Registrar loyalty?

[dotGLOBAL]

Just out of curiosity - what are the qualities you most value when deciding what registrar to use?

And, do you generally stick to one, or do you keep several different ones depending on the purpose with the domain name registrations?

 

[dotGLOBAL]

Managing thousands of domains at multiple registrars should be the last problem of a true domainer, as there are many professional tools in the market. With that, I would like to stress out the point: it is a Domainer who chooses his Registrar, and not the Registrar who dictates the Domainer to choose him.

I think nowadays it is impossible to stay with only one Registrar (not matter how much I want to keep my loyalty), and reasons are the following:

1) I like registrars who are absolutely, crystal clear with prices. Ho hidden fees, no surprises and other staff like that. The problem is, when the company is being honest, it grows very slowly. When the company is not that big, its being neglected by other big players like domain aftermarket places.
For example: Namesilo.
Best pricing, honest policies, great tools for domainers, but they are not the "partner" registrar of Sedo or Afternic. So, if I want to be loyal, I register the domain at Namesilo, place it on Sedo, and my listing will be not noticeable by prospective buyers, simply because I didn't register with "Great Sedo Partner" like Godaddy. And others "VIP" registrars...

2) Some registrars are at advantage because they serve as Marketplace. There are so many bad things about Godaddy, and yet they are so comfortable to list your domain at Auctions. What can be better: the prospective buyer tries to register his domain, it's not available, he sees then premium domains at ridiculous price, next he goes to Auctions and voila! you got a sale.

3) Payment mode is more important to me than the Customer service (didn't find good customer service at any registrar). I like the fact that you can load money (prepay) to Namesilo and Dynadot.

4) Clean interface can keep my loyalty for a long time. In fact I do not mind to pay just for the comfort of my eyes!!!

Thanks, Enfant, for that detailed answer! Interesting notes.

 

[dnk]

It depends on how loyal the registrar is to their real customers,

 

[Enfant]

And one more thought: why it is hard or even not needed for registrars to stay loyal to their customers.
It seems to me that the excellent performance of the company is mostly based on the number of Returning customers.
So, if income is based on the $$$ flowing in, then the performance rate is based on the % of Returning customers.
Now, who is the Returning customer? That's the person who buys Multiple times from X company.
The customer buys the product, likes the product + customer service + other perks = coming back for the same product to that X company.
That will work perfectly fine with products like medicine and food, which we buy a lot. But with domains... do many people buy many domains, so that they can even judge the registrar's performance? It seems to me that most of the customers buy 1 or 2 domains in their life, and domainers are minority when we speak of a type of the client of registrar company.
So, unless the company does totally crazy things like taking away your domain for no reason, it's OK registrar. More or less, the Registrar will survive without us, domainers... (sad to say).
Just look how registrars with new extensions operate: they open a company, get certain extension, spend much on marketing and creating the buzz how fancy, hot and super the extension is, put astronomical prices and what happens next: customer, who never had an experience (or even had one and most probably good experience from a good registrar), who is too far from SEO world, buys expensive domain as impulsive purchase and after 1 year he does not renew it. The company might even die because of such predictable customers behavior (which they knew anyway, but not the customer), but who even cares of performance and other perks for domainers? The company got their $$$ (a lot of $$$!) and bye bye.

So, out of all stones (registrars), we chose just a few gems and now have to compare them in order to determine who is a real diamond

 

[The Grinch]

Im loyal to my money. Best prices gets my business. I switch often due to this.

I've been moving alot of my domains to Namesilo lately. Great over all prices without needing to find a coupon.

 

[dotGLOBAL]

Im loyal to my money. Best prices gets my business. I switch often due to this.

I've been moving alot of my domains to Namesilo lately. Great over all prices without needing to find a coupon.

When comparing prices, what site/tools do you use and would recommend?

 

[baldonius]

GoDaddy because I'm most used to their system, and of course all the $1-2 promo codes.

 

[pablohc86]

i keep in consideration price gathered with support quality!
then it also depends about the purpose of the domain.
if i've to handreg a name for a test and the only purpose is to monetize it via parking revenues i stay on the cheapest side.
if it will do good enough i'll transfer it

i use more than 10 registrars and i keep all organized with Efty.

 

[dotGLOBAL]

Thanks pablohc86 whats your experience with Efty?

 

[pablohc86]

Thanks pablohc86 whats your experience with Efty?

Easy and simple to use with a very clean interface. Remember also that the beta version is just ended so lot of stuff will be added while time is passing.

 

[Layi]

well as for me in 2025 i trust some registrar more than another, i have trust in Godaddy, Namecheap and maybe Dynadot, Maybe Spaceship but i have use differen ones in the past aswell. for example i tried Name.com for the first time in my life last year during the black friday and cyber monday but there service is so so so so Terrible that i wouild never advice my enemy to register on name.com cuz they arent dependable...i registered like 15 to 20 domains from them and the following day all the domain registered is missing in my portfolio and these people couldnt explain till today why those domain is lost smh

 

[Adrigan]

Domain registrars show no loyalty, at all, to registrants so why should any registrant show any loyalty to any registrar?

I have recently started using Spaceship to transfer some names to them, but only because their prices are the best I have found for transfers and their site is quite easy to use (mostly).
But I have no hesitation with using another registrar or two or three if pricing is better and security is just as good.
Sure, it's a pain to keep moving names around, but when it makes a significant difference to the cost of renewals, then I am happy to spend some time on it. Money is after all why we all do this, so...

I won't touch most current big names registrars, especially the slimy and horrible bunch of people at GD and in all their associated companies, even if they offered free names and transfers to the public.