Hexonet – Registrar review

Having this many stars in the review, one might think that I am affiliated with Hexonet. Honestly, I am not. I will not have any benefit for stating that they are the best registrar company I’ve been worked so far, which they are. Hexonet is my clear favorite, let’s detail it, why.

Their motto is the following: “Always one step ahead“. While I don’t know whether it was really always true, but it is now. They like positioning themselves as a domain reseller platform, so one might think that he must be a domain reseller to use Hexonet. Fortunately, this is absolutely not the case. It is just a nice addition that if you grow to large enough, you might consider to move into this direction and earn money when others register domain names. They have a working API with extensive documentation, so you can start your own domain reseller website by connecting to 1API GmbH (the parent company of Hexonet).

The main dashboard of Hexonet is very straightforward.

Domains are listed one in a row, with hot buttons to lock/unlock, Whois guard, edit, renew or forward domains. Most of them are also available in bulk mode so e.g. setting nameservers for hundreds of domains takes seconds. The structures of the top and left menus are also very clear and typical domain management tasks can be done in 1-2 clicks.

Pricing of Hexonet is very friendly and they automatically give a 15% discount when someone has 100 domains in his account (this is something similar to GoDaddy’s Discount Club Members product but for free). Hexonet gives an additional 15% discount for everything at 1000 domains, where things become very cheap.

Transferring domains in and out is a dream at Hexonet as compared to most of the registrars. There are no hidden blocking rules and transfer out can be expedited, so the whole transfer process can be done sometimes within an hour (compare this with a transfer out from Network Solutions that takes 7-10 days if you are lucky). Authorization code is available on the web interface and can be manually edited. Incoming transfers are also very easy and bulk mode is available, although of course losing registrars can slow down things here.

Setting domain properties is also very straightforward. Besides the bulk mode, domains can be edited one by one on a logical and clear interface.

Being one step ahead as stated, effective domain backordering is a must. While Hexonet is by far not as successful in backorders as specialized domain aftermarket companies like Namejet, Snapnames and Dropcatch, among the registrars, they are quite successful. If there are more than one backorder for a domain, it goes to auction at their sister company, Premiumsale.

Another thing where registrars can be ahead these days is the registration of nTLDs. Hexonet supports all new extensions and has great calendars to overview the different launch phases, also their second rounds when the so called collision domains are auctioned. They have a system for declaring early interest on not yet available domains and you will be notified as soon as you can convert it to preregistration. Since nTLDs can be preregistered at many registrars, these registrars are fighting to secure a domain where there are multiple request for the same domain at the same phase. Hexonet is quite successful in this competition.

I like registrars where I don’t have to test the support because everything just works. So I don’t have as much experience with customer support as I have at GoDaddy or Networks Solutions. But when I contacted Hexonet support, I got useful answers (although sometimes it take days) and not a copy-pasted outdated how-to article. They also dedicate premium support when you reach 100 domains in your account and the premium support does not mean here that you will be notified all the time that your premium support guy is out of office (this is very typical at some other registrars).

By strictly focusing on domains, Hexonet will not provide hosting and emailing services. It is recommended anyway that domains and hosts should not be at the same company, so personally I don’t miss this feature. For very beginners, who would like to setup a WordPress site on a newly registered domain with a few clicks, this might be a problem.

To summarize, Hexonet is a great domain registrar for those who are familiar with domain settings. Easy to use, no hidden rules, no annoying promotions, cheap and effective.