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Upcoming .com and .xyz domain price increase

namecheap.com

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Re: Upcoming .com and .xyz domain price increase

#231

Post by mikea1 »

jl6 wrote: post #104

Does ICANN have a position on whether domain name prices should be high (e.g. to discourage squatting), or low (e.g. to avoid being a rent/tax)? Because the price seems entirely driven by whatever ICANN wants it to be (by virtue of assigning the monopoly to Verisign, with an ICANN-defined cap on price rises), rather than any market mechanism. For example, if a startup approaches ICANN saying they can manage the .com…

I think ICANN would not entertain a startup taking over registry operations for .com or .net. ICANN recently defended their no-bid contract renewal for .net with Verisign:

> If ICANN were to put every TLD out for bid every renewal cycle to give it to the lowest bidder there would be no incentive for registry operators to invest in long-term stability and growth of the TLD(s) they operate.

https://domainnamewire.com/2023/08/16/icann-says-putting-tld...

I find it odd that "growth" is a justification. I was unaware that ICANN has a mandate to promote growth of specific TLDs.

These justifications, especially of "stability", make more sense to me in the context of the root DNS server that Verisign operates. Verisign would not agree to run a critical part of DNS infrastructure without a big TLD contract. I'm certain that maintaining and running those DNS servers with 100% uptime is an engineering accomplishment and its stability requires safe hands.

Re: Upcoming .com and .xyz domain price increase

#232

Post by ted0 »

pcdoodle wrote: post #108

I kinda want to switch. Namecheap started playing into politics which is a very bad move for an internet infrastructure company.

What are you talking about specifically? Namecheap has always been vocal and active with advocating for issues like net neutrality and SOPA.

Re: Upcoming .com and .xyz domain price increase

#234

Post by nikolay »

VeriSign's monopoly should be ended but won't until big changes happen with the ICANN mafia. Cloudflare and Namebright offer at-cost pricing. How can they afford it and Namecheap (which should rebrand to Namescam) are marking up so much? You always make profit from addon services, not from domain registrations.

Be aware of the poor security of Namecheap. 2 years ago I was able to persuade their support via chat to remove the 2FA without providing any info! I didn't even try that hard!

Re: Upcoming .com and .xyz domain price increase

#235

Post by [deleted] »

crazygringo wrote: post #226
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…

Is that just tracking inflation though? What was the date of their last markup increase, and what has inflation been since then? Presumably their employees need to be paid more to keep with inflation and all.

[deleted]

Re: Upcoming .com and .xyz domain price increase

#236

Post by autoexec »

Spivak wrote: post #194
autoexec wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm ok if this leads to de-squatting. It wont. If anything it'll just consolidate the squatted domains into fewer hands. Progressively increasing prices for each domain purchased seems pretty reasonable, but unless it raises very quickly it'll still end up being worth it to a wealthy few. Combining those raising prices with capping the resell price of domains seems like it would actually work! Someone somewhere mig…

> It wont. If anything it'll just consolidate the squatted domains into fewer hands. This is actually great if your end is to get rid of squatting, consolidate the market into a number of throats that's feasible to choke and then do it via regulation.

Seems like it'd be easier to get throat choking regulation in place before ownership is consolidated into a small number of people with deep pockets, vast resources, and disproportionate influence. The nice thing about policy is that it can be applied to huge numbers of entities instantly. Why risk creating behemoths too big to fight before you even start?

Re: Upcoming .com and .xyz domain price increase

#237

Post by agwa »

crazygringo wrote: post #226
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…

Is that just tracking inflation though? What was the date of their last markup increase, and what has inflation been since then? Presumably their employees need to be paid more to keep with inflation and all.

If their costs have gone up due to inflation they should be honest about that. Their blog post implicitly blames Verisign for the price increase, which is not the whole truth.

Re: Upcoming .com and .xyz domain price increase

#238

Post by geetee »

ted0 wrote: post #229

Ted from Namecheap here. We have launched a new beta registrar, Spaceship.com, which has wholesale pricing on most extensions. A reminder that wholesale pricing is set by each TLD’s registry, not us. Would love your feedback on this early version of Spaceship.

If I'm leaving Namecheap, I'm leaving Namecheap.

Re: Upcoming .com and .xyz domain price increase

#239

Post by hnarn »

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…

Ever since I found out that Cloudflare does not charge any markup on the domains you buy from them, I've decided to buy all my domains from them. They are very transparent with their pricing, and also has a notice about this increase; in their case it will go up from $9.15 to $9.77 -- which seems to check out with the sum of the registry fee plus the ICANN fee.

Re: Upcoming .com and .xyz domain price increase

#240

Post by verst »

judge2020 wrote: post #38
verst wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For now - but surely they too will increase as part of this. What are the rates after the increase which will impact every registry?

Every registrar* Registry is like verisign owning .com Registrar is all of the people who sell you .com domains, by having a contract with the registry.

Funnily I even looked up this distinction before writing because I very much know of the difference (see my comment history) but wrote exactly the wrong one. Oh well. Yes I meant registrar, not the TLD registry.
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