Comprehensive Reviews Wanted

[Name Trader]

I'm considering a change of registrar. I have many domains. In the running are NameCheap, Name, and Dynadot. Could someone provide a comprehensive review of these three registers (not just I like then a lot or they are cheap), but an in depth critique of they're features. Maybe highlighting where they have the best features of the three registrars. I'd also like some kind of info regarding they're financial standing and whether they will be around for a long time, and not sold off to another company, like Demand Media etc.

 

[Name Trader]

Noone? If you don't have experience with all 3 registrars, maybe you could give a critic of the one you know.

 

[vc]

Your OP is extremely demanding and, I mean, who has the time to review them for you personally.

Having said that, I'd recommend internet.bs which has (all cliche's aside) everything you needs and nothing you don't. Also, their pricing is very aggressive without stinking codes.

Name.com I like and still have many domains there. But I won't be keeping more than the few .im's I have. I read the transfer out is a bitch, but we'll see.

 

[Name Trader]

This is exactly the kind of review I don't need.

 

[lothos]

I'm considering a change of registrar. I have many domains. In the running are NameCheap, Name, and Dynadot. Could someone provide a comprehensive review of these three registers (not just I like then a lot or they are cheap), but an in depth critique of they're features. Maybe highlighting where they have the best features of the three registrars. I'd also like some kind of info regarding they're financial standing and whether they will be around for a long time, and not sold off to another company, like Demand Media etc.

VC is right, you're kind of asking for a lot here. Comprehensive financial analysis including whether they're likely to be bought out and the long term outlook and stability for each company? I suspect you'll have to do your own research on each company's financial background

That said, I use all three of the registrar's that you're considering. I would also suggest looking at internet.bs. All 4 are definitely a lot better than godaddy, which is where it looks like you're registered at now.

They all have nice, clean, simple interfaces without any godaddy-type upsells. Namecheap, dynadot and internet.bs are really easy to navigate, and Name can be confusing at times. They all have pretty nice bulk tools.

They are all accredited registrars, although Namecheap is piggybacking on Enom's registrar backend until they get their own backend up and running. Namecheap is essentially an Enom reseller until that happens and Enom has some influence over namecheap because of that.

As far as censorship issues or unfairly suspending or deleting domains, I don't really have any concerns with any of these registrars. Namecheap has suspended some unlicensed pharmacy domains, but in their defense that's an enom policy and Namecheap actually talked Enom into a 10 day waiting period so the domain can be transferred or the website fixed.

Name and internet.bs show your auth codes/EPP codes right on the domain listing in their interface. Dynadot does the same thing but you must verify your birthday before it shows up. Namecheap emails it to you.

Namecheap and dynadot both have marketplaces/forums to sell domains on. Name has a decent (from what I've heard) backordering service. Dynadot also has a feature that I don't think the others have: the ability to delete domains right from the interface, including a small refund in some limited cases.

Internet.bs, dynadot, name.com and namecheap all have API systems available.

Support. Namecheap has live chat with support. They all have pretty decent support and I have no issues with their support so far.

Privacy. Internet.bs has totally free privacy. Namecheap and name.com offer privacy for free for the first year. Namecheap's privacy is really cheap for renewals. Dynadot's privacy is only $2.

Internet.bs is the cheapest by far and there's no need for coupons. The others are right in the same 9.95 ballpark area for a .com. Namecheap has a GOLDDEAL program where if you have 50+ domains with them then you get reduced pricing. Name.com is now starting something similar. If you spend over 500 a year in domains or can fund $500 in your account, then dynadot has very, very competitive bulk pricing.

Personally I like all four, but if I had to choose a ranking it would look like this:
dynadot/internet.bs
namecheap/name.com

You don't have to pick just 1 registrar to move to, and I would definitely suggest not keeping all your eggs in one basket. Plus you can take advantage of really cheap transfer specials, and some registrars are cheaper for certain domain extensions.

Hopefully that's comprehensive enough for you. If you have any specific questions or areas of concern that I didn't address please let me know and I'll try to help out. I also spent over an hour here trying to help you out, so any rep points are appreciated

 

[Name Trader]

OK. I'd forgotten about their financial standing stuff. That probably is a bit heavy

I have accounts with all these registrars too. But they're all pretty empty at the moment. Despite the upselling by GoDaddy, their checkout is the worst I've seen. I actually very much like the GoDaddy control panel. It has very powerful search facilities, much better than any other registrar, imho. Searching within folders or extensions for example. This is very important with so many domains. Too many search features to mention. The other thing I very much like is their folders/preset profiles. Where you can have different whosis/dns/and other stuff like renewals set for each different profile. Usually I use this to have different domains at different parking companies.It's then very easy to switch them between different parking companies. Ditto for my web hosting (not GoDaddy hosting). These folder/preset profiles are the equivalent to eNom's "magic folders". Which are better and easier to use. I also do not appreciate GoDaddy banning me intermittently from using their whois lookup because they feel I'm using a script to do the lookup. Well I have to do this semi-automatically with so many domains. It wouldn't be so bad if the banning was predictable, but it's entire random. it could be after 5 or 500 lookups. This is semi-automatic. I have to select which domains I want to lookup, and then tell the software to look them up. There are other things I like about GoDaddy, such as Buyer Profiles, rapid (if not so easy) transfers out.

But I digress. I didn't include internet.bs in my list because they are a new unproven registrar at this point. My little use I've had of their control panel, I haven't really liked. It could be I'm just not familiar with it.

Unlike you I actually like Name.com. The absolutely easiest checkout. Fast registration and nameserver changes. I understand the control panel much better than internet.bs. What I don't like is they will not be getting even regular folders until sometime next year, and you cannot get the Registrar Expiry Date or Admin Email address from doing a whois lookup. These are important to me. I would also buy their dongle for logging in if I were to select them, although I don't see that on their website at the moment.

As for Dynadot. I'm a new convert. I like their almost minimal approach. Very easy to get around their control panel. They have folders. I can get all the info I need when doing a whois lookup. They will allow a certain number of semi-automatic lookups of their whois database. You can transfer a domain out very quicky (usually within a day). Just like at GoDaddy, I can get better prices than at GoDaddy with my DDC Account. The birthday check when unlocking domain is more like a gimick, but at least provides some level of protection from unauthorized domain changes.

Namecheap I also like, but I haven't used them in a while. I like how you could tweak some of their security features. I'm not sure of all the features I expect from a registrar because I haven't used them in a while, but I remember being satisfied with their control panel. But being an eNom Reseller is against them, imho.

So. All-in-all Dynadot are the front runners for my business. I also like the sounds the owner makes about him never going to sell out. Of course these words don't mean much. But they mean something.

Oh. I forgot. Rep added

 

[Name Trader]

Anyone else have in-depth knowledge of any of these registrars?

 

[Name Trader]

Anyone else have any opinions on these three registrars?