poll Domaining's version of March Madness - Who is the best registrar in the business? 2020 Edition

[equity78]

It's time for the domain industry's version of March Madness

The best registrar in the business for 2020

Registrars that got less than 2 votes from last time were not included, Uniregistry being acquired by GoDaddy is not included.

the last big poll here.

Can NameSilo defend their crown? Will Epik finally come through and attain the top spot? GoDaddy always a contender. Any surprises?

 

[Samer]

Epik by far.

If other CEOs dont think theyre above us

maybe they can join the discussion. love epik!

Samer

 

[bmugford]

I also think it is highly inappropriate for company employees to be voting for their company in a poll like this.
It is very misleading.

Brad

 

[Abdullah Abdullah]

Thank you @equity78 for starting this poll and thank you for making the results public so we can see who voted for what. It is good because people want to see the the votes of the non staff of each company. As I believe most is aware of, I worked with Epik @Rob Monster for 3 months on a project and then left three months or so ago. I was not working on the domain or main services of Epik but was working on a separate project. I had to say this so that people here would not think I am still working for Epik for that project and simply voting for them since I am or I was staff/consultant with them.

I have been using Epik since the start of 2016 I believe and back then there was no many promotions or even not everyone here was aware of them. I liked the support they provided which I believe only Namesilo matched it (email wise) and NameCheap for live support. I have names on GD, Dynadot, NameCheap, however, Epik , as things stand now, seem to be responding to the feedback of the customers and in light of this are creating not only a platform that is good with the domainers, but also providing other inter-connected services which make the service more friendly. Back in 2002-2003, when I first started getting serious about owning websites and selling domains, the first company I used was Godaddy; I registered my first ever domain with them. Their support was good at the time and hosting or domains wise, I could only see Netfirms providing the kinda support I needed at that time. But as they grew, it appears a lot of issues are there with their system as well as having many staff who might not be aware of everything that is going on. But credit to @Joe Styler for always being there , whether through email or DM here, and fixing whatever I issue I faced.

Now this poll is focused on domainers because everyone here is a domainer. But let me tell you this, if this poll was directed to end users or to the general public, I think it is fair to say that Godaddy will win by miles. No company in this industry can match the brand ,the recognition, and the awareness its name has with the general public. I said it many times before, that most of the domains I sell end up at Godaddy, and it is for a reason. I remember back in 2005, someone came to me locally, and said that they want to make a website about a consulting service they are providing. The had the name already in mind and I clearly remember that customer giving me the name of Godaddy and asking me if I am able to register the name there. A joke that customer made was also if Puff Daddy was the owner of Godaddy . With that said, I do believe that Godaddy will soon have serious competition from Amazon and Google as it appears many end users are becoming aware of these two big companies providing domain services. It also worths mentioning that the only time a name I sold did not end-up or stay at Godaddy then winning Registrar was either Amazon or Google.

Regarding Epik, it is clear that it is on the right track to create good products and services which will eventually get , not only the attention of the domainers, but also that of the general public. It will take tremendous efforts and money but I believe that eventually , the people at Epik might make something happen. Now, believe it or not, I dont agree with Rob @Rob Monster on many things and we had to agree not to work together but I will give him this, he saw that most of the domainers on this platform were complaining about the poor service which they were getting from other companies which are providing the same services his company is providing. He saw it and decided to take advantage of this to the benefit of his company. He gave the domainers the personal and top service which they called for and which I believe they deserved. This is what I call someone who is smart and who knows how to use the circumstances to their benefit.

And yes, in case you didnt notice, I voted Epik.

 

[equity78]

Which is a major part of the issue. They have basically made the mods immune from accountability for poor decisions and actions.

Brad

Whoa, to be fair and I did this job (UNPAID) for 12 years. They went to the system they went to because of scumbags and psychopaths threatening them. If people start sending you messages they know where your kid goes to preschool and other nonsense like that, for this bullshit, thankless job?

No one needs to know the identities of Mods imo, plenty of forums, have names that are not real names, or just use Admin and Mod1, Mod2, Mod3.

I agree with you on accountability and just so long as ownership knows who they are that's all that's important in my opinion.

 

[Wali Dahot]

I voted for GoDaddy last year but voted for Epik this time. This time Either of Dynadot or Epik will lead the chart IMO.

 

[Kassey Lee]

Epik most innovative

 

[DnFolk]

Brad, I am a domainer first and 90% of my domains are at Epik because I like the registrar most of all. My duties as an employee at Epik have nothing to do with this poll. The same applies to all the people that decided to vote on this poll.

I also use NameSilo, Godaddy, Network Solutions, etc. almost daily.

agree with this totally, even after joining at epik i have not stopped using godaddy or still been selling domains at other marketplaces. I have been quite vocal to @Rob Monster about epik products and services. there is absolutely no pressure for anything.

I voted epik because i feel right now it truly is a best registrar for domainers, my reasons -

1. fixed prices of .com renewals just 8.49 with crypto even lesser 8.10 lowest i believe, regular transfer registeration offers, more frequent offers than anyone else.
2. instant activation of afternic sedo premium listing, no lock of 2 months when you transfer your names at epik. This is highly beneficial if sedo afternic premium sales is your biggest source.
3. multiple services at one place. escrow, landing page sale, registeration. everything can be managed at one place. register, transfer, earn, resell, sale, escrow, purchase spend everything at one place.
4. domain loans, nameliquidate, domain graduate, nameinvestors free estibot appraisals, and more. so many extra products and services
5. nice UI, many useful filters, easy interference, portfolio even if large is swiftly manageable.
6. All possible payment options available including crypto or amex cards.

7. most importantly best customer support ever. None other than @Rob Monster himself personally makes sure that every customer issue is taken care of, which CEO does that? easily approachable just like Rob epik team always striving to give and improve services and products that are more and more friendly for domainers. Personal attention to every customer. Intent of overall empowerment.

Having said this i also believe that there will always be scope of improvement and following are the points where i would want epik to improve -

1. 15 days grace period for renewal is too less.
2. there must be option to download auth codes in bulk
3. if you bring a lead yourself there should be less commision and no minimum fees.
4. more filters at nameliquidate

I also like dynadot and namesilo. But overall the positives of epik i mentioned above easily overpowers all other registrars.

 

[blockhead]

It is interesting to see NetSol with 13 votes now. Didn't they have just one vote recently?

As has been pointed out, this poll is virtually meaningless, for several reasons.

Just a little evidence: click on NetSol.... a quick glance shows that four of the votes are from:

• BrandBoogie
• BrandBoogie.com
• Brand-Boogie
• BoogieBrands

Evidence (last seen timestamp) would suggest this particular user has some other accounts too.

With so many paid accounts around here, there's no way to tell how many people are voting multiple times.

I really couldn't care less, so not going to waste time "investigating" further, or getting caught up in the stupid namepros drama that is running wildly rampant nowadays -- just thought I'd point out one of the glaring issues. Despite the OP's good intentions, this is about as far from scientific as you could get. We've got a wildly disproportionate number of employees voting, paid influencers, people with multiple accounts, and who knows what else going on behind the scenes. Might as well draw a name from a hat.

 

[bmugford]

Normally, one would expect all members to vote, including registrar representatives / staff members. In case of one particular registrar (Epik), we now have ~35 representatives @ NP. Other registrars have just 1 or 2 representatives (if any). So, for the reasons of fairness, Epik representatives should avoid voting in this poll imo.

Yeah. It certainly skews the results.

GoDaddy could come here with 500 employees if they wanted and win every poll.
It takes out all the objectivity.

Brad

 

[Intelliname]

most are inactive, but these folks dont even have an account. Not keeping them away.

Just telling them the first step.

We might get more if you and others eschew witch-hunt fishing expedition @Rob Monster

i disliked your post since i think these actions does more harm keep “others away” than good

most are inactive, but these folks dont even have an account. Not keeping them away.

Just telling them the first step.

We might get more if you and others eschew witch-hunt fishing expedition @Rob Monster

i disliked your post since i think these actions does more harm keep “others away” than good

Very articulate!

With writing skills like that, I'm curious to how you've managed to have an account since 2017, and stay away from posting for so long.

Congrats on your first post. Looking forward to reading more. Welcome!

Thank you very much Grilled. I've been an avid collector of domain names since the 90's, and my first two letter domain sale dates back nearly two decades. Have owned more than 25,000 names and placed probably half that number in terms of new startup campaigns or project upgrades. The highest single billing I've seen for a new brand and domain name creation was $100 million for transitioning Andersen Consulting to Accenture, and I believe there are elements of your industry that have been working very hard to reduce the value of domains for their own strategic purposes.

For many years we were part of a private ad agency that was anchored to critical infrastructure assurance. Have worked heavily with ad agencies and development incubators to provide messaging components suitable for national or global campaigns. I've not interacted with the domaining sector much, as it always looked to be (ironically) removed from the real value domain names played. A good way to look at it is take Red Books for example, a tool used to compile roughly 1.5 million information sources covering 100,000 brands, 250,000 decision makers, and 14,000 ad agencies. It reflects billions of dollars in RFQ's and RFP's for major campaign budgets and calls for creative work. A good deal of these slogans, campaign spends, and project assignments center around great domain names as the primary promotional anchor. So there is nothing crazier in my view than to watch public companies try to create robots that tell you your domain is only worth $1500, when it could have just as easily been used to close a $300 million campaign for Pampers. Beware the organizations who would reduce your passion and lifeblood to mere widgets orientated for higher shareholder dividends. If you need positive assurance, look up the campaign expenditures for active marketing budgets for the Fortune 500 companies alone, let alone the hundreds of thousands of new startups and expansions coordinated every year.

The best message I could give domainers is to dream big, and whenever possible - visualize and imagine who exactly would be the best case scenario for buying your domain name and why... The more detail and clarity you can provide towards envisioning the end buyer and their specific purpose, the more you can then work to add additional value propositions onto the name itself by understanding the strategic role it can play.

I've been encouraged this past month to share some of our market strategies, and I love visual creativity and expressions so decided to step up to the task. We've never utilized social media before, but I have put together since February 6th a Twitter account to highlight and detail a wide variety of strategies that could apply to an assortment of names. Some of you have been graceful enough to reach out and introduce yourself over Twitter already and say hello, as well as provide encouraging comments. We learn forward to learning and sharing through every interaction, so I am very appreciative of the correspondence and uplifting comments. It is a great community here, and if there is anything I can do or recommend to help further encourage the opportunities of Namepro members, I will do my best.

I would welcome you though to visit www.twitter.com/intelliname if you would like a fresh look at what is possible. Our posts just from Feb 6 alone should be a refreshing look at what you can still achieve and how great names can still be utilized.

With respects to past use, I had setup an account a few years ago to buy some domain names from one of your members. It is the only interaction I've ever had on this forum, although I've visited it a few times over the years due to some compelling industry conversations. I would suggest that with a world that is being polarized heavily so that a handful of individuals can try and shift power around, don't fall victim to the hate, assumptions, judgement, criticism, galvanization, and craziness that is causing so many of our brothers and sisters to lose their minds. You lower your vibration, your very energy signature becomes lessened, and you attract more of the same in your life and never even know why.

Domainers are some of the most optimistic dreamers for a better tomorrow that I've ever met. I consider it a privilege every single day to even have the opportunity to work in this industry, and am thankful to God for it.

Peace and blessings!

 

[aceeca]

Domainer for 13+ years now with about 4K domains. Over the years I have used about a dozen or so registrars. My Registrar of choice is DynaDot, because of the following reasons:

• Excellent UI. Easy to manage tons of domains. Time is money & I feel with so many domains, the less time I spend fighting UI is better for me and my sanity. Hence, I feel the greatest thing feature about DynaDot is their UI.
• Affordable pricing.
• Good support.
• Met the team at NamesCon. Very professional & awesome CEO
• Listens to customers on feature requests.

 

[Arfy]

I voted Epik.

Pros:
- Cheapest transfer / reg price I have come across - $6.99 for .com. (Godaddy just charged me $21 to renew my domain!! It was on auto renew). I transferred the remaining that are due to be renewed soon to Epik yesterday for $6.99 each.
- Bulk update facility for DNS, marketplace / landing page etc. I have less than 100 names but even then this saves me time and effort.
- Nice, easy to manage landers with built in payment plan options which are very flexible to meet your needs.
- Cool escrow options such as part domain, part cash and pure domain trade deals.
- Transparent interface / status codes. For example, when initiating a transfer there is a status panel that tells you what has succeeded and what parts of the transfer either failed or need attention.
- Active team on NamePros, CEO which is readily available to help.

Cons:
- Marketplace is not very mature when compared with Uniregistry and Godaddy - not many participants selling and buying domains but if growth continues I can see this improving greatly.
- No brokerage arm within sales platform as opposed to Uniregistry which allows you to assign a broker.

The Pros, greatly outweigh the cons and I will slowly be moving my domains over to Epik.

 

[bmugford]

At quick glance out of 21 votes for Epik, at least 10+ votes are from Epik employees.
How objective. A poll like this is a complete waste of time.

How about a "This poll is stupid" option?

Brad

 

[equity78]

At quick glance out of 21 votes for Epik, at least 10+ votes are from Epik employees.
How objective. A poll like this is a complete waste of time.

How about a "This poll is stupid" option?

Brad

I disagree with you there Brad, this is the third year running and I am sure that employees from many registrars have voted in the past, this is the first time it can be seen, the fact that members here were so drawn to Epik they became employees is another discussion, @Mod Team Alfa @Mod Team Bravo can chime in if employee votes should be removed or if they can remove them.

But this is something that was done before this forum became a group of 3 factions

Those that love Epik
Those that dislike/Hate Epik
The rest of us, wading through the back and forth

But stuff on this forum can't stop because Epik has a lot of members who joined Epik.

 

[SuperBrander]

At this point in time, IMO there's only one registrar that's truly domainer friendly and directly caters to domainers' interests and needs. I voted Epik. Epik engages, listens to feedback, implements changes (often quickly), innovates, challenges the other registrars to improve, offers great promotions, provides the best customer service and lets you get things done, including Escrow transactions, even during the weekend. No other registrar is currently even close to offering domainers what Epik does.

As for self promotion in unrelated threads- I prefer an engaged CEO to a non engaged CEO BUT I'm definitely not a fan of self promotion where it shouldn't be. For the purpose of this pole- I set that aside because it's irrelevant to the question. Who's the best registrar? Epik is my answer. The rest is related to NamePros and can be debated or decided by NP's mods. For the record, I'll mention that I'm not an Epik employee and will never be. I'm just a customer who has used all major registrars and thinks Epik provides the best overall value by far.

 

[ResoluteDomains]

Epik, in a way, reminds me of a great letter once written:

Dear Kate,

Here's to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels. The troublemakers.
 The problem child. The round pegs in the square holes.
 The ones who see things differently.



They're not fond of rules and they have no respect for the status quo.


You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them.
About the only thing you cannot do is ignore them.
Because they change things.

They invent. They imagine. They heal.
 They explore. They create. They inspire. 
They push the human race forward.



Maybe they have to be crazy. 

How else can you stare at an empty canvas and see a work of art?
 Or sit in silence and hear a song that has never been written?
 Or gaze at a red planet and see a laboratory on wheels?

 We make tools for these kinds of people.

While some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. 
Because people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.

Take care,
John Appleseed​

 

[equity78]

Sorry people need to calm down, there cannot be contacting me on mulitple channels to discuss a vote or a changing of a vote. @Paul Buonopane would be the one to talk tech with.

This is not a national election for a country, hell it's not even the Oscars or the Grammys.

Bottom line, the winner of this poll will be determined to be the highest vote getter. They can choose to run with it however they like. NameSilo did a pr last year, https://markets.businessinsider.com...-wins-namepros-best-registrar-2019-1028264340/

The runner up if they like can say we won if you X out employee votes.

Number 3 Epik probably has exhausted their employee votes so there is a chance that they won't win.

But if they do, Dynadot or whoever can use this poll to market it however they like.

Lord willing, next year the poll will be up to 3 companies to pick and it will be "Favorite Registrar" because like @Ategy and some others remarked, it can't be best if you did not try them all.

This forum existed for many years with a lot of fun things, it's no surprise why so many have just said screw it. This poll will run the way the last couple years ran, most votes declared the winner, then all the conspiracy theories and asterisk givers can do what they like.

This will be the last best registrar of poll of it's kind started by me, if someone else chooses to, fantastic, I am sure many will consider it just as worthless, useless, tainted by Epik as this one.

Favorite Registrar will be coming next year, whereby it only logical that an employee votes for the company they work for.

 

[Chris Hydrick]

As submitted to TLD Investors:

I have a lot of choice words to direct towards your comments...

... however, if you are serious about

Become A Peace Maker

... then I will hold those choice words for now, in hopes you truly wish to be a peace maker, and not just a promoter.

I had enjoyed reading the post of the many members who left this forum because of Robs/aka Epiks unfiltered spamming much more than I enjoy reading yours or other worshipping members aka fanboys hail Rob posts

in case your are not aware of who let this forum already:
https://www.namepros.com/threads/go...ernational-it-was-lovely-beying-here.1179838/

@Lox just left
@Brands.International left
@Grilled left

and many more

@frank-germany , while I can understand why you might have thought I left namePros because of Epik/Fanboi involvement, my decision had more to do with wanting to silence myself, as if it's not apparent, I'm not/haven't been feeling too stable as of late, and while I seek help personally in the outside world, I wanted to mitigate any unforeseen instances in the online world where I may wake into a situation I'd rather not be in, due to an overactive stimuli, or an uneducated/short-sighted opinion that I might have put in print while possibly not being in my right mind. Specifically speaking, I wanted to continue commenting on the ICA thread and address certain aspects (such as spam) of the CQD thread, but with everything going on for me personally, and everyone else globally, I don't think now is the appropriate time to be divided. Just my opinion.

I'll keep my current vote for my Cinderella of this years bracket, Sav.com!

As my last comment in this thread, and shifting away from the voters, getting back to registrar candidates, I want to wish an early congratulations to the likely victor, @Epik.com... Even if the reason for winning is because they hired an abundance of namePros members, and that decision in itself helped lead to a victorious poll, then who are we to judge.

It's hard to deny that it seems Epik has created a great platform in terms of user features, and there are a lot of signs pointing towards continued growth..

However, as certain internal policies have came to light, in particular regarding Epik warehousing domains, I no longer feel comfortable using their landing pages, as if Epik is in the business of warehousing, I don't want to be concerned that Epik has access to the amount of leads/offers/traffic/whois inquiries each domain had received, and a decision to warehouse may (not evidence based) be influenced/leveraged by such stats.

If not for Epik warehousing, and if not for *as it turns out, for me* Sav.com has had a better backorder success rate against Epik backorders, and for a cheaper price....

... I might have changed my vote from Sav.com back to Epik.com, but as Sav.com support and services has been nothing short of amazing for me, I'm happy to keep my vote with the good people/backordering super powers of Sav.com.

**apologies if parts of this post comes off as an advertisement. I have no financial affiliation to sav.com or epik.com besides being a customer.**

 

[MarkedMarket]

This poll will anyway give a good indication of how many Namepros members are Epik employees or how many Epik employees are Namepros members.

 

[DanSanchez]

Brad, I am a domainer first and 90% of my domains are at Epik because I like the registrar most of all. My duties as an employee at Epik have nothing to do with this poll. The same applies to all the people that decided to vote on this poll.

I also use NameSilo, Godaddy, Network Solutions, etc. almost daily.

 

[Fortnite]

Wish we could vote for several at a time as some registrars are good at different features and services, but anyways for this year Epik all the way

 

[mAd MaX]

Epik 200%

No match, Dynadot would come close but escrow service that to with crypto payment plus staffs specially @Rob Monster is unmatchable.

Go Epik or Go Home!

 

[frank-germany]

Cool poll -- Iwas not expecting it this early in 2020 but here we go.

For the folks who want to try Epik out, we have a $6.99 .COM transfer promo in effect:

https://www.epik.com/transfer

We'll keep that in place for as long as we can afford it. More about that here:

https://twitter.com/robmonster/status/1234968464428802048

If folks will be so kind as to use our SSL landers, escrow and marketplace, we'll not only provide renewals at cost with an endless list of free features, we'll even be able to do transfers below cost!

I guess this poll wasn't meant to be an invitation for you @Rob to promoted epik

there is actually no need at all
as you will win anyway

not because you are the best registrar
but because you have spammed this forum over and over
and by now have gotten a lot of fanboys


so no need to spam this thread
really no need.

 

[Rob Monster]

Tony I will make sure to break down the votes when it closes and if I can identify members as employees of any company I will include that in results.

It is a good thing that the poll is public.

Even if you back out the few staff who voted for Epik, the results are apparent and the overnight statistical sample is valid:

I am humbled by that.

Two years ago we were not even in the consideration set.

One year ago we were a contender but far from a winner.

And now we are a front-runner. Wow. I would not have predicted that.

We have given this our all -- value, service and innovation. We are far from perfect, but we are listening, co-creating and empowering. For some that is not going to be enough.

However, for those who we do empower, I believe you will have a relative competitive advantage and will have lower costs, higher velocity, and greater efficiency.

We'll do our best to not disappoint and thank all, both fans and critics, for the opportunity to learn from you, whether intentional or not.