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%.

 

[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.

 

[Windoms]

Thanks @Crypto King. 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.

If there was a way for me to browse domains on the ''Epik swap marketplace'', find a domain that I'd like to own, and present an offer (domains for exchange), it would be very nice and I'd move my keepers to Epik.
With a way to prevent low ball offers (dozens of cheap domains) by spammers.

 

[Rob Monster]

If there was a way for me to browse domains on the ''Epik swap marketplace'', find a domain that I'd like to own, and present an offer (domains for exchange), it would be very nice and I'd move my keepers to Epik.
With a way to prevent low ball offers (dozens of cheap domains) by spammers.

Thanks @Windoms.

I think the NamePros mods should make a more prominent area for folks to list their swappable domains and allow them to also edit their inventory. Names registered at Epik can be swapped without fee but the actual listing and discussion about swappable names needs eyeballs which is why I would be inclined to have that be done at NamePros where pro domainers are engaged for much of the day.

@Paul Buonopane @Eric Lyon - Any input from you guys?

 

[Bernard Wright]

I’m too new to domain investing to have a well-formed opinion, so I’m not voting. I will say this, though: security and reliability seem to be recurring topics in this thread and other threads. I feel that my more-valuable domains are in good hands at Epik.

 

[ta66kkpro]

my best one is Dynadot

 

[Windoms]

I think the NamePros mods should make a more prominent area for folks to list their swappable domains and allow them to also edit their inventory.

You are right, but Namepros' potential in untapped as it could be much more, maybe whoever's leading the ship just wants it to be a forum.

Also such a feature on namepros would quickly become nonsense with too many cheap domains. I guess people are already able to see domains for sale and trade if they want to.

But I think a curated place with quality domains could be usable.
You could have a 5$ fee to list your domain on the marketplace and a limit on submissions/month to force quality.
Being a trading feature with no sales, a fee is all you need as people won't be paying 5$ to list hundreds of ironhammermaker.de.

GD could do it, but they'd also get flooded with nonsense.
But epik could have 5$ fee and quality all over the place.
The 5$ fee is not to make money, just to have quality, no manual approvals.

 

[equity78]

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

 

[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!

 

[equity78]

1 day left is the lead for @namesilo too big will @Joe Styler rally the Godaddy maniacs to find the votes to win their 3 best registrar win a row?

 

[tonyk2000]

1 day left

@namesilo

Congratulations to NameSilo. Please keep up the good work!

Yes, NameSilo was acquired by Brisio Innovations some time ago. Good or bad change? Hard to say. A separate related thread is not too active:

https://www.namepros.com/threads/brisio-innovations-to-acquire-namesilo.1069563/

I think we should thank Brisio Innovations for at least not destroying what was built by Michael Goldfarb and Michael McCallister. NameSilo won this poll because of their work.

@Dynadot

Dynadot. I highly respect this registrar. I read somewhere that in its first years all Dynadot was run by just one guy... Who is, therefore, a talented businessman. I bet Dynadot will gain more business should they further develop the marketplace, including payout process. Yes, it was an original intention to pay sellers using account credits only, with little or no efforts to setup wires/paypal/bitcoin/whatever payouts. However, isn't it obvious that a domainer should be profitable, so withdrawals in real $$$ is something that any marketplace should provide... as advanced as possible... including paypal masspay, crypto, local ACH, international bankwires, even cheques (which method may be useful sometimes, not frequently, but still).

 

[equity78]

Less than 3 hours to vote.

 

[equity78]

NameSilo wins Namepros best registrar 2019

The best registrar poll for 2019 on Namepros concluded today with NameSilo coming in first place. GoDaddy was second and Dynadot third. This is a poll ran roughly every 18 months, with 915 votes this time. The last two competitions GoDaddy won, taking 52% of the vote 3 years ago, and then beating NameSilo 253 votes vs 191 or 29.8% vs 22.5% roughly 18 months ago. For some registrars it's … [Read more...]

 

[equity78]

@equity78 - If it's possible. I would like to see the numbers of domains under registration for each registrar alongside these results when you publish these results. Maybe even sortable lists?

Here are the recent registration counts courtesy of DomainNameStat.com. Top 50 registrars by registrations.

GoDaddy.com, LLC 67,073,348 19.35%
NameCheap, Inc. 11,299,603 3.26%
Tucows Domains Inc. 11,286,929 3.26%
HiChina Zhicheng Technology Limited 7,998,631 2.31%
Network Solutions, LLC 7,567,938 2.18%
eNom, LLC 7,040,176 2.03%
Alibaba Cloud Computing Ltd. 6,181,920 1.78%
PDR Ltd. 5,772,451 1.67%
GMO Internet, Inc. d/b/a Onamae.com 5,573,646 1.61%
Xin Net Technology Corporation 4,421,059 1.28%
OVH sas 4,278,540 1.23%
Registrar of Domain Names REG.RU LLC 4,041,083 1.17%
Chengdu West Dimension Digital Technology Co., Ltd. 3,551,706 1.02%
Google LLC 3,390,469 0.98%
1&1 Internet SE 3,279,810 0.95%
123-Reg Limited 3,220,949 0.93%
NameSilo, LLC 2,958,367 0.85%
Wild West Domains, LLC 2,661,186 0.77%
FastDomain Inc. 2,493,805 0.72%
Gandi SAS 2,335,225 0.67%
Key-Systems GmbH 2,141,900 0.62%
Name.com, Inc. 2,089,971 0.60%
Register.com, Inc. 2,087,679 0.60%
Regional Network Information Center, JSC dba RU-CENTER 2,003,844 0.58%
Domain.com, LLC 1,958,654 0.57%
Uniregistrar Corp 1,754,115 0.51%
Ascio Technologies 1,638,680 0.47%
CSC Corporate Domains, Inc. 1,592,098 0.46%
Dynadot, LLC 1,583,548 0.46%
Mesh Digital Limited 1,351,595 0.39%
ALIBABA.COM SINGAPORE E-COMMERCE PRIVATE LIMITED 1,319,778 0.38%
Cronon AG 1,274,993 0.37%
eName Technology Co., Ltd. 1,247,672 0.36%
Go Canada Domains, LLC 1,172,008 0.34%
1API GmbH 1,156,183 0.33%
PSI-USA, Inc. dba Domain Robot 1,105,238 0.32%
MarkMonitor Inc. 1,093,838 0.32%
REGISTER.IT SPA 1,001,006 0.29%
Bizcn.com, Inc. 990,278 0.29%
Automattic Inc. 941,356 0.27%
22net, Inc. 910,365 0.26%
West263 International Limited 843,887 0.24%
Gabia, Inc. 793,357 0.23%
united-domains AG 791,825 0.23%
OnlineNIC, Inc. 772,323 0.22%
Registrar R01 LLC 754,699 0.22%
Alpnames Limited 746,752 0.22%
Crazy Domains FZ-LLC 746,477 0.22%

 

[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!

 

[Steven McEvoy]

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

 

[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.

 

[Windoms]

Here is an interesting question.
Who is the main registrar among domainers who are making consistent xxxx+ sales and consistent xxx+ acquisitions.

 

[Name Trader]

Here is an interesting question.
Who is the main registrar among domainers who are making consistent xxxx+ sales and consistent xxx+ acquisitions.

I doubt there is 1 NP member reading this thread who can claim that. Consistently means at least once a month, every month. And in your case, for both purchases and sales. It would also mean every 2-3 months. but sales and purchases rarely work like clockwork. I'm making sales of xxxx, simply because I don't sell in the xxx range. But sales are made irregularly (by their very nature). I rarely pay as much as xxx for a domain also, and so I would call that inconsistent, also.

 

[zinzin]

hostgator.com

 

[DomainFQ.com]

Only 1. NameSilo is Best

 

[dande]

Only 1. NameSilo is Best

What makes Namesilo the best?

 

[DomainFQ.com]

What makes Namesilo the best?

Ask this Question to 223 peoples

 

[juanforce]

Google for me

 

[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!

 

[frank-germany]

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!

personally I couldn't care less about all these details
and in that case I'd rather not know it all