Do you consider your domain names important? I hope you answered yes to that question! Whether you register domains as investments or for your business ventures, if you consider them to be important then they deserve to be kept at a great registrar. What constitutes a great registrar can be somewhat compared to another type of service we all use: power utility companies.
I’ve had to deal with bad utility companies in the past and I’m sure most of you have as well. Due to contracts, I’ve personally had to deal with terrible utility companies for as long as one or two years before I could finally leave them and go elsewhere. Now, think about your own power utility company right now. Would you trust them if they went down often, had a complicated account system and terrible customer service?
On the opposite side of that, how would you feel about a great power utility company that builds new infrastructure proactively, offers a clean method of managing your account and paying your bill, and responds promptly and politely to any issues you might be having?
Like power utility companies, the best domain registrars build solid infrastructure that allows them to easily manage a constantly-growing volume of domain registrations and customers. The infrastructure of a domain registrar is usually composed of three different parts: hardware, software and personnel. For a registrar to grow, it must expand its network and hardware infrastructure alliances, complementing it with reliable software, apps, and the people that run the show.
Domaining is not a new industry, and just look at all the registrars to come and go over the years. Look at how many registrars have made changes to their websites design and customer portals. With new extensions being released on a regular basis and technology always changing, great domain registrars do more than you would think to keep people happy.
The cost of registrations and renewals obviously play a role when separating the good registrars from the bad. But, along with that people also want a good user experience when it comes to managing their domains. They should be able to quickly sort, update, and get data related to their domain names in just one place. Along with all of that, customers absolutely need to be able to get quick help when needed. There is no reason a registrar should not have multiple forms of technical support at this day in age. Live chat, email/ticket, telephone, and instant messenger are just a few of the many options domain registrars have and should offer. All of these reasons are partly why I think registrars like DynaDot have become so successful over the years. For me personally, they are one place that has done a really good job implementing just about everything on my list.
Overall, good domain name registrars manifest themselves consistently by addressing issues and proactively listening to their customers. They offer reasonable pricing for registrations and renewals, make domain name updates and management easy for their customers, and offer top-notch technical/customer support. GoDaddy charges more for renewals than most other domain registrars online, but people (including myself) have domains there and keep domains there for a reason – they’re reputable and also check off most boxes on this list. If you consider the domain names you own to be important then look at a variety of factors when choosing a domain registrar, not just price!
