Earlier quoted context omitted.
I started moving all of my domains back to NameCheap from Badger after they raised their prices to what Hover charges. The domain renewal with whois privacy/guard at NameCheap ends up being a little more than Google Domains. I keep hoping NameCheap will overhaul their control panel design like they did with their main site. I will probably end up moving to AWS Route53 or Google Domains or to use their DNS and a clean…
I always have a hard time understanding why price is such a motivator for people in domain registration, when we're talking about differences of a few dollars a year, and when a bad registrar can screw you over royally. I mean, sure, if you have thousands of domains, it matters. But if you have a handful, isn't it worth paying a bit more if needed to get a better registrar? Not really aiming this directly at the pare…
But really all registrars boil down to two "types" the sub-$20/year ones (which are like 90% of the market) and then the $1K+/year ones which bundle in all kinds of brand protection products and domain protection stuff (e.g. Mark Monitor).
Neither Google or Name Cheap are different enough for price to be a deciding factor, but NameCheap has a better track record than Google in this specific space. GoDaddy is someone I wouldn't touch even if they were cheaper, I hate their bullshit (e.g. upsell, misleading checkout, misleading prices, etc).
If you could pay $5 extra a year and get better service, if it was a business website I'd definitely consider it, but for personal shit I wouldn't, and in general there is no way to spend just $5 or similar more a year and get any marked improvement.
The only thing which might be an upgrade is $12/year for the registrar and then $6~7 for Route53 on top. That's a nice improvement for an extra few bucks.