NameSilo is an affordable and reputable domain registry service.
Price
Traditional TLDs start with a flat $8.99/year with privacy, no hidden costs or yearly price hikes. Discounts are for bulk customers. Newer gTLD pricing varies.
Features
Every domain name through NameSilo has free WHOIS privacy, email forwarding, ‘Domain Defender' fraud protection & DNS Management.
TLD Selection
Hundreds of options focused on the traditional US TLDs and the new gTLDs (generic TLDs). Only select foreign TLDs are offered
Pros
- Flat rate pricing (no renewal upcharges, hidden fees or service upsells)
- Highly reputable in the domain registrar industry
- Includes free WHOIS privacy for all domain purchases or transfers
- “Domain Defender” offers enhanced security against domain theft or misuse
- Intricate DNS and account management options (easy to add email services)
- Free domain parking with 100% share of advertising revenue
- Handles all the common TLDs and the new gTLDs
- Offers API access
Cons
- Web interface isn't the most appealing (could use an update)
- Doesn't offer a large assortment of international TLDs (some exceptions include India and Canada)
- Bulk pricing (NameSilo Discount Program) requires pre-paying with account funds
- Did recently change their focus from 100% domain focus to offering small web hosting plans
- No phone support (chat & email only)
Review Summary
We had switched to NameSilo back in 2012 and have been so satisfied with their domain name registration service that our company currently holds 42 domain names with NameSilo (including this domain).
When you consider advanced features like free WHOIS privacy, domain protection and DNS management at no extra fee, Namesilo offers some serious value on the dollar for anyone looking to purchase a domain name.
Unlike many other competing domain registrars, there are no hidden fees, price hikes, or surprises after the first year. The peace of mind of having your precious domain names with a reputable provider while maintaining an affordable yearly cost makes it a win-win for website owners.
A Best Buy For All
The Ideal Buyer
NameSilo is the best domain registrar and domain reseller for small and large website owners alike. The lack of any hidden pricing schemes and quality service with no gimmicks makes it an ideal choice for anyone looking for a new domain name that falls within their supported TLDs and gTLDs.
For those looking for international TLDs which NameSilo doesn't support many of, we would recommend that you use NameCheap for registering these domains.
Domain registration is a huge market as we shift our lives and businesses to the new world that revolves around the Internet and having a web presence.
While there are many registrars out there to choose from, many potential domain buyers tend to gravitate to the biggest players. These include NameCheap, GoDaddy or Domain(.)com who all spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on advertising each year.
Fortunately, there are lesser-known registrars out there who don't advertise as much yet still offer a quality service. A domain company such as NameSilo usually matches or often surpasses the pricing and features of their larger competition.
Instead of spending their money on attracting new customers, NameSilo uses these funds to focus on their existing customers. This often results in better support, new features, and more competitive pricing without all the advertising overhead.
A perfect example of this NameSilo, a company that has been in business since 2010. They have attracted millions of domain name registrations with stellar pricing, competitive features, and excellent customer service. In the rest of this article, we will provide an in-depth NameSilo review of our experience being a customer since 2012.
Here's a screenshot to prove we legitimately are actually paying customers and have 42 domains registered with them regardless of this NameSilo Review:
NameSilo Company Overview
Founded in 2010, NameSilo is a company that is focused on domain registration and DNS management. They only recently began offering minor web hosting options. According to the company's Facebook page, NameSilo is based in Phoenix, Arizona and has annual revenues surpassing $2M.
In the last 9 years, NameSilo has become ICANN-accredited and surpassed 2M active domain names registered with their service. This puts NameSilo in the top 20 with 3,000 ICANN-accredited registrars.
Back in 2014, NameSilo was the second domain registrar to offer Bitcoin as a method of payment for their services. This was long before the times of the crypto-rush like we are living in today.
It is true that NameSilo is not currently BBB accredited. However, BBB gives them a D- rating with only four positive reviews and seven negative reviews. Take this factor with a grain of salt. The majority of the negative reviews seem to relate to customer error which doesn't actually involve NameSilo.
Domain Pricing Structure
One of the biggest draws to NameSilo for many potential customers is their affordable pricing structure. In our opinion, their pricing model is better than any other domain name registrar currently open for public access.
How NameSilo's domain registration pricing stacks up against its competition:
By reviewing the table above, you can see NameSilo is the cheapest option. The key to remember here is their pricing remains consistent, year after year. NameSilo doesn't believe in the hidden costs or pricing gimmicks of the competition.
In some cases, you can score a $0.99 domain coupon through someone like NameCheap or GoDaddy which seems like a deal. When you are paying $15+ per domain each year after, you'll lose money despite the initial promo. Transfer prices are similar with .COMs running you $8.39, .NETs costing $11.79 and .ORGs coming in at $10.79.
There are only two instances where pricing will change as a NameSilo customer. Both are situations where you'd save money versus spending more:
Periodic Promotions On New Domain Registrations (First Year Only)
NameSilo will sometimes run temporary promotions for new domain registrations on specific TLDs. The renewal rate will always be the standard pricing (only $8.99 for .COMs) and it is a nice little savings bonus if you happen to catch it at the right time.
NameSilo Discount Program
NameSilo knows that many of their customers don't own just one or two domain names, but sometimes even hundreds or thousands of domains. NameSilo has made it more enticing to attract bulk customers by offering a discount program.
How NameSilo's bulk discount program pricing differs from their yearly standard pricing:
Of course, there is a small catch. To use the bulk discount program, you must pay for the promotional pricing via NameSilo account funds. This means you “deposit” money into a virtual wallet that stores it for future use with NameSilo.
Since we have under 50 domain names with NameSilo at the moment and would only save $0.10 per domain registration, we haven't bothered to join the discount program. Saving $4.20 per year in exchange for the hassle of maintaining the proper account funds (which requires you to prepay) isn't worth it for us.
A potential customer who wants to switch to NameSilo with 3,500 domains might have a different perspective. In this case, there is likely enough incentive to join this program and reap these savings.
Advanced Features & Domain Management
While the low pricing is a large upside to being a NameSilo customer, there is also a ton of feature-related benefits to hosting your domain name with them:
- Free WHOIS privacy – most hosts charge an additional fee, keeps your personal information private (optional).
- Email forwarding – free with every domain (up to 100 forward addresses).
- Free domain parking – you can decide to show ads on a parked domain or put up a landing page to solicit offers (receive 100% of both).
- Domain Defender protection – a free service that offers additional protection for your account and domain(s) with 2-factor authentication and email/SMS notifications of changes to your account.
- DNS management tools – add A, AAAA, CNAME, MX, TXT or SRV records right from their online account management portal.
- Custom WHOIS records – access to a reseller manager with options for a generic site, reseller name, reseller email and customer WHOIS footer.
- Domain forwarding – automatically forward visitors to one registered domain another domain (301, 302 and cloaked redirect options).
- Portfolio management – group domains into sections for bulk actions (updating, configuration, transfers, etc.)
- Registry lock – prevent fraudulent transfers by locking your domain down from bogus transfer requests.
- Sub-account tools – safely allow other users to access your account such as a network administrator who needs to correctly configure your domain name with a detailed log of all actions committed by these users.
User Interface, Functionality & Support
While it is hardly a big deal, the user interface of NameSilo isn't the sleekest for a web-based browser app yet it is well-organized and easy to use. Since we started using the NameSilo back in 2012, we haven't seen any major changes to the user interface. This makes us think they likely are following the “if it isn't broke, don't fix it” mantra.
The exterior of the website when you first enter to browse the website/place an order did change and become more modernized in the past 12 months, but the interior of the site where you'll be logged in to carry out domain changes and manage your account settings remains the same dated user interface.
Over the years prior to this NameSilo Review, we have run into no complaints in terms of the performance or functionality of NameSilo. There has never been any registrar-related downtime for our sites which is an important aspect as a website owner. As for the ‘Domain Defender' security feature, it is a great way for NameSilo to verify you are the correct owner of the domain name and avoid fraudulent changes via hackers.
We have contacted NameSilo support on a few occasions (mainly to discuss domain transfers). They have been helpful with adequate response times. We have seen another NameSilo review state they had trouble getting in touch with support, but they have always responded to our emails in a prompt manner.
NameSilo Coupons & Promotions
Most of you have or will be investing a lot of money into domains, web hosting, themes, plugins, or other website-related software. This all adds up and it can get expensive when you look at the bigger picture.
We have convinced NameSilo to give us a coupon code for our readers to help give back to our community. While it isn't a huge load of savings, using our code ‘thetechreviewer‘ upon checkout via this link will save you $1 on one domain sale per account.
An example of how to apply our NameSilo coupon to a domain name order:
Final Review Verdict
To sum up this NameSilo review as a customer who has been registering domains with NameSilo over a seven-year period, we can confirm that the registrar is the real deal.
With exceptional pricing and many free advanced features, the NameSilo service is absolutely a quality domain registrar to consider when looking to register a new domain name or switch from your current provider.
Thanks for reading our NameSilo review, we hope it was helpful!
