Few days back I was trying to transfer out a domain on Inmotion Hosting. When I logged in to their control panel there was section that had information about transfer-in the domain, nothing was mentioned about transfer out. Since they have live chat I was able to get in touch with their support quickly and I had to create a ticket to unlock the domain and get transfer code.
For registering domain I always used GoDaddy and Domainmonster before. Both these registrars have option in the control panel to login, unlock the domain and get transfer code right away. Creating a ticket and getting the transfer code via email is bad service but that was the only option they have at Inmotion Hosting. First time I receive a code that didn’t work. So, I had to create another ticket to escalate the problem. I was furious when I was chatting with their support. They told me they are a reseller of Tucows and anything wrong with domain means they would have to write to them and let them troubleshoot.
Time is precious, nobody wants to spend unwanted time waiting. Inmotion is one of the popular webhosting companies I could see from several different recommendation lists on the web and here I am having a real trouble. They are not even a first class domain registrar.
Inmotion could be good at hosting websites, but definitely not for registering domain. Having that said, I don’t have any experience of hosting either.
A friend of mine used Inmotion and I had to take over his Inmotion account to resolve this domain transfer problem. He uses both hosting and domain registry with Inmotion which I think is a bad choice. Giving control of both your files and domain to any party is not good, not when you have the option of keeping them separate.
Like I said before, I use GoDaddy and Domainmoster to register my domains. I never use their hosting services. As for hosting my website I used several different hosting companies over the years and I am happy about my current host which is VPS.Net. I had problems with them too but not often.
I really enjoyed Domainmoster as my domain registry company. But, they no longer exist. I am not sure if the company was sold out to another party and its just another brand of the company that took over. Now, all the domains I have with Domainmonster are managed by 123-reg.com. I have not bought any domain since the change. It’s a company that I am not familiar with, it seems to be a UK based company. I can use the same credentials to login and manage my domain as I did on Domainmoster. But, sooner or later I am expecting they will rise prices and rip me off if I stay. Even if that may not happen, I feel that would be the case. So, I am going to run as far as I could.
I am already looking for a good domain registrar, as of this point, I have Namecheap in my mind. I read some reviews and forum postings to learn that they control about 3 million domains. Their Alexa ranking indicates they are definitely one of the leading domain registers. Also, the name is familiar, I have known this name for some years though I never used their service. So, I know they have been in business for years which is a good sign. I am looking for pure domain registers, not for hosting. Namecheap offers both, these days any domain registrar would offer both but I believe Namecheap is most popular for domains, not hosting. This is what exactly I am looking for. I would not mind you selling some hosting but I want you have a good reputation at registering domains. I do not want to go blindly when it comes safekeeping my digital goods which is the only asset I have. I have no car, no motor bike. I just have an old laptop computer and a dozen of domains of which only few are actually useful and only 1 is getting real good traffic which gives me an income. I am currently jobless and the little income I get is from this website. When you are jobless you count every penny and I really appreciate that I managed to get one of my site receive a decent level of traffic. The income it gives is not good enough to manage my life, but at a time I am broke it keeps me up right. That’s a great help. Without this I would have been long buried in debts. I have been jobless for about an year now and I am happy that I have no debts at all. But, it is not only the website that gives me income, I also buy from ebay and sell cheap electronic items. This income together with what I get from the website puts me at break-even, that is when I live with my family. I am still single and live with my sisters, we all share and rent and other expenses, I just have to generate my portion.
I know my life is terrible, but I am happy that I have no debts and I think soon I will get other opportunities. You see, in a situation like this, a domain that gives some income generating traffic is your gold mine. You definitely do not want to keep it with a party you can’t trust, it also needs to be cheap as no-one wants to over pay, not even the king of Saudi Arabia.
Having one or two domain companies to work with also makes life easy. I used Domainmoster as my primary registrar for several years and I was really happy with them. Their prices were not the lowest, but reasonable in the mid-range I would say, they also free domain privacy which was great. GoDaddy charges extra for privacy and if you want to do it for several domains that would cost a lot of unwanted expense to you. That’s exactly what I want to avoid when I choose a new domain registrar. I still have few domains with GoDaddy but I really hate them. They are racists, too much profit oriented rather than consistent long term business. They might be having several millions of domains under them being one of the most recommended domain registrars for years. I still don’t understand how they managed to stay branded like that for several years but when you actually google search you know there are several unhappy customers like me. I did my own analysis and result is GoDaddy only deserves closing their business as soon as possible.
Once I find a reliable party I am going to transfer domains from both GoDaddy and 123 Reg which holds my Domainmoster domains. I will wait domains to get closer to expiry and transfer in batches to avoid unwanted expenses. After some research I think I am happy to go with Namecheap but I still have not decided and I am still researching. There are false promotional info and reviews on the internet. People recommending domain registrar and webhosting companies often attach their affiliate code in the link. That tells it is not a genuine recommendation, rather they are trying to make money out of you. That’s very bad. There also guys who are affiliated with several companies, so they keep recommending based user preferences, at least that is what they say. Practically I think it is still the same, still the same motivation of making money instead of give you a helpful recommendation. Then there are new bees giving recommendation without much experience of expertise. I have spent at least 10 years registering and hosting websites. I also code in PHP, Javascript, HTML, CSS and I write advanced ajax too.
I am writing this post while I have no affiliation with my webhosting or domain registry company. The only purpose is to help build a better community for people like me who wants reliability and consistency. Companies like GoDaddy play around customers and I hate that. If the domain is closer to expiry the renewal price becomes high, I hate this. I want a company that is transparent and consistent. You tell me your price and inclusions you give and keep it the same throughout. Also, you would be able to manage your domains through the control panel, if you have to create ticket and email to manage this is not for me.