Upcoming .com and .xyz domain price increase • Hacker News Board

Re: Upcoming .com and .xyz domain price increase

#201

Post by CharlesW » Mon, Aug 21, 2023, 7:48 PM UTC

0x0000000 wrote: post #157

CharlesW wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So does your response mean (1) "take it easy on Namecheap because this kind of bait-and-switch is common among registrars", or (2) "take it easy on Namecheap because it was unintentional incompetence"?

I'm saying take it easy on Namecheap because it's out of their control, and would have happened regardless of the registrar you used for that particular domain. The incompetence is on the part of the registry, for not having properly identified the given domain as premium until post-registration.

> I'm saying take it easy on Namecheap because it's out of their control…

If we assume that Namecheap is incapable of malice, then it means Namecheap's systems and/or processes are broken. (Registry agreements don't allow registries to retroactively reclassify domains as "premium".)

Re: Upcoming .com and .xyz domain price increase

#202

Post by schemescape » Mon, Aug 21, 2023, 7:49 PM UTC

stOneskull wrote: post #178

schemescape wrote: post #159

Is there a TLD that has a reasonable chance to stay low cost? I just want a domain for hobby projects and I don’t really care which TLD as long as it’s short, but I don’t like having to guess which TLDs are trying to lure people with low prices, only to suddenly raise prices in the future (I’ve seen this happen a few times). I’d also like to use a TLD that is unlikely to be bought by private equity (I vaguely recall…

> .tk allows free registration, so that seems promising, but I doubt it will last .tk has been free for years and years. i think it's lasted ok. it won't be good for search engine results though, and probably isn't good to use for email. it's good if you have no money.. like those free1000.hostingforyou.net hosts. you can put together a warez site from the street!

That’s a shame that .tk is getting abused, but not surprising.

I guess, in addition to maintaining the database, a TLD probably needs to prevent abuse to be a good citizen. Add in fees and I have no idea what a reasonable price would be. Maybe I’ll stop complaining…

Re: Upcoming .com and .xyz domain price increase

#203

Post by stOneskull » Mon, Aug 21, 2023, 7:50 PM UTC

patmcc wrote: post #81

politelemon wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How are Cloudflare and Porkbun keeping the cost still 'low', isn't everyone affected by Verisign's increases?

Cloudflare wants you on their platform so they can sell you everything else - it's a loss leader. Porkbun I don't know. Namecheap, I think domains are their primary business - they need to make money on them.

before i moved to porkbun, i had 12 domains. now i have 23. their great domain search, their friendly, funny words everywhere, and cute graphics.. it gets people to buy more domains than they normally would, and not want to move away. that's my guess.

edit: here is their announcement..

august 8 - https://mailchi.mp/porkbun.com/porkbun-unwrapped-whats-in-st...

"We expect our pricing to change from $9.73 to around $10.37 on September 1"

Re: Upcoming .com and .xyz domain price increase

#204

Post by ceejayoz » Mon, Aug 21, 2023, 7:52 PM UTC

agwa wrote: post #198

tiffanyh wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$9.73 renewals at Porkbun. https://porkbun.com/tld/com

That's presumably going to increase on September 1 or else they'll be taking a $0.04 loss every time they sell a .com.

Which they might be willing to do, if the average domain generates enough upsell revenue with other services.

Re: Upcoming .com and .xyz domain price increase

#205

Post by mort96 » Mon, Aug 21, 2023, 7:54 PM UTC

echelon wrote: post #183

agwa wrote: post #161

Namecheap's current .com renewal price of $14.58 is broken down as: $0.18 ICANN fee $8.97 Verisign's current registry fee $5.43 Namecheap's markup Namecheap's new .com renewal price of $15.88 will be broken down as: $0.18 ICANN fee (no change) $9.59 Verisign's new registry fee (7% increase) $6.11 Namecheap's new markup (13% increase) So the price increase is not entirely "out of [Namecheap's] control". They are also…

Namecheap should use some of this new revenue to fix their UI. Owning more than 10 domains on Namecheap is a burden. Trying to manage more than 50 is an outright headache [1]. I'm nearly to the point where I'm going to transfer all of my domains just to escape the poor management console. I've been giving them this same complaint for awhile [2]. I'm no fan of Godaddy [3], but they really did a good job with bulk mana…

I literally moved away from Namecheap when they did a UI redesign many years ago. Their old control panel was ugly but functional. Their new one looked much more "modern", but was way less information dense, and they introduced jank and made stuff take more clicks and hid stuff behind collapsed-by-default menus iirc.

They also made their billing details UI no longer accept the letter "ø". The billing details UI which made clear the importance of making sure the name you enter matches the name on the card. And the name on my card happens to contain an "ø". That doesn't exactly instil confidence.

Re: Upcoming .com and .xyz domain price increase

#206

Post by gabereiser » Mon, Aug 21, 2023, 7:54 PM UTC

listenallyall wrote: post #186

agwa wrote: post #161

Namecheap's current .com renewal price of $14.58 is broken down as: $0.18 ICANN fee $8.97 Verisign's current registry fee $5.43 Namecheap's markup Namecheap's new .com renewal price of $15.88 will be broken down as: $0.18 ICANN fee (no change) $9.59 Verisign's new registry fee (7% increase) $6.11 Namecheap's new markup (13% increase) So the price increase is not entirely "out of [Namecheap's] control". They are also…

.com is the most desirable TLD by far and also one of the least expensive. .io, .me, .shop, .info, .site are all more, often significantly more. Like everyone else I would love less expensive .com prices but honestly Verisign could 10x the cost of .com and only lose a mild percentage of registrations.

It’s also the most exhausted. The min char available now is in the 7 range. Prefixes and/or suffixes and even hyphens are being used to find land. It’s brutal.

Re: Upcoming .com and .xyz domain price increase

#207

Post by CameronNemo » Mon, Aug 21, 2023, 7:55 PM UTC

robomartin wrote: post #192

CameronNemo wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the onus is on Verisign to justify their price increases, not the consumer if the monopoly. So far I've seen them hand waive about inflation and "demand for domains". As of 2022, their operating margin was about 65%... That doesn't indicate a company that needs to increase prices.

> hand waive about inflation There's nothing whatsoever hand-wavy about inflation. It's as real as can be, and it affects everyone and everything. > As of 2022, their operating margin was about 65%... That doesn't indicate a company that needs to increase prices. It indicates nothing. That isn't even close to proper analysis of their financials. As is often the case with chat room discussions, people just love to gra…

Maybe this is rent-seeking. Don't know. What I do know is that the claim has been made in this thread and the only real support is feelings

Who made the claim?

Also, saying someone makes 65% operating margin as a measure of evil-ness is ridiculous

You said evil, not me. Projection?

Re: Upcoming .com and .xyz domain price increase

#208

Post by jonas21 » Mon, Aug 21, 2023, 7:56 PM UTC

pwpw wrote: post #191

midasuni wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you run a successful restaurant and the landlord hikes your rent you can hardly move town. Yes it’s rent seeking. It’s also the way capitalism works.

I can’t imagine a world where Google would move their primary domain from .com to .io. Over the past 20 years, I’ve witnessed numerous successful restaurants move locations due to rent hikes that are still in business in their new locations indicating continued success. I’m having trouble thinking of any major companies that have changed their domains after already being established and successful. Migrating domains…

The reason it's different is that domains are so cheap and the price increases are so small. Why would a major company (or even a tiny company) change their domain over an increase of a dollar or two per year? It doesn't make sense.

If those restaurants' landlords had hiked their rent by a few dollars per year, they wouldn't have moved either. But it's not uncommon to see increases of thousands of dollars per month, even for a small restaurant, when the lease comes up for renewal.

Re: Upcoming .com and .xyz domain price increase

#209

Post by joshmanders » Mon, Aug 21, 2023, 7:59 PM UTC

paulmd wrote: post #162

uxp8u61q wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then you send them to the new website. It's about as much a bother as changing postal addresses.

mmhmm, and what happens to their email at the old address?

I am not exactly happy about the price increase, but if the domain is this important, is $15/yr really that bad?

Like I'm flabbergasted at people complaining about the burdens of doing something nobody would do, because the cost isn't worth the effort.

Now if they raised prices to $100+/yr I could imagine, but $15/yr is negligible costs.

Re: Upcoming .com and .xyz domain price increase

#210

Post by 3abiton » Mon, Aug 21, 2023, 7:59 PM UTC

gabereiser wrote: post #206

listenallyall wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

.com is the most desirable TLD by far and also one of the least expensive. .io, .me, .shop, .info, .site are all more, often significantly more. Like everyone else I would love less expensive .com prices but honestly Verisign could 10x the cost of .com and only lose a mild percentage of registrations.

It’s also the most exhausted. The min char available now is in the 7 range. Prefixes and/or suffixes and even hyphens are being used to find land. It’s brutal.

Reminds me of that south park episode.