I love the site. $8 for domain/renewal/transfer that includes whois privacy is a really good deal. I also like the idea of buying credits in batch.
Since your frontend is open source, I figure I'd ask: are you guys still profitable at $8/credit? Is there a way to be assured that the company will be around for a while so we would feel safe stocking up on credits while they're $8 a pop?
Regarding the open source frontend, what's that have to do with profitability? We think that, if anything, having an open source frontend will lower costs because our users can help us build the features they want.
Regarding assurance, I believe the expression goes: "The only two things certain in life are death and taxes" (Benjamin Franklin?). That said, we're a real company with employees located in San Francisco and we're planning on being around for a long time.
And to answer your question, no, we're not profitable at $8/credit, so you should definitely stock up because this special won't last for long.
Oops, somehow I accidentally cut off one line. I actually was going to ask if you were planning to open source the backend code, since you open sourced the frontend. Maybe that doesn't make sense because then someone else could start a competing registrar without the dev costs.
I guess my main concern is that I get a bunch of credits (instead of tacking on many years of renewals), and then poof they disappear one day. If I had used them to buy extra years, then those would stay even if the registrar goes awol (as I've heard in the horror stories).
Could you theoretically "make it up in volume" for $8/credit? It looks like it costs wholesale $7.34 + $0.18 = $7.52 for one year of .com, I guess you would need at least a million domains (1% of the .com market share) to about break even with salaries, rent, and fixed registrar fees.
Since your frontend is open source, I figure I'd ask: are you guys still profitable at $8/credit? Is there a way to be assured that the company will be around for a while so we would feel safe stocking up on credits while they're $8 a pop?