Namecheap has great intro prices on domains and ssl but it goes up a lot when you get to the 2ND and 3ed year. 1at year was about 4$ now 2ND year is 26$
I moved all my domains from namecheap to namesilo because not only it is cheaper, they are also been providing free privacy from start. Highly recommended.
As a counterpoint I have all my domains on namecheap. I don't use their SSL option because I prefer using let's encrypt.
They charge around $13 for a renewal but include whois anonymization and have awesome customer service, a great web dashboard, and nice security options. Can't ask for more myself, and it will take a lot to make me switch.
That has not been my experience. I've been a Namecheap customer since 2005 (though now only for TLDs that aren't supported by my preferred registrars), and each time I visit their website it seems slower than the last. The interface is better than GoDaddy or 1and1 were the last time I used them, but that's a very low bar. I wouldn't call it good.
At one point they overhauled the frontend to add some loading animation to make it feel faster, but the backend has only gotten worse. Saving any changes is way slower than any other service I use with regularity.
I was going to take some measurements to back up this post, but...
> Namecheap is under maintenance and will be back soon
> Our site namecheap.com is currently undergoing an emergency maintenance to upgrade our systems in order to better serve you.
I actually went to register a new domain a few moments later and saw this. I have noticed it getting a little slower but overall I stand by my statements about the support.
That said, this announcement and emergency maintenance combo is not a good sign to me. Sigh.
I tried a single .uk domain away from them, after a week it still hadn't happened
their support kept making excuses: .uk domain transfers are different and normally slow, it's in the queue... except transfer has been instant at every other registrar I've ever used
thankfully .uk has an automatic system you can use as a domain owner to bypass shitty registrars (but it does cost money). after another week or so of excuses I bit the bullet and used it
after that I transferred my remaining domains
(separately: there's also the time they repeatedly chased me up for $1 they over-refunded me after another set of their mistakes)
I don't trust namecheap. I've been directly lied to from customer support all the way to literally the CEO.
They are super slow to move when something goes wrong and are generally untruthful. Should've realized they're not to be used for important things when their name has the word "cheap"
Edit: wanted to mention that they were the best registrar bar none early 2000s. No one could even compete. Now they are horrible.
