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Comment by aiurtourist | Hacker News Reader

I'd like to switch to !GoDaddy, and Namecheap seems popular. Are there any useful pro/cons I should know about Namecheap before switching?

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Pro: They've refused to disable domains or turn over private WHOIS data to lawyers representing trademark holders and celebrities. GoDaddy's standard response to an abuse complaint is to yank the domain same day, Namecheap's is to say "get a court order or GTFO".

Con: Transfers are absurdly slow. It took 'em 5-6 hours to initiate the transfer after I ordered. I approved the transfer on both ends instantly. Within the hour the root registry showed the domains moved to Namecheap/enom ownership. 12 hours later, Namecheap still shows everything as pending in their interface. That means I have no management of my own domains -- if I needed to change nameservers or such I'm SOL.

I've never had a problem using Namecheap, their support tickets tend to be answered quickly and their prices are reasonable. They also used to charge $17.76 for a two year .uk domain registration, which was amusing.

One con is that unlike Joker and Gandi (and surely others), Namecheap is located in Los Angeles, CA and is therefore subject to US court judgements, US Internet policy, and US privacy laws (or lack thereof).

Isn't part of the whole current kerfuffle that the DoJ considers any Verisign tld under US jurisdiction?

And wants a Great Firewall of America to block the sites which aren't under our jurisdiction....

Sure, but why make it easy for them and keep the domains under US jurisdiction where they don't even have to go to GFA lengths? Why keep your domain in a country with poor-to-nonexistent privacy laws?

No argument here! Just pointing out that they've got that covered, even if they obviously haven't thought it through.

I've used GoDaddy in the past and was frustrated by their interface. Namecheap's is much better. Also, I've gotten $2 SSL certs and very cheap private domain registration from them as well.

Switched over after the elephant cull, haven't regretted it at all. Clean interface, and very easy flow for new domains. Only gripe is that they don't have a mobile site.

Or a mobile app like godaddy does? I like searching for available domains on my phone sometimes and godaddy's app does that well. Does anyone know of any alternative iPhone apps for searching for available domains?

Check out domize.com - great interface, tells you quickly whats available. You can set it to use namecheap as your default registrar, so clicking on one takes you right there. Works really well, but only for searching.

Cool thanks. Sounds like it's exactly what I need.

I've always used them, and they've been flawless for me. Not "amazing service", but "I haven't needed any service" because everything just worked properly. From what I hear they are responsive when you need them as well. I'd recommend them.

NameCheap "doesn't support SOPA", but they're capitalizing on GoDaddy's missteps more than having any firm moral objection to SOPA. Their opposition to SOPA is very qualified, they publicly say they support new IP legislation, and they may well support whatever comes after SOPA.

I use gandi.net personally - Gandi has long supported internet freedom and is based outside of the US.

Yes, but as stated above Gandi is just a reseller of .COM & .NET gTLD's from Verisign which is still US based.

i've also used dynadot which i like a lot. They have a pretty useful API, and good customer service. However, their pricing is only as good as namecheap if you spend more than $500 USD/year on domains.

Tried to read their Terms of Service, long as hell

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