Best registrar for bulk transfer from Epik...

[NicTraders]

I've had my domains at Epik for around 5 years. They worked well for me. And while the hack last year was very worrying, and there have been other concerning events, the current situation is the last straw. Unless you've been living under a rock, you'll likely know that the writing is on the wall for them, and it seems likely that they could fail at some point in the near future (132 pages of the gory details here). Regardless of whether they pull off some miracle to get themselves out of this mess, I think my time with them is done.

So, I am left with the decision of choosing a new registrar. Yes, I realize people will tell me to check the poll for your favorite registrar of 2022, but I'd like some info that for the most part, the poll doesn't offer. Reasons. Why should I choose your favorite registrar?

Things I'll be looking for:
- Competitive pricing
- Bulk management (and generally an easy-to-use interface)
- Good support (24hr live chat preferred as I'm not US-based)
- Bonus points for a registrar who will give me a special deal for bulk transfer or if you can put me in touch with a helpful account manager

Probably top of the list for me to investigate (given past dealings) are Dynadot, Porkbun, Sav, NameSilo, so I'm keen to hear good and bad experiences about those.
There are numerous names I won't consider, and that includes GoDaddy. The others are pretty much all the usual suspects which would probably be pretty obvious for anyone who has been in the industry for a while.

Looking forward to your feedback.

 

[pb]

Sav.com's support is donkey's ass but the pricing is great, the interface is ok, afternic/sedo sync is one of the best, so currently it's my registrar of choice for gTLDs.

 

[NicTraders]

Sav.com's support is donkey's ass but the pricing is great, the interface is ok, afternic/sedo sync is one of the best, so currently it's my registrar of choice for gTLDs.

AN/Sedo sync would certainly be handy. What's the process - is it as easy as ticking a box, or do you still have to enter a TXT record for Sedo?

 

[Domain Ethos]

I am 100% in the same boat as you and have the same thoughts/feelings about Epik. I am leaning heavily towards Dynadot. I've already registered some with them.

 

[pb]

When you list the domain at AM/sedo, you will have the option to approve it for fast transfer in the Marketplace tab, sav will also send you a reminder if you don't do it within 24h or so. I am not entirely sure if the typical sedo nuisances apply (such as extra steps if the domain is already listed).

 

[bmugford]

I've had my domains at Epik for around 5 years. They worked well for me. And while the hack last year was very worrying, and there have been other concerning events, the current situation is the last straw. Unless you've been living under a rock, you'll likely know that the writing is on the wall for them, and it seems likely that they could fail at some point in the near future (132 pages of the gory details here). Regardless of whether they pull off some miracle to get themselves out of this mess, I think my time with them is done.

So, I am left with the decision of choosing a new registrar. Yes, I realize people will tell me to check the poll for your favorite registrar of 2022, but I'd like some info that for the most part, the poll doesn't offer. Reasons. Why should I choose your favorite registrar?

Things I'll be looking for:
- Competitive pricing
- Bulk management (and generally an easy-to-use interface)
- Good support (24hr live chat preferred as I'm not US-based)
- Bonus points for a registrar who will give me a special deal for bulk transfer or if you can put me in touch with a helpful account manager

Probably top of the list for me to investigate (given past dealings) are Dynadot, Porkbun, Sav, NameSilo, so I'm keen to hear good and bad experiences about those.
There are numerous names I won't consider, and that includes GoDaddy. The others are pretty much all the usual suspects which would probably be pretty obvious for anyone who has been in the industry for a while.

Looking forward to your feedback.

I have nothing but positive things to say about Dynadot.

Most of my domains are at GoDaddy, but I have used Dynadot for over a decade as well.

Brad

 

[wwwweb]

I have nothing but positive things to say about Dynadot.

Most of my domains are at GoDaddy, but I have used Dynadot for over a decade as well.

Brad

One thing I don't understand about godaddy is that they charge 6% more than dynadot for regular .co renewals, and given they own the .co registry, they could cut their customers a bit of a break, or even price match. Godaddy is super pricy on .org renewals also. Dynadot seems to have the best overall balance of renewal pricing.

 

[bmugford]

One thing I don't understand about godaddy is that they charge 6% more than dynadot for regular .co renewals, and given they own the .co registry, they could cut their customers a bit of a break, or even price match. Godaddy is super pricy on .org renewals also. Dynadot seems to have the best overall balance of renewal pricing.

Yeah, I use GoDaddy for a number of reasons that are not pricing related.

However, as an overall registrar I think Dynadot offers good pricing, service, and is a good choice for anyone.

Brad

 

[NicTraders]

I have nothing but positive things to say about Dynadot.

Most of my domains are at GoDaddy, but I have used Dynadot for over a decade as well.

Brad

Brad, one reason I mostly stayed away from Dynadot in the past was this (pasting from notes I made a few years ago when I did have some domains there):

"Dynadot does NOT let you unlock/push/transfer expired domains (it is not possible to get the authcode for them immediately). You either have to renew them in order to do any of these things, or you can submit an Unlock Request which takes 5 days to action. After 5 days you can then unlock your domain."

I found that terribly annoying compared with Epik where I could unlock and push an expired domain without issue. It's probably less of a problem these days as I renew virtually everything, but back then I was wholesaling a lot of domains, so it wasn't uncommon for me to sell something for $5 on NP with a couple of days until expiry, and by the time I was paid it had expired. The Dynadot process made this very messy.

Do you know if that is still the situation with them?...

 

[bmugford]

Brad, one reason I mostly stayed away from Dynadot in the past was this (pasting from notes I made a few years ago when I did have some domains there):

"Dynadot does NOT let you unlock/push/transfer expired domains (it is not possible to get the authcode for them immediately). You either have to renew them in order to do any of these things, or you can submit an Unlock Request which takes 5 days to action. After 5 days you can then unlock your domain."

I found that terribly annoying compared with Epik where I could unlock and push an expired domain without issue. It's probably less of a problem these days as I renew virtually everything, but back then I was wholesaling a lot of domains, so it wasn't uncommon for me to sell something for $5 on NP with a couple of days until expiry, and by the time I was paid it had expired. The Dynadot process made this very messy.

Do you know if that is still the situation with them?...

I am not sure about that. I don't normally let domains expire, so I would not know.

I could see it being a problem if you are churning a lot of inventory, but to me it would not really matter that much.

Brad

 

[dirk]

"Dynadot does NOT let you unlock/push/transfer expired domains (it is not possible to get the authcode for them immediately). You either have to renew them in order to do any of these things, or you can submit an Unlock Request which takes 5 days to action. After 5 days you can then unlock your domain."

Not able to push. You can ask support to unlock the domain and get the Auth code though.

 

[LoveCatchyDomains]

Namecheap for me has proven very reliable for the transfers of many domains. The prices that were excellent, if you transfer using one of their sales. The interface for domain management could be better. The customer service I received by their support tickets has been very prompt, sometimes within hours of receipt.
Note also that Namecheap did provide me an unadvertised discount, as a bulk domain user. I was pleasantly surprised about this when I first signed on to their service. You could consider inquiring with the potential transfer registrars, citing the number of domains. Maybe you can get a great, unadvertised deal with one of your top choices for transfer?!

 

[BetoWH7]

Namecheap for me has proven very reliable for the transfers of many domains. The prices that were excellent, if you transfer using one of their sales. The interface for domain management could be better. The customer service I received by their support tickets has been very prompt, sometimes within hours of receipt.
Note also that Namecheap did provide me an unadvertised discount, as a bulk domain user. I was pleasantly surprised about this when I first signed on to their service. You could consider inquiring with the potential transfer registrars, citing the number of domains. Maybe you can get a great, unadvertised deal with one of your top choices for transfer?!

i hope you can help, because i am very interested now in transfering my domains out of epik and into Namecheap how many domains do you have to transfer in order to be considered bulk, do you have to contact a specific person to ask for a discount.
is it possible to contact someome from namecheap in this forum ?
thank you

 

[LoveCatchyDomains]

i hope you can help, because i am very interested now in transfering my domains out of epik and into Namecheap how many domains do you have to transfer in order to be considered bulk, do you have to contact a specific person to ask for a discount.
is it possible to contact someome from namecheap in this forum ?
thank you

There is a section on Namepros for Industry Representatives. Tamar is listed as the Namecheap representative, and might be able to help answer those questions.
You're very savvy, to do your research first, ask questions, and then take the leap. Good luck with hunting for the best deal!

 

[BetoWH7]

thank you @LoveCatchyDomains i have already sent a support ticket to namecheap, and will look for Tamar in the forum
truth is i am a bit paranoid and worried that something bad happens to epik and i lose my domains.
and there are not too many, imagine the people here that have lots of them there, that is a real headache.
but still to a micro small player like me a few domains count a lot.
again thank you

 

[karmaco]

Namecheap for me has proven very reliable for the transfers of many domains. The prices that were excellent, if you transfer using one of their sales. The interface for domain management could be better. The customer service I received by their support tickets has been very prompt, sometimes within hours of receipt.
Note also that Namecheap did provide me an unadvertised discount, as a bulk domain user. I was pleasantly surprised about this when I first signed on to their service. You could consider inquiring with the potential transfer registrars, citing the number of domains. Maybe you can get a great, unadvertised deal with one of your top choices for transfer?!

I was given a reduced rate when I inquired once. The problem is the reduced rate is still more than many other options including their direct competitors. NC renewals are the worst. Their other deals are good so I use those but transfer out the next round most of the time.

 

[LoveCatchyDomains]

I was given a reduced rate when I inquired once. The problem is the reduced rate is still more than many other options including their direct competitors. NC renewals are the worst. Their other deals are good so I use those but transfer out the next round most of the time.

That sounds like a good strategy! Where did you tend to transfer prior to the NC renewal?

Note that this past year they did have a rare renewal sale. So, Namecheap appears to be getting more aggressive about retaining those first year transfers. Hopefully, they will repeat the sale this year, or offer better renewal terms. Or, perhaps the key here up front is to ask for the best transfer AND renewal terms up front as a deal.

 

[BetoWH7]

just following trough i have received the answer from namecheap, and ints interesting. they say that they do offer discounts you have to transfer 5+, 10+, 25+ domains....
but i dont know if i am allowed to post the email here ?

is it ok or do that breaks some rules here ?
thank you

 

[NicTraders]

Namecheap for me has proven very reliable for the transfers of many domains. The prices that were excellent, if you transfer using one of their sales. The interface for domain management could be better. The customer service I received by their support tickets has been very prompt, sometimes within hours of receipt.
Note also that Namecheap did provide me an unadvertised discount, as a bulk domain user. I was pleasantly surprised about this when I first signed on to their service. You could consider inquiring with the potential transfer registrars, citing the number of domains. Maybe you can get a great, unadvertised deal with one of your top choices for transfer?!

Thanks. Yeah, I'll be trying that once I make a decision on who to go with.
I do recall the Namecheap interface being pretty average when I last used it, but it's been a couple of years since I logged in over there.

 

[NicTraders]

Their other deals are good so I use those but transfer out the next round most of the time.

I used to do that transfer merry-go-round a bit when I first got into domaining, but it becomes tiresome very quickly when you have a lot of domains (and not much time). That's why I ended up at Epik - because with the NamePros deal you could do renewals for the same price as new reg/transfers (unless there was a specific transfer deal).
Anyway, that's why I'm doing my research first - I want to go somewhere and stay there, so their renewal prices will need to be competitive.

is it ok or do that breaks some rules here ?

Why not just reply to the email and ask them if you're allowed to tell others? Then you'll know for sure. In any case it's interesting that they will do a deal on such low numbers. I had assumed only for a transfer of hundreds...

 

[BetoWH7]

I used to do that transfer merry-go-round a bit when I first got into domaining, but it becomes tiresome very quickly when you have a lot of domains (and not much time). That's why I ended up at Epik - because with the NamePros deal you could do renewals for the same price as new reg/transfers (unless there was a specific transfer deal).
Anyway, that's why I'm doing my research first - I want to go somewhere and stay there, so their renewal prices will need to be competitive.

Why not just reply to the email and ask them if you're allowed to tell others? Then you'll know for sure. In any case it's interesting that they will do a deal on such low numbers. I had assumed only for a transfer of hundreds...

i will reply the email and ask if i can share the info here
thank you

 

[LoveCatchyDomains]

Thanks. Yeah, I'll be trying that once I make a decision on who to go with.
I do recall the Namecheap interface being pretty average when I last used it, but it's been a couple of years since I logged in over there.

The NC interface could use some work. Unlike GoDaddy and Hover, you cannot see in tabular form the DNS settings of each domain. Also, the alphabetized list was having issues, where some domains up front were not alphabetical. And, still, you cannot get up front the domain count---which is one of the quickest ways of checking to make certain none of your domains hasn't unexpectedly disappeared.
They have been the best for being allowed to turn off privacy for the domains selected. With the other registrars, despite numerous requests to remove privacy, the Icann lookup still had contact information blocked. Namecheap was the best for customer service in this realm and several other issues, such as resolving transfers.
If there is any possibility that you will be developing some of the domains, that would also be important in factor into the equation. The added value of certain domain services may sway you toward some higher price options--at least for a select group of your domains.

 

[DomainSpace.me]

I only have a few domains at Epik that I’ve picked up from the marketplace, but I’m moving ALL of my domains over to DynaDot in the coming weeks. It seems to me that many people have excellent things to say about them, and the few times I’ve interacted with their support has been awesome.

I have domains at all the major registrars and by far, Dynadot has impressed me the most with tools available, ease of use, clean UI, and excellent support.

 

[Giroud]

NameSilo is a great choice. I have used them for the past five years and never had a problem.

 

[BetoWH7]

NameSilo is a great choice. I have used them for the past five years and never had a problem.

i am checking namesilo, and the price for .com is $9.95 but i guess they might have bulk discounts