poll Which registrar do you feel safest with?

haha, before i read your details, i was thinking, this person is camping out in their server room and needs to leave. My bad, lol, nah, for what they do all of them are safe wise over the next one. Its really which one will a hacker pick for its next target, understand?

NameDeck said:

If I don't go backrupt during this pandemic I'm definitely going to look into becoming an ICANN accredited registrar . I'm only accredited for some ccTLDs as of now which is very cost effective when you scale things up. Way cheaper than ICANN accreditation and I don't have enough gTLD volume to justify it yet. But you know... a man can always dream

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I was surprised to learn the ICANN accreditation fee is only like $3,500. But you have to show financial solvency (at least $70,000 in the bank if I remember correctly). But then you have to put funds on deposit which each registry you want to register names with. You got alot of technical and operational requirements. And you got ongoing ICANN fees of I think $1,000 per quarter plus per domain fees.

I'm not sure where exactly but at some point it may prove cheaper to be your own registrar if you have a large enough portfolio (probably would require several hundred thousand domains if I had to guess)

I vote for Epik

Ryan217 said:

I was surprised to learn the ICANN accreditation fee is only like $3,500. But you have to show financial solvency (at least $70,000 in the bank if I remember correctly). But then you have to put funds on deposit which each registry you want to register names with. You got alot of technical and operational requirements. And you got ongoing ICANN fees of I think $1,000 per quarter plus per domain fees.

I'm not sure where exactly but at some point it may prove cheaper to be your own registrar if you have a large enough portfolio (probably would require several hundred thousand domains if I had to guess)

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yeah, you will definitely need a lot of domains to make it work. It would be doable if you join forces with domainers holding large enough portfolios. Kinda like the uniregistry model. By domainers for domainers. Doesn't even have to be profitable. Optimising the workflow and backend for domainers will be profitable enough because of the time it'll save. Plans for the future. I'll stop my daydream right here because I'm going a bit offtopic

Ryan217 said:

I'm not sure where exactly but at some point it may prove cheaper to be your own registrar if you have a large enough portfolio (probably would require several hundred thousand domains if I had to guess)

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Or buy accredited registrar; many say it easier, than process of applying to b icann accredited; buy a registrar to bypass going through all that.

basically its guesswork
to feel save means nothing

you missed cloudflare in that list

I don't feel save with any registrar
is that an option, too?

ICAN fees are more like $4500 USD per quarter
as far as I know

frank-germany said:

basically its guesswork
to feel save means nothing

you missed cloudflare in that list

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Cloudflare, is 9th from the top,

Your vote would double their votes

I voted for Epik, and I also vote with my wallet. I used to have domains across so many registrars... now they are all there.

All these years having Rob Monster, and his team, helping out gave me all the confidence I needed.

It really depends on what your goal is for the domain.

1.) If I'm going to resell it to an end user or "casual" buyer who is not a "domainer" and doesn't try to get the absolute lowest price and just wants something familiar, I go with GoDaddy. Quite simply they are the name brand of domain names that casuals will be familiar with and many will already have accounts there, great for clients who don't care and want to feel safe despite insane renewal prices and poor competitive pricing.

2.) If I want the absolute cheapest domain names possible I will go with NameSilo or NameBright. Although Epik.com has .COM's for around $8 (once you contact support to unlock this pricing) but I've had issues with them in terms of domains being locked and not being able to transfer them to clients.

Some people chose a registrar for it's custom landing pages to help sell domains (NameSilo is one example), some people want integrated access to a registrar's Auction platform such as GoDaddy, it really all depends.

Most domainers will end up using 3 or more domain registrars, possibly more if you're like me and you build websites or web applications for multiple clients on various hosting platforms and registrars.

frostify said:

It really depends on what your goal is for the domain.

1.) If I'm going to resell it to an end user or "casual" buyer who is not a "domainer" and doesn't try to get the absolute lowest price and just wants something familiar, I go with GoDaddy. Quite simply they are the name brand of domain names that casuals will be familiar with and many will already have accounts there, great for clients who don't care and want to feel safe despite insane renewal prices and poor competitive pricing.

2.) If I want the absolute cheapest domain names possible I will go with NameSilo or NameBright. Although Epik.com has .COM's for around $8 (once you contact support to unlock this pricing) but I've had issues with them in terms of domains being locked and not being able to transfer them to clients.

Some people chose a registrar for it's custom landing pages to help sell domains (NameSilo is one example), some people want integrated access to a registrar's Auction platform such as GoDaddy, it really all depends.

Most domainers will end up using 3 or more domain registrars, possibly more if you're like me and you build websites or web applications for multiple clients on various hosting platforms and registrars.

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For 60- day locks, you can opt out. We usually waive them upon request anyway. The main reason to have them is to safeguard against someone buying a premium domain name with a bad credit card and then disappearing with the domain name. For folks with portfolios at Epik, or who we know, there is really no need to enforce that policy. ICANN allows us which is handy sometimes, but otherwise not.

frostify said:

It really depends on what your goal is for the domain.

1.) If I'm going to resell it to an end user or "casual" buyer who is not a "domainer" and doesn't try to get the absolute lowest price and just wants something familiar, I go with GoDaddy. Quite simply they are the name brand of domain names that casuals will be familiar with and many will already have accounts there, great for clients who don't care and want to feel safe despite insane renewal prices and poor competitive pricing.

2.) If I want the absolute cheapest domain names possible I will go with NameSilo or NameBright. Although Epik.com has .COM's for around $8 (once you contact support to unlock this pricing) but I've had issues with them in terms of domains being locked and not being able to transfer them to clients.

Some people chose a registrar for it's custom landing pages to help sell domains (NameSilo is one example), some people want integrated access to a registrar's Auction platform such as GoDaddy, it really all depends.

Most domainers will end up using 3 or more domain registrars, possibly more if you're like me and you build websites or web applications for multiple clients on various hosting platforms and registrars.

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IMO choosing your registrar based on your customers isnt necessary. If they want to use GD I'll give them the auth code and they can transfer it.

That said something that would be really nice @Rob Monster is if I could create an Epik account for the buyer and push the domain to it either manually or automatically with an API call, especially if I could link their account to my affiliate code. Just an interesting idea I just had.

I kinda imagine it as an AccountPush API endpoint where I can say push this domain to the account for this email address. If that email address is already a user it would complete the push, if not it would send that user an email to set a password, whois details, ect complete account setup then auto push the domain once completed. And if an account is created and I'm opted into the affiliate program maybe even link that account so I can get a commission if they renew the domain with Epik or register or transfer in other domains.

equity78 said:

Forget favorite or best overall, which registrar would be your pick from a safety standpoint.

Things like

Their security
Financial position
Free speech and how they work with government agencies
Have true privacy protection that they won't easily allowed penetrated
Redemption periods
Getting paid or refunds

etc...

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For me,

So far DynaDot is best.

GoDaddy, comes second, used to be first choice earlier.

1.) If I'm going to resell it to an end user or "casual" buyer who is not a "domainer" and doesn't try to get the absolute lowest price and just wants something familiar, I go with GoDaddy. Quite simply they are the name brand of domain names that casuals will be familiar with and many will already have accounts there, great for clients who don't care and want to feel safe despite insane renewal prices and poor competitive pricing.

2.) If I want the absolute cheapest domain names possible I will go with NameSilo or NameBright. Although Epik.com has .COM's for around $8 (once you contact support to unlock this pricing) but I've had issues with them in terms of domains being locked and not being able to transfer them to clients.

Some people chose a registrar for it's custom landing pages to help sell domains (NameSilo is one example), some people want integrated access to a registrar's Auction platform such as GoDaddy, it really all depends.

Most domainers will end up using 3 or more domain registrars, possibly more if you're like me and you build websites or web applications for multiple clients on various hosting platforms and registrars.[/QUOTE]

Good breakdown, I had a sale recently where the name was at another registrar and the buyer was like flipping out, I need it at GoDaddy, if it's not there no deal. I was like ok I will transfer it to my account at GoDaddy. They were like, "I don't know what that means" So when people are outside the industry a lot of them just equate domains to GoDaddy.

why do I get the feeling that you could ask a random question like "which registrar likes cheese the best" and the voting will follow a similar pattern?

This thread may be more relevant than many think as we do not know where others have assets or investments.

Ryan217 said:

A long history...of treating customers poorly (unless ur a whale).

Domain transfer validation...more like a nightmare when you want to transfer your own domain name.

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If there's voting on the worst registrar, I'll gladly pick Godaddy without hesitation. Everything about Godaddy is designed to rip off unsuspecting naive customers. To me, their business activity is close to fraudulent.

I have been using GoDaddy for the past 15 years & had no trouble at all in terms of security / outage / billing / discounts / customer service etc,..

But there are few cons as well
# the prices are getting bit costlier.
# there are no loyalty bonus points for long term clients.

As a web developer , I have worked with a lot of clients who have their names registered with other registrars as well.
But most of the time , I work with website hosted with variety of hosting providers .
Godaddy stands out as an registrar as well as hosting provider.

** I'm no way related or affiliated with GoDaddy , rather I'm just an end user like you all.
These are based out of my own personal experience

NickB said:

why do I get the feeling that you could ask a random question like "which registrar likes cheese the best" and the voting will follow a similar pattern?

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Maybe you just really like cheese, and/or are projecting your cheese love/obsession onto the forum?

Full Disclosure:

equity78 said:

Forget favorite or best overall, which registrar would be your pick from a safety standpoint.

Things like

Their security
Financial position
Free speech and how they work with government agencies
Have true privacy protection that they won't easily allowed penetrated
Redemption periods
Getting paid or refunds

etc...

Click to expand...

I really like the new format.

Just a few points of feedback, before I do a little more research to try and finalize my result.

Pros
+ the 3 choice option
+ change your vote
+ focus on safety, with a great list of example points to consider

Neutral
+/- The shortened period, while it might yield quicker results, and will likely encompass the bulk amount of voters, it limits the amount of time, one can research, and consider answers to such example points raised in OP.

Suggestion
First, I appreciate your efforts in creating this poll/thread, and don't mean to sound ungrateful. Recognizing your efforts, and that additional efforts would be likely be time/interest dependent, and/or such research would likely deserve to be financially incentivized, I think (if repeated in future years) it would be beneficial to display certain data points that could be detailed in the OP, such as a graph or bullet points, to questions such as each registrars redemption period dates/fees, and other yes/no of date/fee tangible/comparable policy metrics. Rather than relying on comments from other members or registrars, perhaps a X amount of time before the poll is created, a generic email/DM can be sent to all registrar PR department, in hopes of a comment clarifying certain policies? Or if possible, aggregating relevant policy links; not sure which would be easier/most accurate. This longwinded suggestion comes from me having just placed my vote now, yet there are certain questions I don't know the answer to, regarding one of my votes, and upon further clarification (or added knowledge), I may find that reason to change my vote, hence the appreciation for the change my vote option.

phptechie said:

I have been using GoDaddy for the past 15 years & had no trouble at all in terms of security / outage / billing / discounts / customer service etc,..

But there are few cons as well
# the prices are getting bit costlier.
# there are no loyalty bonus points for long term clients.

As a web developer , I have worked with a lot of clients who have their names registered with other registrars as well.
But most of the time , I work with website hosted with variety of hosting providers .
Godaddy stands out as an registrar as well as hosting provider.

** I'm no way related or affiliated with GoDaddy , rather I'm just an end user like you all.
These are based out of my own personal experience

Click to expand...

I suppose they might be fine if you just hold a name there and do nothing. As soon as you try to transfer it out its trouble frustration and dealing with horrible support.

Dynadot & GoDaddy

Congrats

1. Dynadot
2. Epik
3. GoDaddy
4. Namesilo

I think we're good with Registrar polls this year Raymond.

@Mod Team Bravo, forgive me for asking but,

How can yu feel safe with registrar still in beta?

Samer

Samer said:

How can yu feel safe with registrar still in beta?

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When it comes to security, it's almost impossible for anyone to do better than Google:

• https://safety.google/

But we can all keep doing our best.

Mod Team Bravo said:

When it comes to security, it's almost impossible for anyone to do better than Google:

• https://safety.google/

But we can all keep doing our best.

Click to expand...

So long as they don't kill it.

https://killedbygoogle.com/

Thank you voters! We appreciate your confidence in us.