How good is NameSilo?

[nixgurus]

Hello Guys,

I want to know about namesilo. How good they are? Any disadvantage having domains with them?

Currently I am using Godaddy, Name.com and namecheap

 

[alcy]

Is there still something not working or any issue you're experiencing? If so, pls let us know and we'll work to resolve it asap. Apologies for any inconveniences caused.


Perfect - thank you for confirming. If you experience any more trouble related to Afternic emails, pls let us know and our devs will prioritize a fix.

In terms of your feature request - thanks for detailing it out. We have passed this along to our product team to investigate further and work on developing it.

nothing specific. your ui is slow and not friendly. you are nowhere near top on price ranking sites for any all tlds... til u strive for top u and many others remain just that... good but not good.enuf to get picked by most.

 

[carob]

May I suggest one related change though. Please add an opportunity to delete existing afternic listings. Dyna has it, Porkbun has it, Namesilo doesn't. Why this matters? Live example. I decided to remove the domain from afternic. Deleted it on afternic end. Later, changed my mind. Added it back again. Afternic says it has no fast transfer. Yeah, this is correct, as it is technially another listing (another internal numer). Namesilo system is of different opinion, as the domain still has afternic fast transfer auth @ my account. So, there was no email for me to approve, why approve it twice?

Thanks for that, I think I may have experienced exactly that.

My opinion of Namesilo is high and I am glad they are working on fixes, I had assumed probs to be largely a feature of the Afternic bugfest.

This really does need to work smoothly and reliably, it is not a good use of time to have to keep going back to check if Fast Transfer has been enabled and then prompt Afternic to attempt it again. And meantime sales may be being lost.

Off-topic but relevant: Afternic has no bulk delete function, yet, afaik.

 

[namesilo]

nothing specific. your ui is slow and not friendly. you are nowhere near top on price ranking sites for any all tlds... til u strive for top u and many others remain just that... good but not good.enuf to get picked by most.

Sorry to hear that we haven't met your expectations, though we will continue to do our best to regain your patronage. We are currently working to improve the speed and user-friendliness of our site. In terms of price, our .COM regs can be as low as $9.35 for our largest customers. This is available to all our customers who have 5,000+ active domains and are enrolled in our Discount Program. As far as we're aware of publicly, this is the lowest price amongst the largest registrars out there without straight up losing money on every registration. We have also launched a couple of other services aimed at improving the lives of domain investors - Catch.Club to help you backorder domains and NameLot.com to help you buy and sell your domain portfolios.

 

[tonyk2000]

our .COM regs can be as low as $9.35 for our largest customers

New regs and renewals - yes, but why not transfers? I'm on discount program, paying $9.55 for .com renewals, but the system charges $9.95 for .com transfer-ins at the same time. Is it by design (not too logical imo, one would better transfer elsewhere) or you simply missed this in the config?

 

[Future Sensors]

In terms of price, our .COM regs can be as low as $9.35 for our largest customers. This is available to all our customers who have 5,000+ active domains and are enrolled in our Discount Program. As far as we're aware of publicly, this is the lowest price amongst the largest registrars out there without straight up losing money on every registration.

Porkbun ACH pricing for .com is even lower at $9.22. This is including $0.18 ICANN fee, and available to even the smallest portfolio holders, like 1 domain. No minimum number of active domains is required.

 

[Future Sensors]

@namesilo

Strange that Porkbun is not listed in your comparison at https://www.namesilo.com/pricing

Transparency means that you should also compare with registrars that provide way lower pricing. Especially on a page titled "Best Domain Prices".

 

[namesilo]

New regs and renewals - yes, but why not transfers? I'm on discount program, paying $9.55 for .com renewals, but the system charges $9.95 for .com transfer-ins at the same time. Is it by design (not too logical imo, one would better transfer elsewhere) or you simply missed this in the config?

The reason is because transfers are not a part of the Discount Program. We re-looked into potentially changing this, but that also meant that we would need to charge higher for new user transfers, which ultimately, didn't make sense. Tell you what though, as a 'thank you' to you and all our other long-time customers, we can run a week long .COM transfer promo at $9.35 (our best DP tier price). We can start it mid next week to give you guys some time to prepare. Does that sound good?

Porkbun ACH pricing for .com is even lower at $9.22. This is including $0.18 ICANN fee, and available to even the smallest portfolio holders, like 1 domain. No minimum number of active domains is required.

From what we can see, Porkbun charges $9.73 for .COM on their website. Unfortunately, we cannot know what special prices are offered or what requirements those prices entail. On our end, we try to keep our prices low while maintaining quality service and 24/7 support. We are also working on developing new products and improvements to our existing platform.

 

[Future Sensors]

From what we can see, Porkbun charges $9.73 for .COM on their website. Unfortunately, we cannot know what special prices are offered or what requirements those prices entail.

The regular @Porkbun price for .com ($9.73) is not a promotion. No matter how many domains you register, or have active in your account. Combined with ACH funding it's $9.22, also not a promotion. Your regular NameSilo price for .com is $10.95.

All I want to say is that you have made a "comparison" on your website that very selectively works out in your favor. You're certainly not cheap with .com registrations.

 

[tonyk2000]

The reason is because transfers are not a part of the Discount Program. We re-looked into potentially changing this, but that also meant that we would need to charge higher for new user transfers, which ultimately, didn't make sense. Tell you what though, as a 'thank you' to you and all our other long-time customers, we can run a week long .COM transfer promo at $9.35 (our best DP tier price). We can start it mid next week to give you guys some time to prepare. Does that sound good?

Yeah, it was always the case. With the exception that transfer-in price was always discounted, regardless of number of domains @ account. This scheme, for example, allowed me to consolidate a lot of domains @ namesilo some years ago, and in fact I paid less for transfers and paid more for the renewals even on discount program I was eligible for according to total number of domains. OK, namesilo no more wants to provide discounted transfer-ins like it did before. I still think that the outcome is illogical - with all other registrars offering bulk pricing I am paying the same amount for all equally-priced registry services, be it new reg, transfer or renewal.

As for the weekly promo, my transfer-in needs are not bulk anymore. I already have a good number of domains @ namesilo. Routine transfer-ins? OK, maybe a few which were acquired ~2 months ago after drops and are now eligible for transfer-ins. WIll I transfer these few to namesilo during $9.35 promo week? Yeah, probably. Will I transfer more domains to namesilo another week, paying $9.95? In this case I will need to select between this price, and Dynadot superbulk $9.57, or above-mentioned Porkbun, or GoDaddys "discount club"...

 

[Janoss]

I have to agree, the regular prices are not great especially for renewals. NameSilo starts to have competitive prices when one has 2500 or 5000 domains in their account but that is not a very attractive option. Promotions are nice but NameSilo needs to become more competitive in their regular pricing without such requirements or at least lowering the requirements.

 

[tonyk2000]

Will I transfer more domains to namesilo another week, paying $9.95? In this case I will need to select between this price, and Dynadot superbulk $9.57, or above-mentioned Porkbun, or GoDaddys "discount club"...

Long story short, I like NameSilo, but NameSilo should better think about specific domainers needs. In above mentioned example, not only NameSilo discourages us from routinely transferring-in more domains (by offering increased transfer-in price). There is one more issue. In com/net case, registrars have a right (not obligation!) to apply 60 days lock on such transfer-ins. NameSilo opts to lock such domains for 60 days. Competing registrars (dyna, porkbun) don't. So, if a domainer elects to transfer his com/net to NameSilo, not only he will pay increased price [vs. his new reg or renewal rate @ the same namesilo], but he may also be prevented from freely selling the domain within 60 days (what if the buyer wants authcode and does not want internal push?)

 

[maya-zir]

........................

 

[namesilo]

Long story short, I like NameSilo, but NameSilo should better think about specific domainers needs. In above mentioned example, not only NameSilo discourages us from routinely transferring-in more domains (by offering increased transfer-in price). There is one more issue. In com/net case, registrars have a right (not obligation!) to apply 60 days lock on such transfer-ins. NameSilo opts to lock such domains for 60 days. Competing registrars (dyna, porkbun) don't. So, if a domainer elects to transfer his com/net to NameSilo, not only he will pay increased price [vs. his new reg or renewal rate @ the same namesilo], but he may also be prevented from freely selling the domain within 60 days (what if the buyer wants authcode and does not want internal push?)

Fair points - thank you for your feedback. We'll have another think about how we run our transfer pricing. And we'll still launch the .COM transfer promo starting tomorrow for any users that wish to take advantage.

With respect to the 60 day lock - we have this policy in place to prevent abuse. We're obviously not trying to impact your ability to sell domains in any way but unfortunately, bad actors often take advantage of these gaps as well so we're forced to put stricter policies in place. However, we do make exceptions for long standing customers so if you have such a case, please contact our support team (live chat or email) and we'll unlock the 60 day lock.

 

[Janoss]

I have contacted support before about removing the transfer lock and it was a pain to say the least. First line of support said it couldn't be done. Had to go back and forth many times before they said it could be done but that it would be an exception for only that time. Luckily, that domain only had around 3 days before the lock was going to be removed anyway so I didn't need to go through with that but I can't imagine what a pain it would be if the domain lock had many more days left or if a buyer insisted on getting it transferred out quickly.

Can NameSilo implement an option in the user control panel to disable the 60 day transfer lock completely? Dynadot has that option available in their user control panel. Even if it's just available to good standing customers it would be a big improvement for domainers compared to the current situation which is a big hassle.

 

[tonyk2000]

bad actors often take advantage of these gaps as well so we're forced to put stricter policies in place

Yeah, I (partially) understand what you mean. Partially, because what can go wrong? OK, a bad actor may transfer stolen lets say sex.com, sell it on namesilo marketplace and request a payout in real $$$. First, the domain would still remain @ namesilo due to account change (no questions to 60 days lock in this case!) and, second, sending him money may be delayed if the sale looks suspicious. In any case, you as a registrar must have seen more complicated schemes [no need to disclose those on public forum]. So, I appreciate that NameSilo is ready to unlock recent transfer-ins by request. Will use if necessary. It would be more practical if NameSilo assigned personal account managers to bulk account holders though. Actually, NameSilo is the only registrar which I'm using for bulk purposes where an account manager was never assigned...

As for transfer-in price, it is clear that namesilo no more wants to offer almost "at cost" pricing system-wide and permanently. You increased it but forgot about a side effect on bulk account holders. So, since it now completely clear what happened and how, please solve it Technically - without changing the code - the most logical thing would be to set this price to be the same to what the largest accounts [5,000+ domains] pay for regs and renewals. So, it would still be profitable to namesilo, you will start receiving more business both from retail and bulk customers, and existing bulk customers would no more complain about overpaying for transfers. Imho...

 

[tonyk2000]

it was a pain to say the least.

So, assigning account managers to bulk account seems to be the only way to deal with it! @namesilo

 

[Janoss]

So, assigning account managers to bulk account seems to be the only way to deal with it! @namesilo

Having the option to completely disable the 60 day transfer lock directly in the user control panel would be the best and most ideal solution. Having support be able to remove the 60 day transfer lock quickly without wasting hours/days on back and forth communication on whether it can be done would be a good backup solution. Account managers assigned to good standing customers to deal with these kind of issues quickly is also another solution.

Abuse is a valid issue but if Dynadot, Porkbun and few other registrars can make it work without imposing the 60 day transfer lock I don't see why NameSilo can't.

 

[namesilo]

I have contacted support before about removing the transfer lock and it was a pain to say the least. First line of support said it couldn't be done. Had to go back and forth many times before they said it could be done but that it would be an exception for only that time. Luckily, that domain only had around 3 days before the lock was going to be removed anyway so I didn't need to go through with that but I can't imagine what a pain it would be if the domain lock had many more days left or if a buyer insisted on getting it transferred out quickly.

Can NameSilo implement an option in the user control panel to disable the 60 day transfer lock completely? Dynadot has that option available in their user control panel. Even if it's just available to good standing customers it would be a big improvement for domainers compared to the current situation which is a big hassle.

Thanks for your feedback - we have passed this along to our product team to look further into. And we'll also re-train our support agents around 60 day locks and how to remove them.

As for transfer-in price, it is clear that namesilo no more wants to offer almost "at cost" pricing system-wide and permanently. You increased it but forgot about a side effect on bulk account holders. So, since it now completely clear what happened and how, please solve it Technically - without changing the code - the most logical thing would be to set this price to be the same to what the largest accounts [5,000+ domains] pay for regs and renewals. So, it would still be profitable to namesilo, you will start receiving more business both from retail and bulk customers, and existing bulk customers would no more complain about overpaying for transfers. Imho...

Thank you! We will re-look at our transfer pricing going forward as well. In the meantime, our $9.35 transfer promo for .COM is now live. Transfers for .COM domains are now the same price as our lowest .COM renewal tier. We hope you enjoy!

 

[namesilo]

We hope you enjoyed our recent .COM transfer promo!

Going forward, we have also revised our transfer prices so anyone who participates in our Discount Program will receive the lower of our retail transfer price or the Discount Program renewal price available to you. So this will help address the case where you see a lower renewal price through the DP but a higher transfer price.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please let us know on here or directly at [email protected].

 

[HotKey]

Hi @namesilo

Every time I log into my Namesilo, it says “New device detected” and tries to send me an email, which I don’t receive after multiple attempts.

This prevents me from accessing my account!!

I then have to contact support who manually send me a code, which I do receive via my email.

I want to log into my Namesilo anytime I chose, from any device I chose, with my account credentials.

Why does this keep happening? If you want to send me a "new device" verification email, that's fine, however it's a problem on your end because I am not receiving the email. Yet receive the email after contacting support.

Thanks,

HotKey

ps. thanks for looking into this and anticipated resolution

 

[Samer]

We hope you enjoyed our recent .COM transfer promo!

Going forward, we have also revised our transfer prices so anyone who participates in our Discount Program will receive the lower of our retail transfer price or the Discount Program renewal price available to you. So this will help address the case where you see a lower renewal price through the DP but a higher transfer price.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please let us know on here or directly at [email protected].

Nooo!!! I had more to transfer.
I thought this was regular NameSilo .com transfer.
Was competitive!! Sav has cheapest .com transfers at $8.99 but Sav too new! Was good price .com transfer, @namesilo; i was ready to transfer in more! NP presence is not lost on me; it earns you goodwill.

Thank you,
Samer

 

[HotKey]

^ resolved, thanks @namesilo for getting your team to fix this.

 

[karmaco]

solved

 

[Alex270]

@namesilo, can you please tell me what has changed at NameSilo in the last period that now I have to pay VAT as a Romanian individual for my domain renewals?

I renewed some domains on 12 June 2023 and didn't have to pay any tax. The same was true before that.

Now, I renewed 20 domains on 27 June 2023 and I had the unpleasant surprise that I need to pay a total of $41 more on top of the $10.95 for each domain.

I'm not happy with that, and I'm seriously considering moving my domains to SAV because I'm already paying around $2 more per domain than what I would pay at SAV just by staying with NameSilo, and this new VAT thing is increasing the costs even more.

Thank you,

Alex

 

[Samer]

@namesilo, can you please tell me what has changed at NameSilo in the last period that now I have to pay VAT as a Romanian individual for my domain renewals?

I renewed some domains on 12 June 2023 and didn't have to pay any tax. The same was true before that.

Now, I renewed 20 domains on 27 June 2023 and I had the unpleasant surprise that I need to pay a total of $41 more on top of the $10.95 for each domain.

I'm not happy with that, and I'm seriously considering moving my domains to SAV because I'm already paying around $2 more per domain than what I would pay at SAV just by staying with NameSilo, and this new VAT thing is increasing the costs even more.

Thank you,

Alex

Thank God people in the U.S. dont pay VAT.
Good luck, mate!!