Atom / Atom.com - Marketplace (formerly Squadhelp)

[JudgeMind]

Hey Folks,

I've just started using squadhelp.com to list some of my brandable. So far I have 76 domains listed, there is no fee to list. I've had some decent action so far in the way of interested buyers but no sales as of yet. I've only been with them for 1 week now.

A bit of a summary review of SquadHelp:

PROS

• No Listing fee
• No Logo design fee
• Ability to submit your names to end users holding naming contests
• Ability to chat directly or send a message directly to end users.
• Stats of your marketplace domains are shown in the marketplace dashboard.
• Their customer service and support has been great, 24hr a day chat.
• Ability to increase or decrease the list price of your domains or to show a discount. You can decrease or increase the price yourself by $200. If you want to lower more, you can contact support.
• End users can shortlist your domains before they make a decision on which they want to purchase. The number of shortlists is shown in you marketplace dashboard.
• When you submit your names you get to set the price you wish to get. Because their commissions are high I recommend listing at a higher price to offset the commission costs.
• Their landing pages are fairly basic but they work. Because the marketplace is fairly new, I'm sure we will see style improvements in the future.
• One thing I really like is they accept multiple extensions. I have listed .co and .io along with .com
• Each seller gets a direct link to their marketplace portfolio, HERES MY PORTFOLIO. It is handy if your trying to p[promote your portfolio through social media.
• I like that their marketplace doesn't have tens of thousands domain listings like BB. They are fairly strict on the domains they accept to list and so this helps keep the number of domains in the marketplace down and gets your listings more exposure.

CONS

• Their commissions are very high, depending on the domain name they are usually between 30% and 35%. However, there are no listing fees, no logo design fees, so in the end their commission is very similar to brand buckets.
• Their logos are not top quality, in fact I requested to have some of my logos remade.
• I think they have a big backlog of logos to design, the wait time for logo design has been around 1 week, but your names are still listed while the logos are being designed.
• After your names are accepted you need to agree to their commission rate, at this point you also need to apply your own keywords, descriptions etc. I found this was very time consuming.

 

[Velocity.Now]

Definitely listing effectively at Atom is a learning curve, and the new interface gives even more options, but requires getting used to. There is a lot available in the various tabs.

I put together this graphic to show what you can see/do from the new Atom interface. This is not an official Atom document, just something I put together.

When I started domain investing less than 10 years ago I never conceived we would have a marketplace option with this much customization. In fact back then having a description and CamelCasing was considered revolutionary.

Show attachment 290017

I think they have made the experience for a domainer extremely tedious, a domainer should submit a domain and it should be accessed by a human expert who says yes or no, if yes then they process everything , description , categories , uses , logo etc... as they are the expert and they accepted the name with a use in mind. This is what the 30% commission on a sale is for.

With 400,000 premium domains coming early in 2026 the dilution of STRs continues but Atom get their 30% cut of every sale. Nobody here ever wants to talk about the overpopulation and near impossibility of making a profit on Atom .....why I don't understand , its like people are under a spell.

 

[enterscope]

We are not allowed to list Atom premium at Sedo.

I hope @Atom.com will reconsider and allow us to list at +10%, but currently that is the policy

I have had 300~ domains on Atom for over 4 years and not had a single sale through Sedo and only a couple sales through Afternic. I don't think we are missing out on much tbh.

 

[phaethon]

I have had 300~ domains on Atom for over 4 years and not had a single sale through Sedo and only a couple sales through Afternic. I don't think we are missing out on much tbh.

I left after 6 months, gut feeling it's smoke and mirrors for 99% of investors. Anyone ever had a standard listing sale btw? I hardly doubt.

 

[domainape]

How accurate are all the statistics on Atom?

 

[enterscope]

I left after 6 months, gut feeling it's smoke and mirrors for 99% of investors. Anyone ever had a standard listing sale btw? I hardly doubt.

One of my biggest sales was a Plus listing and was only listed for a few months ($9200). Was a hand reg too

I've said this before, it doesn't hurt your portfolio to have them listed on Atom. You get extra promotion and exposure from being on the site. If your domains aren't selling, then chances are they are no good and most likely won't sell anywhere else either.

You can list on Atom and Afternic, so obviously it is better than being on just Afternic.... Plus the paid advertising is only going to benefit you. Lots of domainers are expecting miracle results with poor portfolios, and you can't force a buyer to buy your sub-par names.

My sell-through-rate is currently 3.17% after 4+ years, it doesn't get much better than that.

 

[NameGroove]

One of my biggest sales was a Plus listing and was only listed for a few months ($9200). Was a hand reg too

I've said this before, it doesn't hurt your portfolio to have them listed on Atom. You get extra promotion and exposure from being on the site. If your domains aren't selling, then chances are they are no good and most likely won't sell anywhere else either.

You can list on Atom and Afternic, so obviously it is better than being on just Afternic.... Plus the paid advertising is only going to benefit you. Lots of domainers are expecting miracle results with poor portfolios, and you can't force a buyer to buy your sub-par names.

My sell-through-rate is currently 3.17% after 4+ years, it doesn't get much better than that.

100%!!!!

 

[NameGroove]

Avg approval rate is plummeting, first time I've ever seen it below 6% (since I joined Atom). However, they are still adding names overall so that means the numbers of submissions must be very high

 

[draco]

Does Atom no longer allow a domain to be pushed to an account at the same registrar? I sold a domain here on NamePros. The buyer paid with AtomPay. The listing stated I could only push the domain and the buyer said that was fine. Atom is insisting on transfer to their registrar. I've been trying to tell Atom for 2 days now that the domain is transfer locked. They just keep saying transfer the domain or we'll forward your message to the transfer or marketplace team. I've asked it to be escalated and for clarification. So far, nothing.

@Atom.com

 

[Future Sensors]

Does Atom no longer allow a domain to be pushed to an account at the same registrar? I sold a domain here on NamePros. The buyer paid with AtomPay. The listing stated I could only push the domain and the buyer said that was fine. Atom is insisting on transfer to their registrar. I've been trying to tell Atom for 2 days now that the domain is transfer locked. They just keep saying transfer the domain or we'll forward your message to the transfer or marketplace team. I've asked it to be escalated and for clarification. So far, nothing.

Yikes. That's exactly what I was worried about earlier. Not a good development, indeed.

https://www.namepros.com/posts/9492753

 

[Future Sensors]

I mean, even Afternic recognized the importance of having the ability to push the domain at the current registrar.

https://blog.afternic.com/explore-transaction-assurance/

 

[draco]

Yikes. That's exactly what I was worried about earlier. Not a good development, indeed.

https://www.namepros.com/posts/9492753

This is what Atom just sent me:

"Please proceed with pushing the domain to the buyer. Once it’s done, kindly let us know so we can confirm with the buyer.

Thank you."

So I guess you can do it. Would be nice if it was clearer and not such a hassle. I'll post any updates.

 

[Future Sensors]

This is what Atom just sent me:

"Please proceed with pushing the domain to the buyer. Once it’s done, kindly let us know so we can confirm with the buyer.

Thank you."

So I guess you can do it. Would be nice if it was clearer and not such a hassle. I'll post any updates.

So I understand Atom does not have a holding account there? What's the registrar?

 

[draco]

So I understand Atom does not have a holding account there? What's the registrar?

Didn't think of that. It's Network Solutions. I would think they have a holding account there. Maybe it's no longer a thing? I wish they had provided more of an explanation.

I reached out to Darpan on LinkedIn earlier, before Atom gave me that 'answer'. Hopefully he'll message me back with their exact policy.

 

[Future Sensors]

Atom is insisting on transfer to their registrar.

Strange they were saying this.

 

[NameGroove]

@Atom.com , I received offers on 3 of my names, six, seven, and ten days ago. I provided my floor price and have heard nothing at all on any of these offers since then. Six, seven, and ten days - and I get no updates, can't follow along watching if you're contacting the potential buyer.

Can you please provide more frequent status updates when we receive offers? Perhaps a timeline that allows us to follow along to show emails/calls, etc? So it's not just radio silence?

 

[xwat]

I have been seeing ads for Atom so I am assuming they may be getting a lot of new business and not staffed for it.

I cannot say they just did not like your lowest price. If they ask me for my floor price and I gave it I assume they would be negotiating from there so the offer would be less if there was one.

Every domain I have sold I have decided on a price I would sell for snd held the line. They were random offers though and not listings.

Good luck.

 

[Embrand]

@Atom.com , I received offers on 3 of my names, six, seven, and ten days ago. I provided my floor price and have heard nothing at all on any of these offers since then. Six, seven, and ten days - and I get no updates, can't follow along watching if you're contacting the potential buyer.

Can you please provide more frequent status updates when we receive offers? Perhaps a timeline that allows us to follow along to show emails/calls, etc? So it's not just radio silence?

Speaking of offers, are we allowed to only use "Make offer" for premium listings?

 

[Future Sensors]

Speaking of offers, are we allowed to only use "Make offer" for premium listings?

Yes, but note this:

For Premium Listings, you can switch up to 10% of your portfolio to "Make Offer" and another 10% of your portfolio to "Request Price".

https://helpdesk.atom.com/en/articles/3172811-marketplace-price-request-make-an-offer-features

 

[Velocity.Now]

Speaking of offers, are we allowed to only use "Make offer" for premium listings?

I think on only 10% of premium listings

 

[Atom.com]

Does Atom no longer allow a domain to be pushed to an account at the same registrar? I sold a domain here on NamePros. The buyer paid with AtomPay. The listing stated I could only push the domain and the buyer said that was fine. Atom is insisting on transfer to their registrar. I've been trying to tell Atom for 2 days now that the domain is transfer locked. They just keep saying transfer the domain or we'll forward your message to the transfer or marketplace team. I've asked it to be escalated and for clarification. So far, nothing.

@Atom.com

Thanks for flagging this.

Our default domain purchase and transfer workflow is optimized for speed, efficiency, and security. By completing most transactions through our registrar automation, we’re able to verify ownership quickly and release seller payouts almost immediately once the domain is secured. This is the fastest and most reliable path for the majority of sales.

That said, registrar pushes are still supported. If a domain is transfer-locked or otherwise cannot be transferred into Atom registrar, we can complete the transaction via a push at the same registrar. In those cases, the automated path is bypassed and handled manually.

It’s also important to note that buyers always have the option to request an auth code if they wish to move the domain to a different registrar right away, without waiting on any transfer lock.

If this wasn’t communicated clearly or escalated properly in your case, we agree that’s something we need to improve. Please share the domain name, or reference this thread with support, and we’ll make sure the right team reviews it so the transaction can move forward without unnecessary delays.

Our goal is simple: close transactions quickly, keep them secure, and get sellers paid as fast as possible.