I'd never in a lifetime want to depend for something as critical as domain registrations on a company that can't be bothered to answer its customers. Google has an absolutely horrible record when it comes to end user support and if there is one thing you want from your registrar then it is that they actually answer their phones and email.
Google Domains Launches to All in U.S
201–210 of 248 posts
Re: Google Domains Launches to All in U.S
#202Earlier quoted context omitted.
I like everything about namecheap, except the name. I hate having to mention their company name to a customer who I'm managing the domain for. It sounds like I'm using a discount service from the bottom of the barrel when that's really not how the company operates. It would be nice if I could refer to a parent company with a more appealing name.
When I bought Namecheap domains in 2006, domains were close in price to ~$70. Namecheap's name was intended to show that you'd buy it for less. The brand grew from there. That's why Namecheap is still called Namecheap. Disclosure: Namecheap employee/personal experience
Domains were nowhere near ~$70 in 2006. Maybe in 2000.
Re: Google Domains Launches to All in U.S
#203This is a welcome news. I've had it with name.com and it's horrible webmail. Unable to send email for weeks, support replying with unhelpful answers every 48 hours. Have to pay for whois privacy and bunch of other stuff most registrars give you for free.
Re: Google Domains Launches to All in U.S
#204Earlier quoted context omitted.
No offense to you or your firm, but fuck coupon codes. When I go to Trader Joe's for groceries, I work out what I want to eat and note the prices. When I make one of the occasional trips to Safeway I spend half my time trying to match up what I went there to buy with the particular coupon that's running this week or that my wife added to loyalty card, and more time attempting to decrypt my receipt after I get home to…
You can say that to any firm then. Given our razor thin profit margins, the pricing is there for a reason. The coupon codes are also there simply to sweeten the deal. Bear in mind the products we're mostly represent cost a low $10. If we had more wiggle room on pricing, we'd offer low pricing all the time. It's just not feasible for a business like ours to do 24/7.
What I'm saying is that I am more quality- and convenience- sensitive than I am price-sensitive. Not because I'm rich, but because the mental overhead of coupon deals etc. carries a cost that typically exceeds the saving on the coupon. If you make the service sufficiently attractive, you can raise your prices. Admittedly this is a bit challenging when your firm is branded as 'namecheap' in order to attract the most price-conscious consumers, but companies can and do rebrand themselves.
I mean, Google is charging more than you, and it's not like they couldn't win a price war if they were so inclined - they could probably sell domains for $1/year without significant damage to their bottom line. Maybe it's time to get out of the 'cheap' box.
Re: Google Domains Launches to All in U.S
#205Earlier quoted context omitted.
One of the headaches of setting up a domain is getting the email sorted correctly. Instant integration to Gmail is a nice feature. If you want privacy protection on your whois lookups, then Google would be cheaper than the other providers, as they sell it as an add-on. I also trust Google to have speedy DNS servers, if you're leaving the defaults in place. GoDaddy's DNS can be quite slow. Perhaps not a "mind-blowing"…
>One of the headaches of setting up a domain is getting the email sorted correctly. Instant integration to Gmail is a nice feature. name.com has had that for years. Click a button and it configures all the MX records for you and a few CNAMES on top (so you can do stuff like mail.yourdomain.com and calendar.yourdomain.com).
please stay the hell away from name.com, their webmail is an absolute joke!
Re: Google Domains Launches to All in U.S
#206Don't waste your time on this service. I registered for it years ago while it was still in beta, and it's been nothing but a trainwreck. The latest debacle: I can't renew my domain. They started sending me notifications a few months ago that my domain was expiring because my credit card is out of date. I can't sign in because of a redirect bug. There's no support to reach out to, and requests for help on forums have…
The Google Domains page has a claim of "chat, phone and email support" which links to: https://domains.google.com/registrar#contactus&chp=contactus I haven't actually tried following through with it, since I don't have any support queries myself, but that certainly /looks/ like a way to directly talk to support.
I can confirm that the contact us does connect you to support; usually Google provides at least adequate support options for paid services (e.g., Domains). I spoke with someone over Chat that was surprisingly knowledgeable, and even gave me the heads up that the new features would be rolling out soon (this was a couple weeks ago)
Re: Google Domains Launches to All in U.S
#207Knowing first hand google support I will stick to namecheap ...
I've been using Namecheap consistently for more than 8 years, in combination with Gandi. Never had any issues. Recently, I had to contact support for a failed payment (obscure domain extension, some address verification error), and the experience was great. I got it fixed in less than 5 minutes by contacting their live support. Will keep using them. Their name doesn't do them justice, they are an A player in the doma…
I have limited experience with Namemcheap, but my most recent experience was not exactly a positive one.
Backstory: I have five .io domains, three that I registered with Gandi, and two with Namecheap. When the expiration period for the Gandi ones was coming up, I got an email saying "the domains expire on xx/xx/xxxx, renew by then if you want them to stay active. If you don't renew, you can renew then any time up to 90 days after the expiration date".
As it happens, I let the three with Gandi expire, and then logged into their dashboard, renewed them about 60 days after the expiration date, end of story.
Compare: I accidentally let the two I had registered with Namecheap expire. "OK" I figured, "not a big deal, they probably have some kind of grace period as well." No. I got an email saying "these domains expired and you cannot renew them through your Namecheap account. You can contact support and they might be able to help you renew them." So, I contact support and they write back and say "we'll try, but it's going to cost $XXX.XX (somewhere around $250, if memory serves) to renew".
OK, to be fair, I did let the domains expire, so I guess I deserve what I get. But the experience renewing an expired domain with Gandi was so much better than what it was with Namecheap, that I've basically written Namecheap off as a registrar to use in the future.
Re: Google Domains Launches to All in U.S
#208Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've been a beta-tester of Google Domains for months, and it's just such a nicer experience than GoDaddy/Namecheap. Particularly with GoDaddy, I feel like there's always a chance I'm going to click on the wrong thing and then get subscribed to some ridiculous service. With Google, it's a clean, transparent, USABLE interface. I'd encourage people to try it out with a domain and form your own views. As for me, I'm movi…
Hey jedc - Tamar from Namecheap here. Can you provide insights into the Namecheap experience? I hear the GD side. Would like to know what you mean from ours. As far as our dashboard, we're building a better user experience, so that's nothing to fret about. I bet you'd agree when it's live that the experience is far more stellar than anything you'd find anywhere else.
Hey tamar; thanks for responding.
Like others have said, it's mainly that the interface looks and feels like something circa 2001. I inevitably click into the wrong menu/interface/page for something I want to do, and it just feels inefficient whenever I want to get something done.
Re: Google Domains Launches to All in U.S
#209None of Google Domain's features are novel. In fact the article spent most of its time talking about an up-sell. Which isn't to say Google Domain isn't a good product, just that we now should look at price because nothing else seems interesting... ~ Google Domains charges $12/year for .COM, .NET, .ORG. ~ NameCheap charges $10.69/year for .COM, $11.98/year for .NET, and $11.48/year for .ORG. Sometimes with an 18c/year…
Private registration usually costs extra, but not with Google domains. That is a compelling reason to me. I also like the clean interface, some of the other vendors have horrible interfaces.
It's free on Dreamhost. I don't use them for hosting anymore, but still keep a few domains there. 10 bucks a year for .coms.
The interface is ... almost ok. It's cluttered because it's used for more than just domain registration (think it's cPanel, actually) but the registration part is ok.
Re: Google Domains Launches to All in U.S
#210Earlier quoted context omitted.
I like everything about namecheap, except the name. I hate having to mention their company name to a customer who I'm managing the domain for. It sounds like I'm using a discount service from the bottom of the barrel when that's really not how the company operates. It would be nice if I could refer to a parent company with a more appealing name.
When I bought Namecheap domains in 2006, domains were close in price to ~$70. Namecheap's name was intended to show that you'd buy it for less. The brand grew from there. That's why Namecheap is still called Namecheap. Disclosure: Namecheap employee/personal experience
I was actually running a hosting company in 2006 and we had a lot of domains under management at eNom. ENom charged us $8.95 per domain per year, and we charged our customers $15 per year for registration through us. (I went back and looked up our prices back then just for this post.)
Domains haven't been $70 each since around 1996 or so.