5 Best (and 5 Worst) Domain Registrars of 2025 — Ranked After 15 Years and 25+ Registrars

[william]

After 15+ years and over 25 registrars, here's my experience-based guide to help you quickly find reliable registrars—and avoid costly headaches. Always prefer top registrars when possible, especially if you're serious about domaining.

Best Domain Registrars (Highly Recommended):

Registrar	Afternic Fast-Transfer	Sedo MLS	Quick Notes
Dynadot.com			Competitive pricing, fantastic interface, great customer support.
Sav.com			Great prices and excellent interface. Never needed support personally.
Namesilo.com			Outdated interface but reliable and affordable with strong support.
Porkbun.com			Reliable, easy to manage, consistently great pricing.
Spaceship.com	(coming)		New registrar built around domainer feedback, promising experience.

Worst Domain Registrars (Avoid):

Registrar	Afternic Fast-Transfer	Sedo MLS	Quick Notes
HostGator.com			Nightmare domain management, frequent account lockouts, lost domains and sales without accountability.
NetworkSolutions.com			Terrible policies, excessively high prices, consistently poor support.
Epik.com			Epik Bucks fiasco severely damaged trust and financial reliability.
One.com			Confusing pricing structure, frustrating policies, weak customer support.
GoDaddy.com			Aggressive upselling and controversial programs like Afternic Boost that frustrate domainers.
Z.com (GMO)			Low prices don't make up for difficult domain management and previously terrible support.

Conclusion: Picking the right registrar isn't just about price; it's about reliability, ease of use, and trust. Stick to proven registrars to avoid unnecessary stress and maximize your domaining success. Believe me, the amount of wasted time (and money) is not worth any discount.

What are your top registrars of 2025? Which ones will you be avoiding?

 

[Dane]

I see it says that Afternic FT is "coming" to Spaceship. Is that a sure thing? Is there an ETA on that?

 

[Gabriel360]

Dynadot is so good they are in danger of being acquired by GoDaddy.

 

[william]

I see it says that Afternic FT is "coming" to Spaceship. Is that a sure thing? Is there an ETA on that?

According to their roadmap, it's upcoming.

 

[william]

I can no longer recommend using Sav.com. I had domains disappear from my account. I had a name not functioning for over a month. I had transfers never initiate and never get an update on. All of this has happened in the last few months.

 

[william]

Update on my recent experience with Sav.com:

I initiated transfers for several expired domains. Sav accepted payment and started the process, but I noticed my losing registrar never received the transfer requests.

I contacted Sav on August 18. Their response, repeatedly, was to "wait." I reminded them multiple times that the domains would enter redemption if the issue wasn’t resolved promptly. Their answer never changed: just keep waiting.

As expected, the domains eventually went into redemption. Only then did Sav inform me that the issue was "resolved"- by telling me to contact my registrar and pay redemption fees to restore the names before I could attempt the transfers again. In other words, they let the transfers fail, avoided doing any actual work, and left me with the bill.

This level of incompetence is shocking, especially from a major registrar. I would expect this kind of response from someone unfamiliar with domains, not from a company that claims to be a top-tier provider.

It has been an absolute nightmare. I had been warned about Sav’s poor support before, but I couldn’t judge fairly as I hadn’t run into issues with them for many years. Frankly, all my run ins with Sav itself (not the support) were nothing but positive for many years. Unfortunately, problems are now becoming more frequent in my account, and this experience confirms those warnings.

 

[Gabriel360]

Update on my recent experience with Sav.com:

I initiated transfers for several expired domains. Sav accepted payment and started the process, but I noticed my losing registrar never received the transfer requests.

I contacted Sav on August 18. Their response, repeatedly, was to "wait." I reminded them multiple times that the domains would enter redemption if the issue wasn’t resolved promptly. Their answer never changed: just keep waiting.

As expected, the domains eventually went into redemption. Only then did Sav inform me that the issue was "resolved"- by telling me to contact my registrar and pay redemption fees to restore the names before I could attempt the transfers again. In other words, they let the transfers fail, avoided doing any actual work, and left me with the bill.

This level of incompetence is shocking, especially from a major registrar. I would expect this kind of response from someone unfamiliar with domains, not from a company that claims to be a top-tier provider.

It has been an absolute nightmare. I had been warned about Sav’s poor support before, but I couldn’t judge fairly as I hadn’t run into issues with them for many years. Frankly, all my run ins with Sav itself (not the support) were nothing but positive for many years. Unfortunately, problems are now becoming more frequent in my account, and this experience confirms those warnings.

SAV.com is dangerously incompetent.
But it's strange that you did not transfer your domain names to a DIFFERENT registrar when the SAV problem remained unresolved for an extended period of time (I assume).

In fact the moment you noticed such a huge problem with carrying out the most basic function of a registrar is the moment you should have been eternally grateful that your assets have not entered into the murky ecosystem of SAV.

You shouldn't have waited for SAV.com to get their shit together. They never do. People have been waiting for YEARS. Especially because your domain names were already in the expiry grace period.

There's not much you can do now but pay the redemption fees.

By the way, remember to leave a review on TRUSTPILOT.

And sorry about your SAVvy situation.

 

[william]

SAV.com is dangerously incompetent.
But it's strange that you did not transfer your domain names to a DIFFERENT registrar when the SAV problem remained unresolved for an extended period of time (I assume).

I manage thousands of domain names with multiple registrars. Every month there are hundreds transfers that I manage. I did not get a failed transfer notice from them. I also haven't needed to use their support in many years prior to a domain disappearing recently. So when I reached out and they told me to wait after I made it clear that the domain would go into redemption I trusted that I would get what I paid for. I expected them to A) resolve the transfer issue B) tell me they cannot resolve it and cancel the transfer and refund before it goes into redemption C) Tell me it will take longer and that the domain could possibly go into redemption in that period. But to my surprise, Sav chose an option of their own D) Ignore my warnings, ask me to wait multiple times, not fix the issue, wait until the name goes into redemption and then tell me there's nothing they can do about it because it's out of their hands. And then have the balls to tell me that they resolved the transfer issue and ask me if I'd like a refund.

 

[Chris Co]

According to their roadmap, it's upcoming.

Bearing in mind, it has been stuck in the "Under Review" category for a while now and has yet to be moved to Upcoming. Plus, the owner, Richard Kirkendall has an intense dislike of GoDaddy/Afternic so Fast Transfer may end up coming later rather than sooner.