I'm Richard Kirkendall, founder & CEO of Namecheap (The EFF-supporting registrar), AMA

Any plans to update the domain management interface? The main site refresh looks great but I feel like I'm stuck in 2008 when I login.

Also, I've been a Namecheap customer for a few years now and just want to say thanks for the great service. Today marks the day I'm finally free of Godaddy as I finish transferring the last 33 domains on that account to my Namecheap account.

We have something in the works as I type this. Game changing stuff we are working on! Expect to have your socks knocked off in the coming months!

Please, please don't go the GoDaddy route and make uncommon, but still important, tasks (ex. domain DNS transfers) more difficult.

Also, when submitting CSR's during SSL certificate purchases, it would be terrific if there was an intermediate screen w/ a dump of the CSR info and a confirmation (instead of immediately using it). Yes, I double-check the CSR after making it, ... but, occasionally, a triple-check would help overcome my dumb :)

Thanks for your comments and suggestions. Simplicity is what we are going for here. From what I've seen, I think we are getting it right.

please don't pull a Moniker on us.

the biggest pile of shit I have ever used.

We promise, this is all being built in house and to our high standards. We've made it through 5 of these re-designs so we know what it takes to get it right. We won't let you down.

As a web app developer, it always surprises me how caught up people are on the looks of a website. People will gladly abandon a functionally superior website in favor of one that looks prettier.

Also significantly true for mobile apps. I definitely judge an app on how polished it is. Not flashy, just clean.

what do you think of our mobile app?

Why the extra fee for Whoisguard? Shouldn't internet anonymity be a right? That's my opinion.

Ok this is a great question! Let me just start by saying not all privacy services are created equal. While you may think that all it takes is simply changing your information and masking it, what happens when an attorney or someone else comes knocking threatening legal action? That's when you will know that you get what you pay for.

Many services will simply turn off or handover your information at the first sign of trouble. Whoisguard will fight for that right and has gone to court many times defending client rights for access to info. In fact Namecheap has been included in many lawsuits without ever settling because we did not turn over customer information.

Most other providers including some listed here outsource their protection services without going to bat for their customers like we do. I think that makes a difference.

And just to be clear, WhoisGuard is free the first year and we are dropping the price for renewals thereafter to $.99 very soon. In the meantime you can use coupon code WGspecial to renew for $.99 as well.

Thank you for explaining this so well. I'd always been bothered by this one little feature that Namecheap charges for. It's important to know the value it provides. Maybe this can be made more clearly to customers?

I agree, look for more info to be posted on our site. I want to personally spell out better what protections we afford you with this service.

Would your team consider better features to move domains?

Specifically, I have moved some domains to namecheap already, but had to manually copy & edit the DNS entries (A records, C records for all sub domains, blog.x, forum.x, etc).

It would be awesome if you could have a DNS quick-setup option where we put in another domain, and you "copy" the DNS records, to create the sub domains, and just ask us to check it over & tweak it before final saving.

Hey foomacho, great question. We have a concierge service for our clients which makes transferring a domain and its records a lot easier. You can just create a support ticket with our team and they will do the work for you. The concierge team will handle all of the details and make your domain work just as it did at your previous registrar.

We are also adding better tools when our control panel re-design is finished in the coming months.

"...and they will walk you through the process."

Number one thing anyone who wants to have a successful product needs to know. Your customer is a fat lazy fuck, who dosent want to be "Walked through". I believe what Mr.Foomacho is asking is for a button he can click and have his domain automatically done for him.

edited. they do everything for you.

TOTP two factor auth coming anytime soon?

Yes

Authy ftw

and yes :)

I moved all my domains from GoDaddy to Namecheap when they came out in support of SOPA. I've been happy with your service since. My question is did namecheap suffer any negative consequences by opposing SOPA and getting involved in policy?

We had a few complaints from people in favor of it believe it or not. I simply asked them to move their domains to that "other" registrar if they wanted a company that was in favor of it.

I am a NameCheap customer, and I love that you accept Bitcoin payments!

What share of your payments are in Bitcoin? (If this is a question you don't mind answering)

Thanks kmdr - we like Bitcoin too. A single digit share of our daily sales are now in bitcoin, and we're seeing volume grow every month. An interesting tidbit...we see deposits increase when bitcoin is volatile.

You were pretty early out as a bitcoin merchant. Would you care to describe how much hassle it was to set up the while thing? How is the cost/benefit of it looking so far?

no hassle at all, Bitpay is great. No cost and all benefit to our clients!

Do you take a percentage out on in Bitcoin?

no fees on bitcoin.

What is your view on the requirements and what exactly is a free & open internet?

Hello Slutty(feels strange addressing you that way but ok :),

This is what we use at Namecheap internally to guide us:

Internet Freedom What it means: Internet Freedom is everyone’s right to publish and consume content on the Internet without any unwelcomed effect from outside forces.

Internet freedom consists of four pillars:

1. Freedom of speech ­ the right to express any opinion online without censorship or intimidation.

2. Right to Online Privacy ­ the right or mandate of personal privacy concerning the storing, repurposing, provision to third parties, and displaying of information pertaining to oneself via the Internet.

3. Anti-­censorship ­ the control or suppression of what can be accessed, published, or viewed on the Internet.

4. Net Neutrality ­ the principle that ISPs should facilitate access to all content and applications equally, regardless of the source, and without favoring particular companies or websites that pay for special treatment or faster delivery.

While we take a strong stance on Internet Freedom, we also believe in our obligation to be socially responsible. We do not support activities that can cause harm or injury to others, or violate basic human or animal rights.

Hope that helps!

Does Namecheap support puppies?

We love puppies! Meet our Namecheap mascot, Zoey! ;)

Where can i buy one of those sweet hoodies? o_o

http://merch.namecheap.com !

What kind of CEO misspell their own domain name? /s

the same kind that corrects it and thanks you for pointing it out!

https://twitter.com/Namecheap/status/560133155818967040

What's the benefit of moving the domain?

Benefits, hmmmm well there are many. First off, you are getting a domain transfer for less than the cost of renewing a domain because we also add a free year to whatever time you have remaining on the domain.

Secondly, you're transferring to a company that cares about your security, privacy and providing you the best customer service available. We really do care about our customers that much.

Lastly and most importantly, we donate up to $1.50 to EFF for every domain transferred to us. EFF is out there every day fighting for your digital rights. It's a cause everyone should care about.

And this is available worldwide or only in US?

It is available worldwide.

What's your favourite new TLD?

My favorite is .online - not out yet but soon I believe.

If several people search a domain name and don't buy it, does the price go up?

if it is unregistered the price stays the same!

Long time customer. Thanks for doing this AMA!

Namecheap you are pretty inexpensive for domains but the website is not the greatest. Support is OK. I guess I like that you don't try and sell me anything I don't need but that's about it. What do you the CEO think it is about Namecheap that people love so much?

I think most people love us for two things, our customer service and peace of mind that we are an ethical business that will always do the right thing to protect our customers.

You can sleep well at night knowing that we are here watching what we consider to be an invaluable asset to our millions of clients.

Hi! I'm glad that there is still competition in the registrar market, but from my perspective business seems to flow to the registrar through word of mouth (like if employees at X company are discussing hosts/domain purchases, they'll decide on a certain registrar in bulk), at least for new users. Do you think this is the case, or is the opposite true?

How have the numbers of accounts created varied since 2011, particularly on the MYDD?

Key question: it has gotten better over the last year or so, but why are many registrars still rocking 199X's graphic style and site layout? Is it part of a savings/budget thing? Like how I buy cheap beans instead of Heinz's new shiny cans?

Thanks for the AMA, and best of luck for 2015, of course

Well it all depends on what your view is towards marketing. You have some companies out there that have used things such as superbowl ads and risque marketing techniques to reach the masses.

That seems to have worked well for them but at what costs? There are ways to get your message to the people without offending others and helping society in the process. I guess you can say all is fair in business but we prefer not to do things that way.

Sure, we care about providing a a great customer experience and selling domains but we also care about the people using our services and the society we are a part of. If we can use our marketing dollars and capital to help make society better at the same time, then why not? We treat marketing and social activism as a synergy.

MYDD has been and is our biggest marketing push of the year and it works tremendously well and it also helps socially in the process so people talk about it and us. It's a win win so to answer your question, we've seen some great growth since 2011 and most of it is via word of mouth.

Regarding your question of registrar design, I think it has a lot to do with registrars not really thinking outside the box and more about what else is possible with a domain. A domain name is such a dynamic thing and the uses for it are endless. I'm excited to say, we have a lot of great and forward thinking products and ideas that are domain related that you will be seeing with us in the coming months. Stay tuned!

Love Namecheap so much! Thanks for your service.

Your Bitcoin adoption is the main reason I've chose you, and I stayed for the good service and commitment.

A few questions:

Any chance of Dogecoin acceptance? Odd question, but I hold more Dogecoin than I currently do Bitcoin.

What's the weirdest domain you've ever had registered with your service? I'm sure there are some weird ones.

What's the highest traffic / most well known website registered through Namecheap that you know of?

We haven't looked at Dogecoin yet, are they the next bitcoin?

I'd love to answer your questions but can't for the sake of our client's privacy.

Dogecoin is very similar, but has a few differences.

It's currently the number 2 digital currency as for the number of wallets containing over $1. It has a huge community here on Reddit, and a lot of people would appreciate having a huge domain service such as Namecheap accepting Dogecoin as a payment method.

Dogecoins are currently lower in value than Bitcoins, but the community value is just as much if not more. It would likely open a new group of consumers to Namecheap's services.

If you want to do some more research, I would suggest checking out /r/Dogecoin. Lots of information and helpful people there.

Thanks for the info! I'll take a look.

Do you plan to work with reddit on any other projects?

We love reddit as an organization and think the community is really strong. If it makes sense to work together, we definitely would but there isn't anything in the pipeline.

Has Namecheap ever been approached by the NSA (or related agencies) to give up information on (or stop service for) one of Namecheap's paying customers? How would (or does) Namecheap react to such situations?

No we have yet to be approached by the NSA that I am aware of. If we were approached by law enforcement, we would only comply with a legal order.

What do you think about the new gTLDs and do you think that they will ever become as popular as .com?

EDIT: Well that sucks I wanted to transfer all my domains to namecheap today but your agent just told me this:

"To my regret, it enables the price of $3.98 for .com/.net/.org/.info/.biz domain transfers ($4.16 including ICANN fee where applicable)"

Some are nice and serve a purpose, especially if you have limited choices but .com will always be the gold standard of domains, period.

Favourite type of cheese?

Love all types of cheese. I would have to say some baked camembert with honey is delicious but also love monterrey jack for my quesadillas.

Did the culture at NameCheap change on MYDD, and if so how?

From my perception, an also-ran registrar saw the backlash GoDaddy was getting for supporting SOPA and wanted to position themselves as an alternative. I wasn't familiar with your company before that, but the name portrays you as the Walmart of registrars (e.g. bargain basement - equivalent of GoDaddy).

Did you frame yourselves as protectors of Internet freedom before MYDD, or did you grow into that role as a result of GoDaddy's actions?

I can tell you personally that this is an issue I care deeply about. In fact, I had tweeted my position on SOPA before the Godaddy fiasco came about and I had actually learned their stance on the subject. So I am on record that this wasn't simply a knee jerk reaction.

That being said, having your competition come out in favor of a bill like this inspired us even more to be proactive against this bill happening. Sometimes that's all it takes to light a fire under you as an organization. There's real passion and integrity behind our efforts here.

You guys are currently hosting one of my domains. I love how simple it was to setup and the security features. I would like to know what influences the cost of domain names. Is it entirely based around popularity?

Hey StreamingPanda - thanks for the compliment! The majority of a domain name's cost is comprised of fees charged by the registries that provide them to us, like VeriSign for .com and .net for example. For our part we try and keep your price as low as possible!

You continuously have the best customer support of any company. What do you do different and how can more companies follow your lead? Also, you run campaigns to help the internet and the environment, which is wonderful. Why don't more companies do this?

Thank you! I don't know, more companies should.

Just browsing thru the comments... Why would someone have a bunch of domains? Saw one who said he had 33, and other with 16.. Just curious.

I can tell you I register a domain every time I have a new idea for a product or a business or probably anything that interests me that I might want to build something for in the future. It's good to have options when you have free time to build something and domain names provide that.

Hey Richard! Love Namecheap and seeing you guys at our college tech events all the time. Care to give your thoughts on hackathons?

Hey Max!

We love supporting you guys and being a part of all the hackathons across the country. You guys are the future and we want to be a part of seeing you guys succeed from the beginning! Expect our support for a long time :)

Why is there a limit of 50 domains for this promotion? I have around 250 domains, and when I saw this AMA and checked your website, I was excited and ready to make the move. It would save me a significant expense this year, and bring me to what looks like a great registrar. I've been with my previous registrar for several years, and this deal was the first thing I've seen that had me interested in leaving. But if it will only support 20% of my domains, that just makes things more complicated and the savings not as significant, especially given the challenges of setting up dns records again for so many domains. Any chance the deal might be broadened for a larger account such as mine?

We have a limit because we actually lose money on every domain you transfer so we do have a budget here and we want everyone to have a chance at transferring some domains.

There are some other coupons you can ask for in our live chat that can knock down the price some on the rest. Thanks for considering us!

Are NameCheap domains compatible with weebly?

They sure are. Check out this guide

What was the motivation/reason behind giving students free .me domains?

Most students aren't in a position to buy a domain name yet I still think they are a vital piece of your online identity. Having your domain name could follow you the rest of your life. We want students to know that we are a company that cares enough to help them now and in their future and we want to be a part of that.

If we buy PrivacyGuard, our name is no longer in the whois database. Does that mean that technically we don't own the domain?

No, you own your domain!

Ex-employee of GoDaddy here: I was very close to moving all of my domains out of GoDaddy to Google when the recent announcement was made. The one thing about domain purchasing was the element of "domain privacy" if you don't get it.. you are definitely leaving yourself open to a lot more spam than you already receive, but the domain companies charge just about the same of annual registration for the privacy.

Why is this domain masking costing customers any money? It seems that it should be included as an element of customer service.

Some offer it for free, we charge a bit because we actually fight to protect our customers in courts of law. In fact there are some legal precedents that have been set because we have fought cases in court.

Can I has a free domain?

Sure, if you're a student you can get one at https://nc.me/ !