poll Favorite Domain Registrar Poll

[JB Lions]

Another thread asking about this, I figure let's finally poll it. I remember looking for something like this years ago here and was surprised one didn't exist, since it's a topic that gets brought up from time to time. I picked 20 (19)* domain registrars, all the ones mentioned in the recent thread plus a few others. If your favorite isn't listed, post it in the thread and I'll see if I can add it to the poll. You can pick up to 3 of your favorite, just 1 if you want. I still think Namepros should have a Best Of The Year series

*there is currently a 20 choice limit with polls, but NP can add more if needed. In case I missed some obvious ones.

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All registrar polls: https://www.namepros.com/threads/namepros-community-polls.1345017/

 

[johnn]

I am running a business and sold many names to the end users so I believe the registrar choice is not my choice but my customer.
The majority of the customers only know Godaddy so I don't want to complicate the process or lose a sale so most of my names are at Godaddy.

Good luck with your poll.

 

[usernamex]

I have the only vote for Moniker LOL, I use them for $25 IO (best price AFAIK). I read a lot of old bad threads and I can understand how people are unwilling to go back.

I hate with a passion the NameCheap UI, I transferred many personal domains to NC on cheap transfer day, and if their UI doesn't change by next year renew, they will move again to NameSilo.

It would be interesting to also vote for least favorite - count me in for GoDaddy on that one!

 

[GoKaizen]

FYI on NameSilo. On WebHostingTalk they disallow the use of the term "namesilo" anywhere on the forums. No idea why. Perhaps because they have some odd policies but Idk.

 

[Name Trader]

I only saw you could have multiple choices after I posted Dynadot was may favorite Registrar. But I would say their is a bit of a learning curve with their Control Panel. Great support. I never have to ask to clarify any reply from Dynadot, because I don't get cookie-cutter replies from them.

My criteria is not to look for the cheapest prices for everything. Ease of use is very important to me. As is great support.

I really like Uniregistry as well. So please add 1 vote for Uniregistry. They are competitively priced for everything apart from .com. You win some. You lose some. But overall, excellent.

Probably still, NameBright have the best .com pricing. You cannot beat cost. But their Control Panel is still not up to wonderful standard of Uniregistry. Uniregistry's CP is the best in the industry, IMHO. Not surprising since it was built from the ground up by a domainer

I think NameSilo requires an honorable mention as well. They have thought long and hard about their offering. They were on a shortlist of 3 when I was looking for a new Registrar several years ago. When they were just starting up. Good option, imho.

 

[raubin]

Simply down to the reason their support has been first class for me - Namecheap gets my vote, however Namesilo is best for features and what you get for your money, plus I have only ever had to contact their support once so can't really compare with the support of namecheap.

For .co.uk domains, I use LCN (formerly Telivo) - been with them for over 10 years, support is first class.

 

[Name Trader]

A lot of these posts are just lacking specifics. New giant, innovative thinking, cheap prices.......... Some people posting GD pricing isn't great. Let's take that. We actually went thru specifics in the GD coupon thread. If you happen to have a few hundred domains and using their club, it's the cheapest. Nobody in that thread came up with anything cheaper. I went thru the ones that had the top 4 votes, reg a .com:

GoDaddy - $8.29 - $8.47 with fee (using their Discount Club) $11.99 without club
NameSilo - $8.99 icann fee included
Dynadot - $10.99
Uniregistry - $10.88, renewal same, when I searched for .com, they also had .link right next to it

So GoDaddy is cheaper for me. For those other 3 and people that use them, how do I get cheaper for a .com? Is there some club, do I need to have a certain number? Specifics. I'm looking to get cheaper than $8.29, renewals also. Or around that area because you need to factor in the price for the Club, which I think I got for free last year.

Also, what are the major things you look for in a registrar, if you were to have the perfect one. Most domains, you buy and they just sit there. You don't need to feed them or take them out for a walk. For me, it's simple, the 3 main things, GoDaddy scores:

Price - A they're the cheapest for me
Service, if I need it - A, have a great rep, fast response
The ease of site - C, it could be better, they change it too often for me. But I can get around and do what I need to do

What else do you look for in a registrar besides Price, Service, Ease Of Site?

I'm sorry. But you only need to spend $500/yr (or prepay $500) to get $8.75 .com registrations at Dynadot. This is still more than GoDaddy's $8.47 with their DDC. But you do need to compare like with like in these price comparisons. Also. the DDC Fee is gone once paid. The $500 is a usable prepayment. Which is only 57 domains renewals. Would be affordable for many domainers.

When I used GoDaddy as my main Registrar, I always thought the Control Panel was World Class. I still think that. I don't really understand the complaints I see here about their Control Panel. Their portfolio search is the best I have ever seen, up until now. I moved away from GoDaddy because I didn't like their ToS. Far too onerous. IMHO. There were other reasons as well contributing to my decision to leave.

Those are my 3 criteria also, Price, Support, Excellent CP. Price is always going to be the top item, but it isn't always price above anything else. For example the price of .com domains at NameBright is cost. I pay slightly more at Dynadot, but I get excellent support at Dynadot, and I like their Control Panel. Also I don't go chasing every registrars daily offers. I'd end up with 100's of registrars. Price is not good without good support and good Control Panel.

I think it should not be underestimated that most buyers have only ever heard of GoDaddy and want their domains to be at GoDaddy. It's a bit of a hassle having to transfer domains back to GoDaddy to complete a sale. Especially if Escrow is involved, where usually the buyer has to instigate the transfer, and they usually don't have a clue how to do it.

 

[brandnow]

Namesilo and Uniregistry are best for me.

Namesilo is the best all around generally speaking.

Uniregistry you can save a lot by applying discounts with their digital blockchain currency.

Namecheap is sometimes good for sales and chat support. So I voted these three.

 

[DomainMOD]

I have to say I'm very surprised that GoDaddy is #1 by a mile. In addition to them just outright stealing a domain from me years ago, I find their UI pretty awful, and unless you happen to catch a super sale their prices are high (their current "sale" on .com domains is almost 40% higher than the regular price I pay at Dynadot).

This was a very interesting poll indeed.

 

[Name Trader]

What does the "*" and bolded name mean in this poll?

 

[DomainMOD]

What does the "*" and bolded name mean in this poll?

I believe the asterisk indicates who you voted for.

 

[Name Trader]

I believe the asterisk indicates who you voted for.

OK. Thanks. That would be true in my case

 

[claudedauman]

It's not surprising that the registrars who offer the lowest levels of customer service, and those who have the most abusive policies (eg. excessive renewal fees & prompt and outrageous redemption fees) score at bottom. I gave my three votes to the registrars who absolutely deserved them.

 

[Name Trader]

It's not surprising that the registrars who offer the lowest levels of customer service, and those who have the most abusive policies (eg. excessive renewal fees & prompt and outrageous redemption fees) score at bottom. I gave my three votes to the registrars who absolutely deserved them.

We value your opinion Claude. Which were....

 

[claudedauman]

We value your opinion Claude. Which were....

I like GoDaddy and Name.com the best. Mason, my account exec at GoDaddy is an amazing person to work with. It's nice to have such a knowledgeable and professional go to, when I need assistance.

Name.com has an amazing team as well. I've always received excellent customer service from their top notch CS professionals including Bernice, Trisha and Amy.

 

[RapidNames.com]

I'm the 100th vote for Godaddy

It was my fav registrar before but not now.

 

[DnEbook]

I went for Godaddy as they got a stolen name back for me and also added further security, others would be Dynadot and Namepal,

 

[Bram C.]

I voted for Godaddy but if I could place a vote on my second favorite registrar it would be namebright.

I personally like most of Godaddy's UI (not sure why so many people hate it). And I LOVE the quality of the Godaddy support team and the fact that most buyers already know/use Godaddy which makes the process of selling a domain so much easier. What I don't like however is Godaddy's new interface to renew expired domains. I have around 500 domains there currently and if I want to renew any and go to the standard renewal screen I see something like this:

Basically, all my expiring domains are mixed with my premium listings (which are not actual domains, just domain listings) and no way to filter them to only see my actual expired (or soon to expire) domains. So if I want to find a domain that expires in for example 2 months from now I sometimes have to click on "Show more domains" for 15 times or so since the premium listings clog the renewal page and Godaddy doesn't offer a way anymore to show more than 15 domains per page.

The alternative is to go inside my Godaddy domain manager, manually select the domains I want to renew and then click on "Renew" and making sure I don't choose "Express checkout" (as this will charge me full price, including taxes, without even bothering to ask me for my VAT-ID). So I do have a workaround, it's just annoying though. But besides that I really like Godaddy.

Regarding to Namebright: I love their UI and the simplicity of it. Transferring/pushing a domain is extremely easy and fast at Namebright. The pricing of course is awesome as well. I don't know about their support but that's only because I never had to use it. Everything always worked perfect for me at namebright. If as many end users would know Namebright compared to end users knowing Godaddy I would probably put all my names at Namebright.

 

[DNScholar]

I liked Godaddy, Uniregistry and Namesilo...though there are another 2/3 which I like but you can only select Top 3.

 

[vivaldi]

Namecheap at 2nd place, I have a hard time believing that. Sure they ain't the worst of the bunch but 2nd? Really?

 

[Winfluence]

LOL....what? I would never use a company named "Internet BS"