddy writes up themselves).

To Namecheap, you are a valued and respected customer. This means requiring proof to back up accusations.

Shorel• 15 years ago

I transfered from Namecheap to SpeedySparrow a couple of months ago.

Just consolidating vendors (domain and hosting) to simplify management.

jamesbritt6• 15 years ago

I couldn't be bothered waiting. I've some domains due for renewal at the end of the year and decided to beat the holiday rush and just move then all over to namecheap.com.

I started the process yesterday afternoon. Still haven't seen anything on the GoDaddy side indicating any pending transfers. I imagine this sort of delay will only be worse come the 29th.

Update: just got a slew of form mail from namecheap. Apparently every EPP/authorization key code I entered, taken from the list generated by GoDaddy, is wrong. Now I have to re-do every transfer.

Natsu6• 15 years ago

> Apparently every EPP/authorization key code I entered, taken from the list generated by GoDaddy, is wrong. Now I have to re-do every transfer.

They sure have had a lot of funny accidents lately....

jamesbritt6• 15 years ago

It may be that I entered the domain and EPP info into the namechaep form with some spaces (foo.com, x$fo!ss) and the namecheap form code was too clueless to realize that no EPP code is going to start with a space.

I also discovered that I cannot automatically transfer azhackers.com, apparently because it triggers some "bad, evil, we don't like it" domain name filter.

Are they really that upset with Arizona? :)

boostsrt• 15 years ago

Had the same thing happen. Highly suspicious on namecheap part, since the second time I submitted the same code it worked.

jamesbritt6• 15 years ago

Another update: The soon-expiring domains that motivated me to get going on the transfer are apparently expiring too soon to allow the transfer.

Namecheap FAQ says that since a transfer might take up to eight days(!) they will not automatically process transfer requests for domains expiring within that time.

However, they say you can open a ticket to see if they will do a manual transfer that completes sooner.

So, I opened such a ticket, and also asked for help moving the suspiciously named azhackers.com domain.

In the meantime the resubmitted domains are now going through; I've told GoDaddy to approve the transfers (via the control panel).

Keeping two or three domains on GD wouldn't be the end of the world, but it means I would not be able to just completely walk away from them (whihc is what I really want).

Tloewald• 15 years ago

And as a bonus they get to stress test their servers ;-)

nickpinkston• 15 years ago

I've used NameCheap ever since I found out how horrid GoDaddy's service and slimy policies were. NameCheap has always answered my noob questions with haste, and I've never had any issues with them. I have no connections with them other than being a happy customer. If I didn't already have all my domains through them, I'd switch them over.

dmarble• 15 years ago

I've been with Namecheap for most of my domains for a couple years now. One of the surprisingly awesome extras:

Dynamic DNS

No more need for DynDNS or another third-party DNS service for this simple but useful feature! Once enabled for a domain, you can simply use an update client to regularly update the IP Namecheap servers point to.

See Namecheap's knowledgebase articles to enable and use it: http://www.namecheap.com/support/knowledgebase/category.aspx...

Update clients:

ddclient (unixy) - http://sourceforge.net/apps/trac/ddclient

inadyn (unixy) - http://www.inatech.eu/inadyn/

Namecheap's DNS update client (Windows) - http://www.namecheap.com/support/knowledgebase/article.aspx/...

smilliken• 15 years ago

Second the recommendation for NameCheap dynamic DNS. In my experience it's much more reliable than no-ip and dyndns.

Also, if you have dd-wrt installed on your router, the firmware comes with a dynamic dns client that works well with NameCheap.

3dFlatLander• 15 years ago

I'm a big fan of their free e-mail forwarding and customer support (they got a domain back for me that I had let expire out of its grace period).

But, I'm surprised so many people tolerated godaddy for this long just because of their control panel. Every time I have to go in there and help a client/friend, I begin to feel like an idiot almost immediately. It's impossible to find anything intuitively and I feel like their design changes every few months.

Namecheaps panel isn't pretty by a long shot, but it's so clutter free I just don't care.

loumf• 15 years ago

Not to defend them, but GoDaddy's iPad app is pretty good, and I use that rather than their control panel whenever I can. I am fed up with them for other reasons, so this comes at a good time.

juddlyon• 15 years ago

This incident will in a public relations textbook as a case study in ten years.

gospelwut• 15 years ago

I recall reading that namecheap stores passwords in plaintext? I'd be interested if this was refuted. In any case, I'd be a bit wary to go along with the bandwagon to this particular registrar without further investigation.

chrishenn• 15 years ago

I believe its Hover that you're remembering.

http://help.hover.com/2011/07/07/hover-secures-passwords-wit...

freejack2• 15 years ago

That article is horribly outdated. Hover does not store passwords in plaintext.

jeff18• 15 years ago

I wish you could just give namecheap your GoDaddy credentials and have them move your domains properly for you. I am definitely not looking forward to figuring out GoDaddy's UI for all my domains.

Nat0• 15 years ago

This handy guide should help you through GoDaddy's maze of a UI. http://blog.jeffepstein.me/post/14629857835/a-step-by-step-g...

ConstantineXVI• 15 years ago

Hover[1] says they'll handle xfers for you; not sure how far that help extends (we xfer'd ours manually without a hitch) but they've generally been very pleasant so far.

[1] https://www.hover.com/

abcd_f• 15 years ago

Can anyone explain why would one want to transfer a domain from one US-based registrar to another given that all recent domain-related issues are US-centered?

dangrossman4• 15 years ago

Your choice of registrar is completely irrelevant; the registry itself is in the US (Verisign), and the government goes straight to the registry. Unless you plan to abandon the .com/.net/etc extensions, you're under US jurisdiction even if you register the domain in another country.

alecco• 15 years ago

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.com

openmosix• 15 years ago

A similar initiative: fightsopa.org will donate 5$ to EFF for each developer solving one coding puzzle

shawnz• 15 years ago

I'd like to point out that name.com (my current registrar) has been an EFF donor for some time already -- but I don't know to what extent.

arthurgibson• 15 years ago

Why doesn't NameCheap donate a $1 for every domain moved since 12/22 or last week when all the SOPA issues with Godaddy were presented?

akuchlous• 15 years ago

http://byebyegodaddy.com now points to http://namecheap.com

dspillett• 15 years ago

I'm surprised no other registrars seem to have jumped on this in quite the way NameCheap have. Is it that they feel too small to take the risk of rocking the boat?

freejack2• 15 years ago

Speaking only for myself, there's only a certain amount of opportunism that I'm comfortable with in piling on when a competitor stumbles, especially when it is rooted in politics.

For example, Tucows does a ton of great work to support various causes and we've always (at least as long as I can remember) supported the development of the Open Internet but we've never had a huge animal rights component to our activism, so we didn't feel right adopting an elephant rescue charity for our giving. A few other registrars did, but it just felt weird for us to change our stripes for PR & marketing purposes.

Same dynamics at work with this issue (and it is much more of an issue than it is an opportunity). We do a lot of work with a lot of organizations that oppose SOPA and PIPA and similarly stupid bits of law that might destroy or inappropriately restrain the Internet commons and we're going to continue to do that, but to buddy up to the EFF and promise donations based on business volumes just isn't something we're comfortable with. We think our activism can be expressed much more productively.

We're continuing to talk about what works best for us and our customers while staying true to our values and we may or may not stay our current course - it is always a live issue, but as one of the largest registrars, I can definitely say that it isn't a case of being too small or not wanting to rock the boat. :-)

Samuel_Michon• 15 years ago

I just transferred 20 general TLDs from GoDaddy to Namecheap. I did so based on the positive reviews here on HN, but also because Namecheap has been very verbal during this SOPA ordeal. The SOPAsucks coupon was a nice perk. Too bad Namecheap doesn't do transfers for ccTLDs like .nl and .es.

Can anyone suggest a good, affordable registrar with broad ccTLD support and a decent mobile site/app? Preferably an independent company with phone support in the US. (I looked into Hover, but they're owned by Tucows. I also looked into Gandi, but they're based in France.)

Namecheap to Donate $1 to EFF for Every Domain Transfer on December 29th

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