poll Who is the best registrar in the business? 2019 Edition

[equity78]

It's been over 18 months since the last big poll here. So let's take a new poll on best registrar. GoDaddy won the last two, the last one was closer with @namesilo coming in second, 253 votes vs 191 or 29.8% vs 22.5%. The previous big poll saw GoDaddy run away with it 303 votes or 52%.

 

[ALBROKER]

Dynadot is the best

 

[Embrand]

This time it is Dynadot for me as well.

Last time it was NameSilo, and I still think they are very good. But after they got taken over, I am not sure what path they will follow.

Dynadot has a great control panel, a choice of full or partial privacy for free and account managers if you spend quite a lot there (not sure what the threshold is). They also offer a huge variety of extensions for those who not only invest in .com.

Porkbun is also refreshing with a nice UI, but do not offer many ccTLDs. And I just can't take their name seriously. It's terrible in my opinion. I can't imagine asking a buyer if they are "willing to accept a push at Porkbun?"

Wow, just noticed Network Solutions got votes. I would love to hear the reasoning from the people who voted for them.

 

[Rob Monster]

3 days left none of the top 3 have gotten a vote in a couple days, GoDaddy closed the gap to 31 but @namesilo still comfortably ahead.

Top 5

NameSilo
GoDaddy
Dynadot
NameCheap
Epik

Thanks for the update.

I finally got around to reading all of the comments in this thread. Considering the list of long-standing registrar players on that list, it is great to be in the top 5 in 2019. Thanks to all the folks who voted for us. I don't know who you all are, but I appreciate you!

 

[MapleDots]

The better question for the poll would be...

Who is the most convenient registrar?

GoDaddy wins for me because of the sheer amount of services linked to the account. Godaddy, Afternic, Auction, heck even Huge Domain is linked with quick transfer.

For me convenience wins, the less time I have to spend moving domains around the better of I am. Might not matter if you only have a few but when hundreds or thousands of domains are involved convenience is a big deal.

 

[DnFolk]

namesilo for me.

 

[Name Trader]

Dynadot for me too. Very flexible control panel. Great support. Good prices. Lot's of TLDs. Take your pick. For me it's the very flexible control panel. It's very important to me.

 

[Name Trader]

We did receive a lot of requests to allow the balance from domain sales to be withdrawn, and introduced a payout policy last year to allow this. There's some more information on the policy here:

https://www.dynadot.com/community/help/question/payout-policy

That's a VERY restrictive policy. IMHO. How do you expect to compete on the world stage without a fully comprehensive payout for domain sales. Directly. This hardly does any justification to provide us with an incentive to use your platform for domain sales. You should NOT credit our account with receipts, unless we request it. Funds should be passed from the buyer to the seller, in whatever form we wish to use. This policy is the main downfall why your domain market is not growing like it should. You should bring this into the 2nd decade of the 21st Century. Somebody at Dynadot needs to wake up, and smell the roses.

 

[BRANDERX]

This time its Dynadot for me, their support team is great.

 

[Cebe]

Dynadot

 

[Candace]

Dynadot for me. Easy to use, fast transfer, quick responses from customers support. love it

I laugh at how Uni is doing in the poll after all the hype about them 2 years ago or so. They were supposed to be the greatest thing since sliced bread (according to them). No such hype with Dynadot but way better overall experience for me.

 

[Rob Monster]

I voted Epik this time and I have a good reason for doing so.

Recently, I was in the midst of a negotiation where a domain exchange was part of the overall deal. I asked the question here at Namepros if there was a type of Escrow that could safely facilitate this exchange. I was immediately contacted by @Rob Monster who is CEO of Epik. He explained that Epik offered this service and how it can be done.

I was happy to hear that Epik provided the pure exchange part of this service for free and furthermore it was seamless with no issues encountered. The exchange was done in a few hours. What made it better was that the CEO was hands on with overseeing it which gave me comfort.

I don't know if other registrars also offer this service, but even if they did, I would go back to Epik and Rob for further exchanges as the service was great.

thanks,

CK.

Thanks @Crypto King. The team at Epik.com appreciates your kind words.

The point about facilitating a free domain exchange is really part of a larger philosophy at Epik. Our goal is to help our clients to succeed. When it comes to a service like domain swapping, there is not really a cost. We simply ask that both parties have their domains at Epik.com. Once that is in place, we are simply doing a simultaneous exchange for which there is no actual cost to Epik other than a bit of time and associated record keeping.

What is exciting about domain swaps is that it creates liquidity without requiring liquidity. However, instead of using cash to pay for a domain, the parties are simply using their respective domains as currency, assigning nominal values to their domains based on whatever metric works for them. When asked, we'll render a fairness opinion, but in general, the parties will find their win-win scenario on their own.

Free fairness opinions, free domain appraisals, and free domain swaps are "below the radar" reasons for folks to choose to hold their domains at Epik these days.

 

[namesilo]

Many thanks to all of you who voted for us! We also appreciate all the feedback that was shared on this thread on how we can continue to improve further.

Please know that we are working hard to continue building NameSilo into a world-class platform all around. We are also working on some new features and products that will hopefully excite you all as domainers. Our unwavering commitment to excellence continues!

From all of us at NameSilo, THANK YOU!

 

[Name Trader]

I still cant see why Godaddy get so much love... they have been very expensive!

It's simple. GD has 67 million domains under registration. About the same number as the next 9 registrars COMBINED. And 22 times more than the winner, NameSilo. OK. These domains are not all owned by domainers. But it should be sufficient to understand they should win this poll, pretty much every time it is run.

How the mighty have fallen. Actually, I think it's shocking. But I think this poll demonstrates the biases you'd expect from domainers. NameSilo presents themselves well to domainers. Cheap prices, and everything other than registration, is free. Acceptable support levels.

I think it is possible that GoDaddy doing away with eMail support might have hurt them. Busy domainers can't wait for the immediacy that phone and chat support should provide, due to the lengthy process of going thru those first tier support personal. You GoDaddy members with your own account manager, really don't understand what they are missing. Or maybe they do Which wastes the first 30-60 minutes of any resolution. Much easier to send off an email, and wait for it to be resolved in the coming hours, whilst we get on with other things. It's called multi-tasking

TBH. GoDaddy Phone support is way better than their Chat. Chat really is an abomination. But it still takes time and preparation, compared to email support.

 

[marijuanadomain]

Congrats to Rob and he deserves it.
We might agree or/and disagree with him but that not the point.
The point is he is the face behind his company and he is always contributing to the domain community. We know where he lives, what he eats and what he likes....so tell me do other CEOs or other owners of the other registrars you know do that?
Rob at Epik is the only one that is here for us.... and he gives excellent customer service!

 

[Bob Hawkes]

Thanks for survey @equity78 . I could happily vote for quite a few (most of the ones that I use actually). In the end, this year my vote changed to Dynadot. It is partly that they have had some great prices, especially the now gone $5.95 .com, but consistently good prices on many extensions. When I signed up for their service I found in the first minutes their interface just felt natural. I like a lot that they have a marketplace if you want to go that route. And it is nice to have a registrar with integration in Afternic and Sedo systems if you go that route.

But overall I feel positive re all of Namecheap, GoDaddy, Epik, NameSilo, Porkbun, and Name.com from your list, all of which I currently use (along with a few others). We are fortunate to have so many good choices for registrars, in my opinion. I am new to Moniker (as of bulk transfer from Alpnames) but so far like their interface.

Bob

 

[tonyk2000]

GoDaddy has something to think about, and seriously... Comparing with the previous poll, they moved from the 1st place with almost 30% of votes to 3rd place with 13% of votes so far.

 

[businesses]

I vote for Networksolutions lol just for fun
cant wait again 0.99 regs

 

[FolioTeam]

This time it is Dynadot for me as well.

Last time it was NameSilo, and I still think they are very good. But after they got taken over, I am not sure what path they will follow.

Dynadot has a great control panel, a choice of full or partial privacy for free and account managers if you spend quite a lot there (not sure what the threshold is). They also offer a huge variety of extensions for those who not only invest in .com.

Porkbun is also refreshing with a nice UI, but do not offer many ccTLDs. And I just can't take their name seriously. It's terrible in my opinion. I can't imagine asking a buyer if they are "willing to accept a push at Porkbun?"

Wow, just noticed Network Solutions got votes. I would love to hear the reasoning from the people who voted for them.

The main reason for the voters of Netsol will probably be the $1 deal they got from them.

For me, Netsol isn't just worth it.

I didn't vote for a favorite because my names are spread across Dynadot, Godaddy, Namecheap, Porkbun and Namesilo. Everyone of them are pretty good and I am yet to have an issue with any of them.

But for a fast and smooth interface, I like Dynadot and Porkbun

 

[Name Trader]

lowest prices Great support NameSilo is Best

I get better prices and support at Dynadot. Better Control Panel too.

 

[eurorealtor]

Lot of competition, but I decided for Dynadot this year.

 

[Trent1000]

Namesilo. If Dynadot wouldn't lock your marketplace sales into their account credit system, they could be the first choice.

 

[Trent1000]

What exactly does this mean? I list a Dynadot domait at Dynadot's marketplace. And then what happens? What can't I do?

It means Dynadot won't send you money when you sell a domain. Your money from a Dynadot marketplace sale will go into your account as credit, and you can only use it to renew or register domains through Dynadot. Basically, you can't do anything about that yourself, if you sell in their marketplace.

Well you can withdraw funds even to your paypal, but only if your Dynadot account credit balance is at least $500 or more.

 

[Name Trader]

There has been a lot of good discussion in this thread, and I have learned some things I did not know. I am surprised there has not been more discussion around which marketplaces support the Sedo MLS registrars or Afternic Fast Transfer. Is that because people generally don't use fast/automatic transfer, or for some other reason? When the price is almost the same, I do like to choose a registrar that supports that.

Bob

Afternic Fast Transfer is becoming my major source of income since I started using them some 6-9 months ago. I think in another year they will be the main source of income for me (if this trend continues to expand). Which is in my plan to. I'm only just scraping the surface at the moment. I only have a very small sliver of my domains currently setup on fast transfer. Most registrars are usually belonging to both networks. I don't see the need to use both networks. They are pretty much identical. Except with Afternic the domains are listed on GoDaddy. Which is a big plus. I've been surprised at the price levels. I have had no problem adding their 20% commissions to my prices. People are still buying. Now I'm not saying that I'm selling heaps of domains. But enough to pay for my expensive renewal schedule. At a faster pace than in previous years.

 

[HotKey]

NameSilo is #1 because they earned it. They worked their asses off to get to where they are. I prefer their old-school interface because it is familiar and functional.

If it wasn't for me being a loyal dog till' you screw me, NS would be my top pick.

 

[loredan]

I voted for Namesilo, I pretty much like everything about them. Great pricing for both registrations and renewals, fast transfers, great support and a no nonsense, intuitive dashboard. They also worked hard to please domainers requirements and added great features in the last few years.

Dynadot comes right behind in my books and I'm glad to see them second in the poll so far.

One registrar I haven't used yet is Epik (I know, shame on me) but I'll give it a try this year.