Domain registrars comparison - My view
Since 2008 I have used many domain registrars from time to time based on need and requirements. Currently I am using Namecheap and Namesilo. Both are great when it comes to ease of use, uptime and support.
This post by no means is extensive or affiliated with anyone. These are my personal views only.
Let’s not talk about GoDaddy here and you know why.
Even though Namesilo website is outdated, but they are working on a new responsive website which is available here. Namecheap website is fine so far. But there is one thing which I don’t like, it’s slow. The components loads slow and it’s irritating at times.
When it comes to customer support, I can say both are doing good job at it. So what’s the difference then? Price.
Both offer quite good prices but there is still a difference. Other registrars which come close are Hover, Name and Dynadot.
So how much is the difference, well it change from time to time if you are buying new domains based on the current ongoing promotion etc. Transfer and renewal varies between them.
Note: Namecheap charge $0.18 ICANN fee, while Namesilo has included that in the price already.
1- Prices for new and renewal of domains
As you can see the original price is $6.99 for .com
because of ongoing promotion. Renewal will be $8.99.
For Namecheap the price is $12.98 and renewal is at $14.98.
For that i will go with Namesilo.
2- Transfer prices
Namesilo 1st year transfer price is $8.39 and suqsequent renewal is same as new $8.99.
Namecheap transfer price is $9.69 and renewal will be $14.98.
3- Other things
- Both provide Whoisguard free of charge. Namecheap recently make it free.
- Namesilo has extra security layer for accessing different pages on the site like DNS update etc.
- Namesilo also provide extra savings if you join Discount Program for bulk purchase.
- There is one thing so far I don’t like Namesilo DNS update time, which is minimum 1 hour unlike Namecheap 1 minute.
- Namecheap selling other things like hosting while Namesilo is pure domain registrar.
- Both of them provide domain parking, nameservers(NS), email forwarding, domain lock. These are very standard features anyway.
I will still use both but recently Namecheap renewal prices went up which was not I expected.
Which registrar do you use? share your side of the story in the comments section.