Understanding Namecheap’s domain registration data note

Dig deeper and the data are very interesting.

Chart showing renewal rates at domain name registrar Namecheap

Domain name registrar Namecheap published its 2020 Domain Insights & Trends Note today (pdf).

With over 12 million domains under management, Namecheap has significant data to show registration trends. Still, the data are still skewed by pricing. But dig a bit deeper and you can figure out the “real” story.

Start by looking at Namecheap’s most registered domain extensions of 2020:

1. Com
2. XYZ
3. Club
4. Site
5. Net
6. Info
7. Online
8. Org
9. Live
10. ICU

Much like the data on nTLDStats, a lot of very inexpensive domains are in the top 10. This is despite Namecheap excluding any Famous Four Media registrations since they were offered so cheap.

Did a bit deeper, still, and you can suss out how pricing plays a role. Cheap domains typically renew at lower rates. Here are the domains with the ten lowest renewal rates at Namecheap (all below 20%):

1. ICU
2. Site
3. PW
4. Top
5. XYZ
6. Club
7. Info
8. Fun
9. Website
10. Online
11. Pro
12. Mobi
13. Live
14. US
15. Space

If you take these domains out of the top 10, we’re left…drumroll please… .Com, .Net, .Org. I bet that didn’t surprise you much.

The highest renewal rates this past year were:

1. CA
2. IO
3. Org
4. Dev
5. Link

It’s interesting to see .link on the list. .Com renewed at 58.97% at Namecheap. That’s well below Verisign’s blended renewal rate in the low 70s, but first-year renewal rates are much lower. Namecheap is a fast-growing registrar so many of the .com domains registered there are newer registrations.

In fact, .com is gaining steam at Namecheap. It represented 37% of registrations in 2019 and 48% of all registrations in 2020.

Another interesting data point in the note is when Namecheap sees the most registrations. Verisign notes that Q1 is its best quarter for registrations. But at Namecheap, August-November are the hottest months.

Finally, a bit regarding Namecheap’s client base. Half of its clients have just one domain. Over 90% of its clients have ten or fewer. That’s a sign of a healthy registrar that’s not too dependent on domain investors. In fact, only 0.5% of its clients own 100 or more domains with the largest owning 108,776 domains.

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