poll Who is the best registrar in the business? 2019 Edition

GoDaddy has something to think about, and seriously... Comparing with the previous poll, they moved from the 1st place with almost 30% of votes to 3rd place with 13% of votes so far.

Mister Funsky said:

btw, I fully expect the winner to always be the same based on the number of employees that may be 'encouraged' to vote here.

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The poll is not closed yet, but the patterns are clear. So, any abnormal change in results will be noted. It appears that there is nothing preventing registrar representatives from voting in the poll, and not necessary for the registrar they represent... why not, the poll is open to all NP members. This may cause issues only with Uniregistry I think, as there are too many Uni employees registered @ NP (nobody actively participates though).

Voted for Namesilo

tonyk2000 said:

any abnormal change in results will be noted

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Well, without a list of the members and who they voted for available for us to see. this is not anywhere near scientific so any patterns/abnormalities would be speculative at best.

It is more meaningful for me to read the comments by each person/member who responds in the thread (not just ticking a box) as that is where the real insights are.

Just addition to the previous question...

Autorenewal can be disabled directly in their panel.
If you want to disable it for many domains - use contract.ionos.com

If any billing mistakes in their invoices (rarely, but sometimes it happens) - email to billing OR solutions (their higher level of support, Mon-Fri) AT ionos.com - and this will be corrected (credited/refunded).
Or use their callback service.

I just received an e-mail from Ionos, announcing a whole new look/rebranding. Here is a small portion:

“With the season underway, we'd just like to stop and say thank you for the support that we've received during the rebranding.

Are you as excited as we are for what the future has in store?

Stay tuned in the coming weeks, as we'll be launching a series of new offers and content designed exclusively with you in mind. There might just be something in it for you as well.”

All, obviously, was not right at Ionos! (And this is the first l’ve heard about the renovation, from the company or from anywhere else.)

1and1 Ionos is not focused on domainers at all...
Their primary targets - endusers... and webhosting.
That's why Bulk mode is in development for many years...
But even 1and1 has very necessary feature for all domainers: EXPORT with AUTH codes.
Instead many classic registrars in this poll don't offer such export.

Would have given Uniregistry my vote until they ended their partnership with Topcoin.

NameSilo

I voted for NameSilo (from domainers point of view), however for an enduser I'd also recommend Hover. A serious company (Tucows retail arm), easy control panel, good support, no upsales, extra addons like email/privacy etc...

Bob Hawkes said:

While I totally accept the reason you voted for your choice, convenience, if you are saying the question for the poll should be that I disagree. I think the poll question should be as it is and we each decide the weighting on value, interface, features, marketplace, convenience, etc.

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Regardless of what we think or the outcome of the poll, godaddy wins because we know convenience is a huge factor. The previous poll godaddy did win but in the end it is real life that matters and I cannot see anyone catching godaddy.

Believe me I resisted them a long time but when I trade, buy or sell domains the convenience factor is big for me. Even my latest domain purchase from HugeDomains went through godaddy, I bought through them because it was more convenient.

So it does not matter how we take the poll godaddy has won in real life and that says a lot. We like to complain about them but in the end they get the job done with the least amount of effort.

NameSilo, ease of use, continuous low pricing , great customer service

NameSilo

MapleDots said:

Regardless of what we think or the outcome of the poll, godaddy wins because we know convenience is a huge factor

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I'd add: wins (not necessary in this particular poll) also because of TV commercials, superbowl ads and the like which were run by Bob Parsons - but are still remembered

tonyk2000 said:

I'd add: wins (not necessary in this particular poll) also because of TV commercials, superbowl ads and the like which were run by Bob Parsons - but are still remembered

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Very true

GoDaddy is the biggest registrar and I predict we will yet see some more buyouts with them getting even bigger. That's not necessarily better because more competition keeps prices down but I have a feeling that godaddy will swallow up a number of auction sites and marketplaces and if there are any registrars attached to them they will become a casualty as well.

Personally I would love to see google do a bit more but right now there prices are a bit steep for me.

I am very surprised that NameSilo is getting so many votes. Their site is very aged. And the com reg price, while cheap, is not the best out there.

MapleDots said:

GoDaddy is the biggest registrar and I predict we will yet see some more buyouts with them getting even bigger.

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In March, Murdoch’s News Corp. Australia asked to break up Google due to its 'overwhelming' power:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...p-asks-australia-regulator-for-google-breakup

It is in Australia, so, too far from U.S... But what if the same happens to GoDaddy earlier or later. Sometimes, becoming _too big_ is dangerous.

karmaco said:

I voted for Dynadot. Easy panel great prices, fast transfers out, improved auction interface.

Transitioned most domains out of NameSilo. Don’t like that in 2019 they don’t allow fast transfers out should you leave or sell a name. They still make you wait every second of the 5 days. Even NetSol releases faster if you answer the email. Hardly any sales compared to the old days pre them getting sold.

There are things I like about Epik and I do have names there. Whether I keep them there or not I haven’t decided.

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That's not been my experience with NameSilo. You can approve the transfers away in the Transfer Manager. It can take as much as a couple of hours before the transfers appear there. But they often can be transferred away much sooner than that.

What NetSol email do you need to approve the transfer away. I don't see any email which permits the approval of the domain away. A while ago, if you clicked on the "If you don't want to transfer email", it immediately stopped the transfer, and you had to restart it. Does that now have an option to now approve the transfer. (I'm reluctant to simply try it without confirmation because of my bad experiences).

TCK said:

I am very surprised that NameSilo is getting so many votes. Their site is very aged. And the com reg price, while cheap, is not the best out there.

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Their old website was from the 20th century. Their new website looks like it's from the early 21st Century. I don't think they did much research before designing/employing it. It looks like a typical in-house programming job. They should have contracted it out (but it would probably be more expensive that way). If I were to copy a registrar's design today. I think I would choose Uniregistry. I'd definitely consider to contract it out.

Jurgen Wolf said:

1and1 has international service at .com with US residence.
And many local separate branches at ccTLDs across Europe, for example in Germany: 1und1.de

I use 1and1 for almost decade... mid X,XXX domains were regged/transferred, many were sold to endusers.

p.s. 1and1 even 2 years ago is not the same as it is in 2019.
The only one stable thing there: full lack of bulk operations.

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Once bitten, twice shy. I don't think I will ever even try 1and1 again. Despite your ringing praises. Which I believe sincerely.

TCK said:

I am very surprised that NameSilo is getting so many votes. Their site is very aged.

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Maybe because of this, among other things. Yes, there are a lot of modern-looking alternatives who just "bootstraped" everything, fast and easy. Twitter bootstrap is very powerful. So, such "modern" bootstraped registrars all look like... two peas in a pod.

I don't invite you to Ionos...
From my observation, the less domainers use 1and1 - the longer their promo offers (reg/transfer) are active.

tonyk2000 said:

Maybe because of this, among other things. Yes, there are a lot of modern-looking alternatives who just "bootstraped" everything, fast and easy. Twitter bootstrap is very powerful. So, such "modern" bootstraped registrars all look like... two peas in a pod.

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Their's nothing wrong with bootstrap, in my book. It's the non-bootstrapped websites which have a hard time convincing me they are "modern" (pleasing and easy to use). Dynadot and Uniregistry don't look like cookie-cutter websites to me.

jaydub said:

Namespro.ca holds almost all of my .ca’s
Sibername for .ca TBR
Namesilo for almost all of my others. They have great pricing and many other nice features at no extra cost. Used their escrow when selling inbound requests and it worked just fine.

And Namesilo does have fast transfer away

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The advantages for me with first two registrar is the Canadian/American exchange rate..I am saving big money by paying with Canadian currency.

But love vice versa, getting paid in US dollars.

1 Canadian dollar = 74 cents US
1 US dollar = $1.34 Canadian (as of this posting)

Business is Busine$$

stub said:

Their's nothing wrong with bootstrap, in my book.

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Indeed, if used correctly and as a part of well-maintained project. Uniregistry, for example (last time I checked), didn't even bother to rename or to optimize various background images they were playing on the first page (Anchors, Mountains, etc) - all were exactly originals they purchased from image banks.