Have you ever thought to yourself “I wish this could just be simpler”? I know I have, and that’s what prompted me to search out a better domain registrar.
I have used GoDaddy exclusively in the past, but I grew tired of the ‘marketing barrage’ that is spewed forth from their site and emails. Not to mention the labyrinth of screens that must navigated to manage your domains. I just wanted to register my domains at a reasonable price, and have a simple way to manage them.
Simplicity was the key requirement. I don’t want to have to select an option for a domain privacy. I don’t want to have to move through four screens to manage DNS. I do not want to have to search down the promo code of the day to get the best deal.
Most people would think that low cost is the number one factor in selecting a domain registrar. While I agree that cost is important, there is one other thing that is equally important, to me at least – removal of the sales pitch.
As many of you know, GoDaddy does have reasonable pricing (although you have to work for it using promo codes). They also have an incredibly invasive system for promoting their other products. They promote on the site before you log in. They promote after you log in. They promote on the way to the check out. They promote at the check out. And finally they promote with emails (even if you opt out of specials, they still promote when reminding you to renew).
So I decided that I would be willing to pay a little more, to remove all of this clutter.
One day I saw a tweet from Jesse Petersen about Hover. At this point I had already investigated a few domain registrars – eNom, register.com, and Network Solutions. But I had never heard of Hover. It turned out that Hover was owned by Tucows, one of the largest domain registrars out there.
So that brings the price of a domain registration, with domain privacy, to $13.50 per year. When you compare that to GoDaddy and some of the others out there, that is a very competitive price.
And here is the icing on the cake – no sales pitch. No annoying emails, and no plethora of advertisements embedded throughout the checkout process. In addition, the Hover site is very simple to navigate. In your My Account area, there are five sub-menu items: Domains, Email, Forwards, Name Servers, and DNS.
So I went through the process of moving one of my domains over to Hover. The process cannot be any simpler. They have a slick “go/no-go” area that tells you where you are in the transfer process, and what you need to do next. The most involved part of the process was actually on GoDaddy’s site, where I needed to unlock the domain and verify that I was transferring it.
As I transferred my domain, I found that Hover moves your domain over and also transfers your remaining time with your previous registrar. So if you have two years, three months left at your previous registrar, the time transfers to Hover. And here is the kicker – Hover adds another year to your time. Since the transfer fee is $9 ($10 minus the 10%), you get another year tacked on for a lower rate.
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