Uniregistry Review – Best New Domain Service?

Today, I am delving into the world of domains. As someone that has had business' online for some time, I have bought quite a few domain names in my time. Today, we review a new kid on the domain purchasing block, Uniregistry. Let's see if they cut the mustard 🙂 Here is my full and honest Uniregistry review 🙂

What is Uniregistry?

Uniregistry is a domian name registrar based out of the Cayman Islands. Uniregistry were taken over by GoDaddy in 2020, one of the biggest and most well known domain providers on the planet. This is rater ironic, as GoDaddy have a bad reputation for tricking unwary people into a now well known domain bait and switch tactic. Very cheap first year domain fees with massive markups on renewal fees. However, Uniregistry say on their website that they want a 'better future void of aggressive sales staff, unnecessary up sells and outrageous pricing'.

Uniregistry like promoting themselves as the place to find the 'perfect' domain. The unique thing about Uniregistry is that they have a lot of domain extensions, such as .sexy, and market their business on this fact.

Uniregistry also has a marketplace for people to buy and sell their own domains, as well as a brokerage that will help you sell.

Here are some of the other features of Uniregistry:

Email

They partnered with Gsuite to allow you to add email capabilities to your domain names.

Domain Forwarding

Uniregistry allow you to forward your domain, including to various social media outlets.

Membership Perks

Uniregistry have a membership program aimed at those that buy and hold a large number of domains.

In return for a membership fee, you get discount on domain prices, even getting an account manager on higher tiers.

Documents.link

This allows you to attach documents to any domain that you own.

Who is Behind UniRegistry?

Uniregistry was started by Frank Schilling, a German turned Canadian entrepreneur who has been creating and operating domain name companies since 2002. He started with Namedia.com from 2002 to 2010, then DomainNameSales.com from 2009 to 2013. He started Uniregistry in 2010, although they have only really burst onto the scene for most Americans the past 3-4 years.

How Much is UniRegistry?

Apart from the membership prices shown above, we are now going to talk about the regular pricing of Uniregistry. In real world terms, I tried registering the domain name hedgehog.directory. The price they quoted was $4.48 for the first year and $20.88 after that. Trying out the same over at Namesilo.com (my current favourite domain registrar) the cost was $3.50 followed by a renewal fee of $15.99. So they have reasonable pricing, but not the cheapest out there.

Trying a more typical .com domain I searched BigKahunaBurgerShack.com, and got a price back of $10.88 for the first year, remaining the same for renewals. NameSilo.com gave a price of $8.99 for both first year and renewals.

Both services offer the WHOis privacy function for free as part of any domain registration process.

There is some price gauging on the renewal pricing, but nowhere near on the level of GoDaddy. For example, at the time of writing, the .store domain was being sold for $43.99 on Namesilo, whereas Uniregistry had a promotion for $4.49 for the first year. The catch being the renewal price is $58.88. As most business' want to stick around as long as possible, over the long run Namesilo would be cheaper.

Be aware that domain pricing varies a lot between different types of domain extensions. This is not unique to Uniregistry. I would recommend researching the particular domains you want to buy, to see who offers the best deal.

What do we like about UniRegistry?

Sleek Design

Unfortunately, domain registrars are known to either have ugly or spammy looking sites! Not so Uniregistry. They have one of the nicest websites I have ever seen in this industry. Not only this, the user interface is excellent and makes everything very easy to find.

Mobile App

Uniregistry also have a great looking and modern mobile/ smartphone app. This makes it easy to manage your domains on the move!

Better Pricing than GoDaddy

Although Uniregistry is not the cheapest domain registry out there, they do have competitive and fair pricing. With the recent takeover by GoDaddy, I hope they plan on keeping them this way and not turning Uniregistry into a renewal gauging site like GoDaddy. I would take a wild guess not. I imagine they bought Uniregistry to add something different to their portfolio 🙂

Tools for 'Domainers'

As well as having the membership program to make owning multiple domains cheaper, they also have bulk actions that domainers can use to manage a large amount of owned domain names easily. These bulk actions are available in the mobile app too, allowing for a great user experience when managing domains on the move.

Having a domain broker attached to a domain registrar could be convenient for people that hold and sell a lot of domains in a year. It would help simplify the whole process.

What don't we like about UniRegistry?

Why are you in the Cayman Islands?

When I see companies being registered in the Cayman Islands it makes me worried. Clearly they are not selling many domains there, so why setup your headquarters there. This means that they are outside the reach of regulators and the like that operate in America. It doesn't automatically mean they are intending to take part in shady business practices, but it doesn't exactly fill me with confidence. Namesilo, for example, are head quartered in Phoenix, Arizona.

Minimum Fees

When using Uniregistry's services to sell your domains, you need to pay their fees. As well as their fees for doing this being quite high, they also have minimum fees for these services. As you can see below, their commission for brokered and syndicated deals is $175. This can make a big difference to those smaller bread and butter domain sales you might make. To be clear though, if you don't use any of Uniregistry's domain selling services (including their buy it now button), then no fee is taken.

Errors

During my time with Uniregistry I got this error multiple times. No idea why!

Should you buy domains from Uniregistry?

Uniregistry are an interesting proposition for buying domains, but I don't see enough value here to take me away from my favorite domain provider Namesilo. The prices over at Namesilo are cheaper, and they have all the same functionality as Uniregistry. The only unique thing Uniregistry has are their brokerage and some domain name extensions that only they sell. First of all, the fees for their brokerage are too high to make them a good option. And NameSilo have already said they are entering this market soon, and I am sure when they do they will have much better pricing. At present, they have no minimum fees on their marketplace domain sales.

And regarding the .sexy domain names. Frankly, I don't recommend you buy them anyway. People that have visited your website briefly won't remember your weird and obscure extension anyway, and will probably go to your .com competitor next time.

Finally, now that Uniregistry is owned by GoDaddy, I wouldn't want to give them any of my money. I have seen so many new website owners tricked by the headline rates of a couple of dollars for the first year, only to then realize they are being ripped off massively for every year after that! These are not the business practices I wan't to endorse!

So all in all, other than looking sleek and modern, Uniregistry doesn't offer anything special for me. I will be sticking with my tried and trusted Namesilo.com for the foreseeable future. You can also check out NameSilo to see for yourself by clicking HERE. This will take you over to their official website. They are not as slick looking as Uniregistry, but they have all the same features for a much more competitive price in my opinion.

I hope my review helps you decide on the best domain registrar for your online business’, it really is important to find a quality one you can use for the foreseeable future 🙂

Disclaimer: My reviews are always full and honest. Yes, they may have affiliate links in where I can earn a small commission, but this never influences my rating. I want you to trust and come back to my reviews!