Spaceship.com registrar thread.

[dirk]

I just tried Spaceship.com. They're a NameCheap brand and launched their beta. I think they rightfully deserve a thread on NP to discuss our experiences with their new registrar.

Remember, it's still in beta so do expect some glitches, work to be done... Would be cool in someone from NC would care to chip in @tamar

 

[enetwork]

Here's another example of how simple it is to use global search to navigate anywhere any time at Spaceship.

 

[dncafe]

A couple of things here, most of our customers are not domainers. We built the portfolio app for our domainer centric customers and it can only be accessed in the library when searched for and then added to the launch pad.

We did this because most of the tools and requests we receive from domainers would simply confuse most regular customers and are unnecessary for them.

The domain list does the job for most of our non-domainer customers and we prefer to keep things very simple for them. Overwhelming feedback tells us we are on the right track.

Back to the domain portfolio, we are adding more and more features based on feedback from this community and things will continue to improve there. It will soon get to the point where you won't need to touch the domain list at all for anything if that's what you prefer. All the bells and whistles you have ever desired are being built as we speak and we'll just keep adding based on the continuous feedback we receive.

Lastly our powerful global search feature lets you get anywhere at any time by just typing. It's as powerful as Spotlight search is on a mac to find anything on your computer. You can find anything on Spaceship in pretty much the same way.

It's still confusing for domainers and non domainers to have two domain management areas.

There should be a header link on every page called "Manage Domains"

This would lead to the Domain List page, once there there should be a large button at the top that says "ADVANCED OPTIONS", this would lead to the Domain Portfolio page.

One big issue I've noticed with you and your company is that you don't seem very receptive to user feedback. Rather than considering changes you want to convince others how easy Spaceship is to use, when many of us think it has a lot of usability issues. If you have describe to others why your sites so easy to use, maybes its not that easy to use.

 

[enetwork]

One big issue I've noticed with you and your company is that you don't seem very receptive to user feedback. Rather than considering changes you want to convince others how easy Spaceship is to use, when many of us think it has a lot of usability issues. If you have describe to others why your sites so easy to use, maybes its not that easy to use.

We receive a lot of feedback and I can assure you we consider it all. The feedback we receive on our UI and UX is overwhelmingly positive so we must be doing something right.

We all have our personal opinions and preferences. Some prefer macs, others prefer PC's, iphone vs android etc. We have to make sure we are making the right decisions for the majority of our customers rather than the few.

If the perfect experience existed for everyone you'd have one phone, one computer, one car, one registrar etc.

In any case, I've heard your feedback and I'll see what can be done.

 

[Future Sensors]

If the perfect experience existed for everyone you'd have one phone, one computer, one car, one registrar etc.

Can you give a brief summary of the key benefits and differences between Namecheap and Spaceship, specifically as it relates to domain investors?

 

[enetwork]

Can you give a brief summary of the key benefits and differences between Namecheap and Spaceship, specifically as it relates to domain investors?

Sure, pricing right off the bat.

Better security options(passkeys, hardware 2fa, TOTP etc), less chance of social engineering as we really limit CS in the ways they can interact with your account and domains(most other registrars are a threat to your domains in this regard)

Checkout process is much easier and faster.

Managing domains is more robust and will keep getting better.

Global search allows you to easily find anything anywhere.

Live propagation checker tells you when your dns changes are live and we warn you when things are down.

Domain transfers are safe from downtime as we import all your current dns records during the process.

invoicing and record keeping is much better and easier to manage.

Renewals are better managed and easier to process.

All URL re-direction for your domains are SSL encrypted with a single cert for each.

DNS presets that can be used from checkout to within advanced dns, domain list, portfolio and other areas when managing your domains.

I mean I can really keep going on and on here as the improvements are pretty much everywhere and much more to come such as seller hub and retail brandstore with direct listing into both Spaceship and Namecheap search.

All of this is just the tip of the iceburg.

 

[Future Sensors]

Better security options(passkeys, hardware 2fa, TOTP etc), less chance of social engineering as we really limit CS in the ways they can interact with your account and domains(most other registrars are a threat to your domains in this regard)

Thank you. I'd like to zoom in on this point. So, do you recommend that current Namecheap customers switch to Spaceship due to the higher risk (threat, as you say) of social engineering now present at Namecheap?

 

[enetwork]

Thank you. I'd like to zoom in on this point. So, do you recommend that current Namecheap customers switch to Spaceship due to the higher risk (threat, as you say) of social engineering now present at Namecheap?

If we are talking solely about risk profiles I'd say almost every registrar is at a higher risk. Support at most registrars have access to things such as dns settings. While this type of access is meant to be more helpful to customers and it is when needed, it also creates a higher risk of a mistake, social engineering or even support person gone rogue.

At Spaceship, we made the conscious decision to limit our support reps and the way they can help you in exchange for much more robust security. We've engineered our platform to not allow access to any account functions or domain settings for front line or level 2 support. We've built more self service tools for our customers and we teach them how to do things rather than doing things for them.

That's why it's essential that we get the experience right. We need to empower our customers through a better platform, self service and more powerful tools that they can use themselves to insure better security.

While it may mean we are less helpful in the ways we can help you, it also means the chances of a mistake or something bad happening to your assets are much more limited.

 

[Future Sensors]

Thanks @enetwork

You may want to solve the warnings on https://dnsviz.net/d/spaceship.com/dnssec/

 

[enetwork]

Thanks @enetwork

You may want to solve the warnings on https://dnsviz.net/d/spaceship.com/dnssec/

Thanks, I'll have the team take a look.

 

[NameGroove]

A couple of things here, most of our customers are not domainers. We built the portfolio app for our domainer centric customers and it can only be accessed in the library when searched for and then added to the launch pad.

We did this because most of the tools and requests we receive from domainers would simply confuse most regular customers and are unnecessary for them.

The domain list does the job for most of our non-domainer customers and we prefer to keep things very simple for them. Overwhelming feedback tells us we are on the right track.

Back to the domain portfolio, we are adding more and more features based on feedback from this community and things will continue to improve there. It will soon get to the point where you won't need to touch the domain list at all for anything if that's what you prefer. All the bells and whistles you have ever desired are being built as we speak and we'll just keep adding based on the continuous feedback we receive.

Lastly our powerful global search feature lets you get anywhere at any time by just typing. It's as powerful as Spotlight search is on a mac to find anything on your computer. You can find anything on Spaceship in pretty much the same way.

I had no idea "Domain Portfolio" was for domainers and "Domain List" was for general public. I'm not even sure what "extras" are inside the DP area vs the DL area. I've got 150 domains with you, so I assume to you, I'm a domainer.

I agree with the poster above - it'd be helpful to delineate more clearly the 2 areas. I just do things I need doing by trial and error. I guess I haphazardly go into DL and when I can't find what I want, search around and eventually end up in DP and can do what needs doing. I'm not sure where you're getting "overwhelming feedback". Where do I provide feedback? Or are you outbounding for it? No one ever sent me a survey and no button was ever shown. I've chatted with your reps (infrequently) and mostly about email issues. No one asked my opinion. Had they, I'd have told them what I told you above.

Perhaps you're asking the wrong question. If asked, I'd say Spaceships UI is quite user friendly and it looks great. Generally I'm happy. But that doesn't mean I understand all these areas and options. I simply, eventually, am able to figure out what I need to do by trial and error. Renaming DP "advanced" is a huge step in the right direction imo. Even though I'm a domainer, I'd start by staying away from anything advanced. From my perspective I'm not trying to do anything advanced (although perhaps changing NS are considered such).

 

[enetwork]

I had no idea "Domain Portfolio" was for domainers and "Domain List" was for general public. I'm not even sure what "extras" are inside the DP area vs the DL area. I've got 150 domains with you, so I assume to you, I'm a domainer.

I agree with the poster above - it'd be helpful to delineate more clearly the 2 areas. I just do things I need doing by trial and error. I guess I haphazardly go into DL and when I can't find what I want, search around and eventually end up in DP and can do what needs doing. I'm not sure where you're getting "overwhelming feedback". Where do I provide feedback? Or are you outbounding for it? No one ever sent me a survey and no button was ever shown. I've chatted with your reps (infrequently) and mostly about email issues. No one asked my opinion. Had they, I'd have told them what I told you above.

Perhaps you're asking the wrong question. If asked, I'd say Spaceships UI is quite user friendly and it looks great. Generally I'm happy. But that doesn't mean I understand all these areas and options. I simply, eventually, am able to figure out what I need to do by trial and error. Renaming DP "advanced" is a huge step in the right direction imo. Even though I'm a domainer, I'd start by staying away from anything advanced. From my perspective I'm not trying to do anything advanced (although perhaps changing NS are considered such).

We are very deliberate with having our customers submit requests for anything they would like to see. You can submit a request at any time:

https://www.spaceship.com/roadmap/

We also do request feedback from new customers. As an early customer, you probably didn't receive the request.

You can also follow our trust pilot reviews here, there are over 1,000 of them in our first year:

https://www.trustpilot.com/review/spaceship.com?sort=recency

I agree that the naming of Domain Portfolio is an issue and we've had internal discussions about it but I don't necessarily agree that Portfolio and List should be combined as they are each meant to serve different types of users. I'm hesitant to use "Advanced" as that's closely related to "Advanced DNS" which is pretty much a standard in technology circles and it will cause confusion with that type of user.

We'll do some more brainstorming around it.

 

[Kyle Tully]

I had no idea "Domain Portfolio" was for domainers and "Domain List" was for general public.

Same, I was just in there today changing some DNS and was thinking I can never remember which one does what. I usually just click whatever and eventually get where I'm going. Overall I find the platform excellent and it's easy enough to do everything I want, but List/Portfolio was never clear to me.

 

[SuperBrander]

I have to agree about Domain List and Domain Portfolio being confusing. I found myself a few times trying to transfer a domain away and then not remembering to which area I need to go to, because Domain List contains the transfer option while Domain Portfolio doesn't show it (I had to check it again now because I didn't remember which one had it). It's definitely unnecessarily confusing.

That aside, Spaceship is great and I haven't ran into issues so far, though it would be good to get Sedo MLS soon (and possibly settle the grievances with Godaddy so Afternic fast transfer would be an option too). Or better yet, create a new fast transfer network. I think a lot of people would appreciate a new fast transfer network to challenge Sedo and Afternic. Also, please keep the prices as low as possible, especially for .com.

 

[NameGroove]

We are very deliberate with having our customers submit requests for anything they would like to see. You can submit a request at any time:

https://www.spaceship.com/roadmap/

We also do request feedback from new customers. As an early customer, you probably didn't receive the request.

You can also follow our trust pilot reviews here, there are over 1,000 of them in our first year:

https://www.trustpilot.com/review/spaceship.com?sort=recency

I agree that the naming of Domain Portfolio is an issue and we've had internal discussions about it but I don't necessarily agree that Portfolio and List should be combined as they are each meant to serve different types of users. I'm hesitant to use "Advanced" as that's closely related to "Advanced DNS" which is pretty much a standard in technology circles and it will cause confusion with that type of user.

We'll do some more brainstorming around it.

I sincerely appreciate your response. And I am not specifically pushing "advanced" as a term. Obv it is not the right term based on your response. All I'm suggesting (and it's clear you understood from your response) is for more clarity on what appears to some of us as "duplicative" areas. We look forward to the brainstorm to see what you come up with.

Overall, I think you guys are doing a great job. I have about 20% of my portfolio with Spaceship (which is #3 behind PorkBun and Sav), and it can go higher once you (i) get Sedo MLS live, (ii) figure out a fix to get Afternic FT live (I know they are being jerks so this one won't be easy) and, (iii) launch your marketplace. While I love your pricing and UI overall - these issues keep you at around 20%. I look forward to the day when I can find one registrar to rule them all.

 

[NameGroove]

Anyone else having trouble adding a .tv to their cart? I can add any other TLD, but not .tv Spaceship, a known bug? (or something on my end?) I tried 2 browsers and my phone - same issue.

 

[enetwork]

Anyone else having trouble adding a .tv to their cart? I can add any other TLD, but not .tv Spaceship, a known bug? (or something on my end?) I tried 2 browsers and my phone - same issue.

Yes, I see the issue as well. I will get our team on it.

 

[Dane]

Any timeframe as to when Spaceship might be part of Afternic's Fast Transfer network?

 

[NameWell]

Any timeframe as to when Spaceship might be part of Afternic's Fast Transfer network?

I would really like to know that too. Why is it taking them so long?

 

[Synozeer]

I would really like to know that too. Why is it taking them so long?

I think GoDaddy is trying to nickel and dime them by charging an additional $100 for each fast transfer. See these two links for more information about it:

https://domaininvesting.com/ceo-namecheap-most-likely-to-exit-afternic-network/

Jamie Zoch @DotWeekly June 6, 2024

NameCheap CEO is removing Afternic DLS registration path at NameCheap. As I reported many times, NameCheap sells A LOT of Afternic DLS domains. GoDaddy isn’t playing nice again because it can’t get its controlling way.

Richard Kirkendall @namecheapceo123

You'll be losing the Namecheap registration path soon at afternic which I believe is arguably as important to your sales.

View original Load full embed

 

[enetwork]

Anyone else having trouble adding a .tv to their cart? I can add any other TLD, but not .tv Spaceship, a known bug? (or something on my end?) I tried 2 browsers and my phone - same issue.

Should be good to go now.