Namecheap: Why I'm moving away from them

[tacit]

I have a rather extensive collection of Web sites, where I write about everything from photography to transhumanism to sex. As a result, I have rather a lot of domain names, which until recently I've registered with Namecheap, as they have in the past been cheap and reasonably reliable

Comments

Rightside owns Enom, and is really Demand Media

[anonymous]

Came across this while considering pulling things from Namecheap. I have different issues with them, don't entirely dislike them, but have serious concerns about them having their entire support organization in Ukraine. And Billing. And Risk Management. And their convoluted everything-outsourced, much-offshored, company arrangement bothers me. Especially since they are not very transparent about it.

Rightside is the domain registry and registrar part of Demand Media. The (in)famous "content farm". Traditionally the domain business of DM was its only consistently profitable business unit. Rightside is a re-name of that business unit of Demand Media. Allowing both a partial spin-off (I believe it is still partially, maybe still majority- owned by DM) and a public image distance from the somewhat toxic "Demand Media" reputation among some observers. Demand Media does not own Namecheap, neither directly nor indirectly via Rightside owning Enom because Enom does not own Namecheap. But Namecheap absolutely requires Enom, a subsidary of Rightside, a partial subsidiary of Demand Media, in order to function as a Domain Name Registrar.

Namecheap is California is pretty much a "virtual company".

As you discovered, and many technical folks know, they use Enom as the real registrar. Even though Namecheap itself is an ICANN-authorized registrar, and several years ago posted on their site and on web hosting and domain related forums that they would be transistioning to do their own registration, as far as I can tell, they have not. All the domain registration official "contact verification" emails required by ICANN, and the actual whois info (done via a proper Unix/Linux command line whois, not on some whois website at NC or elsewhere) clearly show that ENOM is the register of record.

Which has occassionaly led to big disconnects on the rare times I have a domain support issue. Ticket or chat is with "Namecheap Support" (really, company Zone3000 that NC sort-of implies they own) in Ukraine. Who have told me, "We have to check with the registrar." WAIT - aren't YOU the registrar? No, they are not.

Namecheap Hosting is actually relatively good, certainly better than GoDaddy hosting, if you are one of the foolish people who think that Hosting and Domain Registration should be done at the same place (NO! Run. It's a trap!) Which nobody should normally do even at BestRegistrarAndHostInTheWorld or FluffyBunnyWithUnicornKittenHosting. But it is also almost a separate company, with a to-the-public unmentioned, "competing" company called Web Hosting Buzz, whose President and Founder of that competitor just so happens to be the head of hosting at NC too.

NC just seems to be lacking in transparency about how they operate, who owns them, who they own, where they do support, etc. But there exist tales on the internet where, web hosting talk, happens, about how a dispute on one service will tie up another. Maybe less so that at BogBadDaddy hosts-registrars, but still an icky situation. Especially since Namecheap domain registration agreement not only lacks explicit "You own your domain" language like the most ethical registrars such as Gandi have, but also does HAVE specific "No ownership interest" language outright saying you do not own any intellectual property rights in your domain name.

So become more aware of what they do, and who they are. I continue to have some services at NC but I decreasingly use them for things I consider important.