Google, the search engine giant, entered into the domain registration/transfer business in 2015. Namecheap is a major player in this industry. It manages millions of domains. The company has been in the business for 20 years.
Is Namecheap a better registrar than the new player in the industry – Google Domains or vice versa? Which company charges a low fee on domain transfer/registration/renewal among the two? Below, we’ve compared the pricing, usability & features of the two firms.
User interface and filters
Like other products of Google, the user interface of Google Domains is top-notch. You will find an option to transfer/register a TLD on the same interface. GD lets you filter TLDs by their extensions. GD supports 334 extensions as of now. The filter lets users find domains between two prices. You can configure it to show only those domains that are available for registration. While registering a TLD or a ccTLD, the user may not know whether the extension they’re planning to register sounds good or bad or is easy to remember. GD clears this confusion by showing some interesting things about the TLD name they’ve entered in its search box. The things include the usage of words, the popularity of the extension, etc. GD is the only registrar that lets users favorite a domain. My favorite feature of GD functions as a wishlist tool. You can use it to track the TLD’s price and register it when you find that the domain’s price has dropped.
Namecheap’s website is beautiful, and the company also provides a filter tool. To activate the filter, you should click on the “Beast Mode” option that is shown in the search box of NC. The beast mode of Namecheap lets you find TLDs that cost between two amounts. It has the option to activate domain hacks, drop the last vowels, hide unavailable extensions, and pluralize nouns of words you’ve used in the TLD. In addition to supporting the domains supported by GD, you can register 200+ other extensions with Namecheap. Namecheap domain filter can automatically add a suffix/prefix to the characters you’ve entered. Hence, you can easily find and register TLDs ending or beginning with certain characters with just a few clicks of a button.
Privacy
Both registrars let users enable domain privacy for their ccTLDs, TLDs, etc at no additional cost. When you activate privacy, your information, such as phone number, email address, and name won’t be displayed to the user when he/she uses a WHOIS lookup tool to find your details.
Pricing
.com TLDs on GD and NC cost 7 to 8 dollars and 12 to 13 USD per year.
.net TLDs on NC and GD costs users 10 to 11 dollars and 12 dollars.
.org TLDs on GD and NC are priced at 8 to 9 and 12 USD/year.
As you can see above, the price of .com, .org, and .net TLDs on GD are the same. The transfer and renewal fee for these three TLDs is the same as well. The transfer fee is cheaper on NC compared to GD, but the renewal rates are on the higher side. For example, to renew a .com domain, you may have to dole out 13 dollars and a few cents.
Namecheap organizes a sale every 1 or 2 months. This is the URL that opens its ongoing sale page. You can participate in the sale and get a massive discount on your new domain registration, renewal, or transfer. Google Domains has never launched a sale wherein a customer can get a TLD, ccTLD, etc at a discounted price.
Security
The two registrars have introduced several mechanisms for securing the account and domains. They not only lock extensions on their successful registration but also allow users to enable two-factor authentication. Google Domains is linked with your other Google account. If you’ve enabled two-factor authentication for your Google account, you have to do nothing, as Google will show this message – “two-factor authentication is on for your account”. Namecheap users can enable SMS or app-based two-factor authentication. Both methods are safe and easy to use.
Other services
Namecheap provides shared, dedicated, and VPS hosting services. It also offers affordable CDN plans and premium DNS service and sells premium SSL certificates at a discounted rate. Google offers cloud compute, DNS, and many other services. These services are meant to be used by companies, tech professionals, etc. Some of the services of Namecheap can be used by anyone e.g. shared, premium DNS, CDN, etc
Support
The two companies offer support on the phone, via email, and through their real-time chatting system. You won’t have to wait too long to hear from a support executive when you contact them.
Closing words: Registering a domain on Namecheap is cheaper compared to GD but renewing the same on GD is a bit cheaper compared to that on NC.
