[TheP1000]

GoDaddy is really a dishonest company. Please do yourself a favor and avoid them. Things I've personally experienced:

* The purchase of webfaction w/ a promise to migrate sites to a new host. They promised for over a year to do this migration and then 30 days before shutdown told me they could not migrate and to figure it out.

* Domain name sniping. Never ever use godaddy to search to find a domain. They will just steal anything you search for if you don't immediately claim it.

[streptomycin]

The Webfaction situation was so weird. You have a very customizable, powerful, idiosyncratic shared hosting service that's going to be basically impossible to migrate to any other hosting provider. And it gets bought by GoDaddy of all people? And the plan is to migrate users to normal GoDaddy shared hosting? I wonder if they gained even a single user from that purchase. For me, the idea of switching to GoDaddy was a complete non-starter.

[542458]

For anybody not familiar, WebFaction was “shared hosting for nerds”. The control panel gave you a lot more power than most shared hosts did, you had SSH access, and you could spin up servers for pretty much every web programming environment going with a couple clicks. When Godaddy bought them they transferred everybody onto bog-standard and much less flexible Godaddy shared hosting, and everybody who was using a less-common web stack was dropped.

I’m still cheesed about it, and more than a bit confused. Godaddy had and still doesn’t have any of the value prop that webfaction did. Godaddy didn’t integrate the WF technology or customer base in any meaningful way… so what was the point? Was it an aquihire?

[voakbasda]

To me, this kind of acquisition speaks of anti-competitive behavior. They didn’t want the product or people; they just didn’t want to compete with them.

[FrenchDevRemote]

could we make them loose a lot of money by making bots to search for all kind of useless domains?

[morgosmaci]

They don't actually have to pay for it by using "domain tasting" which gives them the option to grab the domain for up to 5 days. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_name_front_running

[MerelyMortal]

I use Dynadot, and they actually pass the "domain tasting" on to the customer: you have a couple of days to cancel your domain registration for a full refund.

As a customer, I highly recommend Dynadot (low prices like NameCheap, but a nicer interface - I tried both registrars when I switched my domains away from DreamHost).

[googlryas]

So just wait 5 days to register?

[ipaddr]

They re-register

[bombcar]

Not really, no, because IIRC registers can "return" a domain within a period of time for free or nearly no cost.

[shakna]

Not really. They're a registrar, those domains do not cost them a lot to hold.

[cgb223]

Is Namecheap better?

My domains are currently split between the two

Might as well move my stuff over if it means avoiding things like this

[cortic]

Had a horrendous experience with NameCheap where they basically stole my domain and some of my money after freezing my account and insisting i do a cam show with my credit card on some random site (not their domain) that had privacy guard up.. They are also not so 'cheap' any more. I'm using NameSilo and PorkBun, so far not bad.

[Normille]

I used to host all my domains with NameCheap and moved them all off after a run in with their customer service, who I found to be really arrogant:

NameCheap send out their reminder emails telling you a domain is about to expire in the format: "Your domain <somedomain.com> expires on MM/DD".

Several times I had domains expire or almost expire because, being in Europe I naturally read 'MM/DD' as 'DD/MM' which, under certain circumstances looked like a domain was expiring several weeks in the future, when it was expiring imminently.

I emailed NameCheap customer service on a couple of occasions about this. Pointing out that, for their customers outside the US, their expiration notice emails were liable to be mis-read and I suggested they either use 'DD/MM' when emailing customers in Europe or --even better- just spell out the month name, so there's no possibility of confusion.

The first time I got no response at all. The second time, I got an email back from NameCheap Customer Service saying "We're an American company. We use American date format"

So I thought 'Fuck you then. You'll not be wanting non-American customers, in that case.' and immediately transferred all my domains elsewhere.

I'm currently using gandi.net. Not as cheap as NameCheap but no complaints so far.

Oh. And to address something raised by the OP: there's no way you should have to pay $150 [or anything for that matter] to revive a domain that expired the day before. I'm not sure what the grace period is. But, in the past, I've renewed domains that had expired a week or more previously and never had any problem. Nor have I ever had to pay any 'fine' for doing so.

GoDaddy are shysters. I'm actually surprised someone fitting the HN demographic uses them. I thought their reputation was pretty well known in techy circles and most savvy people actively avoided them.

[rovr138]

> The second time, I got an email back from NameCheap Customer Service saying "We're an American company. We use American date format"

I'm guessing that's a low level person and they closed it with that.

There's a post here where the CEO wrote how they had about 1000 people in Ukraine being affected by the war.

Found it, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30506813

I've stumbled upon them a couple of times before.

[bhartzer]

NameCheap doesn't "steal" domain names, they're just a domain name registrar. They may locked your account, but they can't (and won't) steal domain names.

It sounds like someone may have gained access to your account or there may have been some other issue. It's usual for them to have ask for video proof that you're the domain owner.

[cortic]

>It's usual for them to have ask for video proof that you're the domain owner.

Putting aside the fact that it is just an insecure and undignified way of transferring data. Why not host the 'video proof' site on namecheap domain? so you know who's watching. And why not ask for photo ID instead of credit card? I mean anyone can send an email "go to [whatever] domain and show me your credit card, or I'll stop your [whatever] service" and NameCheap users will be conditioned into falling for this scam. Its reckless and unprofessional.

And i don't know how else to define took some of my money and registered a domain.. then kept it cause that's what happened. You have a deadline to do your cam show, which is shorter than the time their support service takes to answer an email about your concerns; After that you lose some of your money and your domain.

[199X]

as long as you are not russian[0], today. Maybe tomorrow they will discriminate your country.

[0] https://www.namecheap.com/support/knowledgebase/article.aspx...

[katbyte]

Some people may consider this a reason to continue to support them.

[dannyw]

I prefer my domain name registrar to be neutral instead of political, thanks. What's next, bash refusing to run if your locale is ru-RU?

[wpietri]

There's no "neutral" here, just different flavors of political. Indifference to and support of a war of aggression are both legitimate political positions. But they are unavoidably political positions.

At this point, there are 5000+ dead Ukrainian civilians. If at this point you are more concerned about Russian citizens buying domains names from one vendor than you are about Ukrainian civilians getting blown up, that's in no way a neutral position. Similarly, you and Namecheap both have freedom of association. Their using it to enhance sanctions against Russia is exactly as political as you using it to boycott them for their choice.

[Tryk]

They have 1700 employees in Ukraine (https://www.namecheap.com/careers/ukraine/) maybe you would feel differently if your country was invaded.

[hereforphone]

Some reactionary, short-sighted, and young / inexperienced people, yes. One shouldn't be punished simply for being the resident of a certain country.

[woodruffw]

Not being allowed to use a particular domain registrar is no punishment that I'm aware of. Particularly when said registrar's main offices are in the country being occupied.

[glogla]

Their policy on exceptions seems pretty reasonable.

    Are there any exceptions?

    Yes, we continue to provide services to:
      all anti-war media, protest resources and any type of websites that are helping to end this war and regime;
      Russian citizens who are not Russian residents and don't support this regime in any way;
      independent journalism;
      non-profit organizations.

But I guess people who support Russia's genocidal attack on Ukraine are still going to be salty.

[vbezhenar]

I, personally, lost trust to all domain registrars and just moved domains to the local registrar in my country. At least I can visit their office with my government ID and talk to them face to face if the need arises. Or even sue them. Too much issues with those international companies, they treat their clients as some disposable kubernetes pods. Yes, my local registrar has lame console from 90-x, but it works anyway.

[jb1991]

> moved domains to the local registrar in my country

can you explain what you mean by this? how do you find the "local registrar" for a company, what does that even mean?

[vbezhenar]

Registrar is a company which registers domains for me. Local registrar is the company which is located in my country.

[cyral]

I've used them for almost a decade and never had an issue. Haven't used their support in years but they had live chat support that was actually helpful.

[koops]

Namecheap is good. I've been using them for many years, no complaints.

[innocentoldguy]

Same. I've been using Namecheap for around 10 years and have never had a bad experience.

[slig]

See this thread before deciding: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30506581

[socks]

I use porkbun.com myself, the process and prices are lovely.

[maxique]

Porkbun is great - their live chat support in particular was really great to me recently when I was trying to recover a domain. They could've tried to upsell or pressure me in to paying the (extortionate) recovery fee but they didn't and instead advised me on the process/when I'd be able to register at normal price

[Vox_Leone]

Namecheap… I tried to register a five letter domain [.com] and got a notice that the domain is of high value, and that the price would be higher. The domain name was entirely created by me. Therefore I consider that they stole my intellectual property, by preventing me from registering it.

Dealing with domain registration nowadays is a dreadful experience. The system is completely broken.

[account42]

Are you sure it was Namecheap that was selling that domain for a higher price or someone else listing it and trying to sell it. I'd expect most if not all short and pronounceable .coms to be taken. Some other registries (not registrars) do sell premium domains for a higher price themselves - i.e. ccTLDs are entirely up to the corresponding country and the new gTLDs also don't have as many restrictions on what the owner can do with them (e.g. they don't have to sell you domains at all).

If you actually have a trademark to the domain name then you can try the ICANN dispute process. If your entire claim is that you thought of the domain name but someone else bought it the good luck.

[ineptech]

Are they still charging for SSL? Last I checked, they made it as hard as possible to use letsencrypt, and had a rather deceptive "Free SSL if you buy a domain!" promotion that doesn't actually include a cert.

[account42]

How exactly do they make it hard to use Let's Encrypt? The HTTP challenge just needs the A/AAAA records that your web server needs anyway and for the DNS challenge (only really needed for wildcard certs) they do seem to at least support using your own name servers (as do most registrars): https://www.namecheap.com/support/knowledgebase/article.aspx...

[ineptech]

By not integrating with it, or even having an article on how to set it up yourself. When something is effectively free, and a lot of your competitors offer it for free, and your website says you offer it for free, but you actually charge for it, that's just BS. Reminds me of those wireless providers that kept charging outrageous rates for SMS right up until the very end.

[FastEatSlow]

I haven't had issues with let's encrypt with them in the last 2 years, though I do recall seeing free SSL promotions and never a certificate.

[ineptech]

The "free SSL" meant adding your domain as a sub of theirs, i.e. https://yourdomain.namecheap.com. I fell for it and was pretty salty to see how much they charge and the lack of a letsencrypt integration.

And on that note, Letsencrypt has a helpful list of hosting companies that automate the process for you: https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/web-hosting-who-support-...

[lewantmontreal]

Namecheap also goes through user searches to pick up domains for their premium offerings, at least 10 years ago. Not actually sure where it’s ”safe” to search for free domains when you are still undecided.

[exhilaration]

Nowhere is safe. Make an offline list ahead of time, try each domain one by one, and register them the moment you've confirmed they're available. Save your payment details to your registrar so you minimize the time between the search and registration.

[MerelyMortal]

I recommend Dynadot, just as cheap, but better interface, and the one customer service interaction I had was good.

[hoistbypetard]

I've had much better experiences with namecheap.