Google Domains vs. Namecheap

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Google Domains
Score 8.9 out of 10
N/A
N/A
$12
per year
Namecheap
Score 9.4 out of 10
N/A
Namecheap is a website domain name service offering providing easy domain name registration, and affordable hosting plans.
$5.98
per year
Pricing
Google DomainsNamecheap
Editions & Modules
.com
$12.00
per year
.net
$12.00
per year
.org
$12.00
per year
domain - .com
$5.98
per year
domain - .org
$8.98
per year
Business Email - Starter
$10.88
per year
domain - .net
$10.98
per year
Business Email - Pro
$25.88
per year
Shared Hosting - Stellar Business
$58.88
1st year Renews at $118.88/year
VPS Hosting - Pulsar
$118.56
per year
VPS Hosting - Quasar
$214.56
per year
Dedicated Server Hosting - Xeon E-2234
$915.88
per year
Dedicated Server Hosting - Xeon E-2236
$1175.88
per year
Dedicated Server Hosting - Dual Xeon Silver 4208
$2171.88
per year
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Google DomainsNamecheap
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Google DomainsNamecheap
Considered Both Products
Google Domains
Chose Google Domains
Google Domains and Namecheap are both undeniably better than GoDaddy—better companies, less confusing interfaces, and generally lower prices. Namecheap usually has lower prices on domains, and definitely has more sales, but Google Domains's free private registration can make it …
Chose Google Domains
Google Domains is the clear winner compared to competitors like GoDaddy and Namecheap. Google Domains seems to be cheaper overall (when you factor in Domain Privacy which is included with the purchase of a domain). Also, the checkout process is extremely simple and doesn't have …
Chose Google Domains
GoDaddy's CEO's behavior put me off of hosting both my site and URL with the company long ago, and Namecheap is okay. Since I'm on board with Google already, however, and since Google does offer domain names, why not go with Google Domains for my business? It's simply what …
Chose Google Domains
Google Domains is probably the easiest to use if you already use a suite of Google services and would like an easy way to connect them. However, Google Domains does not offer any sort of hosting services, so you'll have to search for that elsewhere.
Chose Google Domains
Google Domains is a lot easier to use however they are a little bit more spendy on price.
Chose Google Domains
Google Domains has a cleaner interface with simple pricing. To me, keeping it simple is the most important part. I also like email settings within GSuite, and the integrations with so many of the apps and software I currently use make Google Domains my preferred choice for …
Namecheap
Chose Namecheap
Namecheap is the best. Best price. Best service. Best UI. Best documentation. Best customer services. What impresses me the most about Namecheap is that they are there to do one thing really well. And they do it excellently. Unless something drastically changes, I will be a …
Top Pros
Top Cons
Best Alternatives
Google DomainsNamecheap
Small Businesses
Shopify
Shopify
Score 8.8 out of 10
Shopify
Shopify
Score 8.8 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Shopify
Shopify
Score 8.8 out of 10
Shopify
Shopify
Score 8.8 out of 10
Enterprises

No answers on this topic

No answers on this topic

All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Google DomainsNamecheap
Likelihood to Recommend
9.0
(22 ratings)
10.0
(12 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
9.0
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.0
(3 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
Google DomainsNamecheap
Likelihood to Recommend
Google
[Google Domains is] very simplistic and easy to use, so it's very straightforward to register a new domain but it doesn't have some features that other services provide. Also, the integration with other Google Services and domain search tool is amazing.
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Namecheap
Namecheap is the absolute best domain registrar that I have used, and I have used just about all of the big names. They are priced right; they offer excellent customer service, their FAQs and documentation are excellent. They don’t spam you with offers for things you don’t want, and they don’t have misleading practices like hiding that the first-year fee is 1/10 of the regular annual cost. They don’t try to sneak in a change to your bill and charge you for multiple years when you’ve already set it to a one-year renewal. The only negative of Namecheap is its brand name. I have had a few raised eyebrows when I have told executives that we are using Namecheap. It doesn’t sound like a professional service. It sounds like a consumer service. This is terrible because they are the MOST professional service and reliable service of all the services I work with on a daily basis.
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Pros
Google
  • Process of buying a domain with Google Domains is easy
  • Payment was simple - can use Google Wallet and other forms of payment.
  • After purchase, you can quickly build a website with one of their partners.
  • Email forwarding add-on for free.
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Namecheap
  • Domain registration is easy. This is big because when finding the perfect domain name, you have to do a lot of domain checking to see what is available. Namecheap not only makes this easy, but they recommend other domains that you might like instead, if the one you want is taken. They also allow you to sell domains and buy premium domains from other sellers if they are already registered to them.
  • Free Whois Guard & privacy. This is HUGE. All those annoying phone calls and emails you get the second you register a domain, they will stop when you start using NameCheap to register your domains. This is because they provide free Whois and domain privacy with all domains, for the life of the domain as long as it is registered with them. I love this and it is a huge selling point.
  • Easy updating and management of domains. This is a must. At many time, I need to update the nameservers of multiple domains at once. Namecheap makes it extremely easy to do this and allows for bulk updating. Things also seem to propagate quicker than other domain providers.
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Cons
Google
  • Google Domains is pretty good at pre-solving email faux pas such as reply all mishaps. Perhaps a built-in email monitoring tool such as knowing when a customer opens up an email would be good. You can get these features with integrations, but what if it was an internal Google product? Might be nice
  • Email masking was a bit difficult to figure out, but nothing you can't discover with a few Google sessions.
  • I wish I could see more insight into time zones that my customers are in, or scheduling calls on Gcal with timezone awareness. I know this is super hard to code around though.
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Namecheap
  • I wonder if it's feasible to have bulk discounts or a loyalty program?
  • They may have this already, but features to buy and sell premium domains, or browse ones for sale, would be great.
  • We don't use their hosting because there are higher quality options, but it'd be great if they did better hosting so we could keep it all under one roof.
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Likelihood to Renew
Google
Unless the product goes away, I'll continue using it.
Read full review
Namecheap
No answers on this topic
Usability
Google
When on desktop or mobile, the minimalist design and functionality of Google Domains is welcome. Because we use Google Workplace, the integration is simple. Management is fast and easy, and it offers on-the-go ease. Google is very consistent in its user interfaces and usability, so there’s no wasted time in a new learning curve. And the price is right
Read full review
Namecheap
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Google
I've never actually had to use support because everything has been very straightforward and I have not had a glitch. I have used Google's support for other items so I can only imagine that it's probably the same support which is decent. They do take a while to get back to you.
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Namecheap
We very rarely have to reach out to customer support because the service is so quick, easy and intuitive to use. But when we have had to use it, the customer service was quick, reliable, answered our questions and addressed our problems without too much back and forth, and was native English speaking.
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Alternatives Considered
Google
GoDaddy is great, but what I really like about Google Domains when compared to GoDaddy is the ease of centralization. Our email, calendar, accounts, domain, etc was all handled in one place and that made things really easy. You could also access domains easily and quickly by being logged into your email, instead of worrying about yet another log in.
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Namecheap
Namecheap wins hands down on cost and ease of use. I have experienced zero compromise with using Namecheap. There was no trade-off to enjoy the cost savings. Namecheap does everything the other registrars do and more in some cases.
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Return on Investment
Google
  • Being able to host my URL with Google Domains is one less thing I have to worry about in my writing career.
  • I'm sure having my URL, which is my name, with Google Domains also helps people find me via Google's search engine.
  • Its ease of integration with other Google products, especially Google Apps for Business, is a huge plus for marketing and day-to-day work.
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Namecheap
  • Namecheap has saved us hundreds of dollars a year on services that we were required to pay extra for by NetworkSolutions that Namecheap provides for free.
  • Namecheap has made managing our domains simpler, saving us dozens of labor hours a year.
  • Namecheap has encouraged us to experiment with new domain names to see which ones work best. We couldn’t do this with our previous registrars because it was too hard to change from one domain to another.
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ScreenShots