The domain registrar is the most important domain industry company. My domain registrars are tasked with keeping my domain names safe and resolving to the right location. My registrar choice is based on several factors in varying order:
- Security
- Customer Service
- User Interface
- Ease of Use
- Pricing
My preference is to keep my domain names consolidated at one domain registrar, but I use several registrars for my portfolio. Auction wins and private acquisitions are the primary reasons for why I use multiple domain registrars.
I saw a tweet today that inspired this article:
For the curious, here are my registrars in order of # of domains held:
Epik
GoDaddy
Dynadot (mostly due to a BB portfolio acquisition)
NameBright (DropCatch)
Sav
NameCheap
Uniregistry— Domainicate (@domainicate) July 15, 2022
I thought I would share the domain registrars I use in order of the most domain names I have registered there:
- GoDaddy
- NameBright (DropCatch auction wins)
- Network Solutions (NameJet auction wins)
- Namecheap
- Sav.com
The vast majority of my portfolio is held at GoDaddy. I appreciate their customer support the most, and I also like the added DTVS security I have enabled across the account. I can call or email my Account Manager when I can’t do something on my own, and many people I buy from or sell to either have GoDaddy accounts or are comfortable enough with the company to use them.
The other registrars are used because my auction wins end up there due to their relationships with the auction house. In the case of NameBright, I trust them enough to keep up to 100 or so domain names, but usually fewer. I typically try to transfer names out of Network Solutions on a more regular basis, but it can be a challenge to get names transferred.
If I wanted to break ties with GoDaddy, it would come down to Namecheap and NameBright. I have found customer service at GoDaddy to be superior to anywhere else, although Namecheap is quite responsive via email.
I use which one is the cheapest to hand reg and then transfer when there is a special deal.
Sav to Namecheap and then back to Sav
Godaddys Greatest Hits List
1. Godaddy relentlessly try to upsell. Even with Afternic the brokers just won’t won’t shut up and give the seller my offer until they call me or suggest a higher offer. A domainer almost lost a $3,000 sale because I decided to stop responding to the Afternic broker. When Afternic realized that fact, they finally just sent me a payment link and I paid. It does not have to be this hard.
2. Godaddy try to switch my Uniregistry account back to a Godaddy account when I left them.
3. Godaddy contacted me about selling one of my domains. I accepted and they sent the money owed to me, to another bank account EVEN THOUGH I had just filled out a form with current payment information where the money should be sent. Took 2 weeks to get that straighten out.
4. Purchased a domain through Afternic and the domain name was pushed to a different account EVEN THOUGH I provided them with the Godaddy account number.
I like Joe Styler. He was understanding of my situation and offered great communication, but that only reflects him as a person. The other Godaddy customer service was aweful.
Dynadot is the best for me. I did appreciate GoDaddy’s DTSV, but it is a bit cumbersome when you have small sales.
NameSilo and Dynadot are the main registrars I use because each has cheaper prices in a certain TLDs. When Epik had discount promotions on the NamePros forum, I also took the offers and have been keeping those domains on the registrar since then.
I use internet.bs and believe they are one of the best kept secret in this industry. They have very easy, user friendly interface for managing your domains( certainly when compared to the terrible system Godadddy has)and their prices are great too.
Epik (best prices and very good fast efficient customer service).
Dynadot, same as above.
Uniregistry is Godaddy very expensive, customer service the same as Uni.
Directnic.com security, and very good team.
Name.com same as above.
Great comprehensive list. I recommend to anyone stick with the .com as much as possible and try to keep it short and snappy so people remember it. If there are any Australians reading, I get my .AU domains from https://onward.com.au as they are the cheapest AU domains I could find. If anyone finds cheaper, please let me know.
And if anyone is considering Godaddy, The problem I’ve found is they look cheap but once you become a customer, they tend to add extra fees that you won’t be aware of until it’s too late. So just be careful with them.
Another bit advice I’ve learnt over the years to get a great domain name is consider looking at domain expiring websites that you can search and from there you can find the domain you want and then you can use a drop catching service to grab that domain. This would A. give you the domain you want and B. there is a good chance that domain is aged and Google is happy with it and C. a much higher chance of it being a premium domain without the additional cost.