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Upcoming .com and .xyz domain price increase

namecheap.com

51–60 of 352 posts

Re: Upcoming .com and .xyz domain price increase

#52
This is what capitalism is: intermediation, rent-seeking and creating a monopoly via a regulatory moat.

Some time ago I watched this excellent video on the history of Tetris [1]. The only "innovation" of capitalism in this entire story are layers of licensing agreements. Again: intermediation, rent-seeking and regulatory moats (through intellectual property).

A domain is nothing more than a digital record. The cost of providing that service is essentially zero. The cost should be pretty much zero. You'd have to do something about squatting but, hey, that's already an unaddressed problem.

[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fQtxKmgJC8

Re: Upcoming .com and .xyz domain price increase

#54
post #42

How do other registrars compare with Namecheap? I've been using them for a long time and haven't had any problems with their services, so I stopped keeping track of how the industry has evolved.

Porkbun has provided me better service at an extremely competitive price.

Re: Upcoming .com and .xyz domain price increase

#55
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow. What is porkbun and how is it so much cheaper? Is this worth transferring over?

Domains are a loss leader product for everyone in the internet/hosting industry. Porkbun’s goal is to get you to buy secondary products.

Pretty much. Everyone wants to upsell you on their hosting, page creation and blogging tools where they have ridiculous margins. How much disk space and bandwidth do you think a random small business or Jane Rando's recipe blog actually use vs. what they're being charged for? Not to mention things like "brand protection" where they'll do you a solid and buy/squat your domain on the .xxx and .sucks tlds for extra $$ each month.

Re: Upcoming .com and .xyz domain price increase

#56
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's $5 over a year. If that's a meaningful amount of money you probably have no business owning domain names. Namecheap has always been good for me in terms of service and reliability. I only own a few domains but if $15/year was unaffordable I think I'd just let them expire.

> It's $5 over a year. If that's a meaningful amount of money you probably have no business owning domain names. I don't think you have a say on what others do with their money, or what could have possibly led you to believe you had. I've bought domains for my employer before. Domain name pricing was absolutely a factor in the decision-making process. Only a moron pays $20 for something they could pay $10 instead.

Everybody here can express an opinion on any topic under discussion; it's a public forum.

I might say only a moron spends 10 seconds of his employer's time worrying about a $5 difference in an expense over the course of a year. At that cost differential, many other factors are more important than price.

Re: Upcoming .com and .xyz domain price increase

#57
I wanted to share my experience with Namecheap over the years. I made the switch from GoDaddy to Namecheap back in the day when they launched a notable campaign against elephant poaching around 2009. At that time, Namecheap seemed like a solid choice, even if it meant paying around $100 annually. However, times have changed, and my opinion has shifted.

Lately, I've noticed that shared hosting with Namecheap has lost its edge. The performance has taken a hit, making it hard to justify the cost. Notably, the speed has slowed down significantly, and there are certain limitations on access that were not there before. Unfortunately, the support, which used to be a strong point, has also declined.

As a result, I'm currently in the process of migrating most of my content away from Namecheap. I'm on the lookout for an alternative hosting provider that offers a robust and affordable package without compromising on speed. If any of you have recommendations for a hosting service that strikes that balance between quality and affordability, I'd love to hear about it.

Re: Upcoming .com and .xyz domain price increase

#58
post #33

Porkbun pricing: .com (9.73USD): https://porkbun.com/tld/com .xyz (9.92USD): https://porkbun.com/tld/xyz

Wow. What is porkbun and how is it so much cheaper? Is this worth transferring over?

FWIW, I like their pricing and overall marketing approach and transferred my domains over a few months ago. Great experience overall.

Re: Upcoming .com and .xyz domain price increase

#59
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also rent seeking by namecheap. But agreed. It’s parasitic.

>Also rent seeking by namecheap What has it got to do with namecheap when they dont own the registry of .COM or .XYZ?

I'm not saying they are doing anything right or wrong but they are probably a profitable company who could have theoretically spared to absorb some (or all) of it without passing it through to their customers

Instead, they are passing it on 100%.

Re: Upcoming .com and .xyz domain price increase

#60

How is this anything but rent seeking on the part of Verisign? Edit: not surprised how this got regulatory approval... https://www.politico.com/news/2022/04/09/website-domain-more...

“I think calling them a monopoly at this point is an unfair comparison. Verisign is no more a monopoly than your Ford dealer is a monopoly,” Redl said. “It’s not the original days of the internet where that was the only top-level domain.”

It is bothers me that the monopoly is excused this way.

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