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Namesilo registrar to be bought by Dutch company for $30 Million
Just in 2018 popular registrar Namesilo was bought by an Investment firm,
and now it is again changing hands and being sold to Netherlands company "WGH Holdings B.V."
as announced by them and reported by DNW:
https://domainnamewire.com/2020/12/02/namesilo-finds-buyer-as-debt-payments-loom/
WGH runs the famous African WhoGoHost company since last 12 years with the Nigerian entreprenuer!
Will Namesilo, LLC remain a U.S. based or become The Netherlands entity and follow Dutch laws - time will tell.
Comments
Interesting, thanks!
need to keep a watch on this
Well, I hope they don't change anything...
if something changed I might need to transfer out my domain after all
I have few domains with them. In fact, this type of news is always scary
Thanks @JasonM! Time to move my stuff, these kind of deals are never an improvement for customers if things were ok before...
It’s the nature of acquisitions or mergers that things will definitely need to be aligned - the question is where and what, that we don’t know yet ☺️
Seems like a good move if it means they can escape US pressure to shut down domains etc...
Exactly. It can end up well. I know nothing about "WGH Holdings B.V." though. They could be in only for investors / profits.
Is this supposed to be a good news or bad news ?
In cases like this the new owner would most likely want to recoup their investment fast. Based on experience this could happen either by reducing costs through synergies (ok for the customers), or by raising prices and cutting corners (e.g. customer service, infrastructure etc.). More often than not, the second thing happens. So what are other good and reasonably priced registrars nowadays so that I can move couple of domains?
Mine will end up at Dynadot where most of my more important stuff is anyway. Reasonably priced, responsive support (not that I have needed it often or for anything serious), good client interface and very quick and reliable DNS, which is most important for me. There are cheaper offers for some registrations/renewals/transfers and once in a while I use them for less critical stuff but if I could only be with one single registrar, it would be Dynadot at this moment.
However, not everyone has the same preferences and key requirements and things can always change at any time. A decade ago I would have said Enom, now I wouldn't use them anymore even at a massive discounts to others.
Dynadot +1
Porkbun?
Which sites has the US pressured namesilo to close? Be specific- not "I heard on the internet that...". I am presuming there would be court cases too- unless namesilo fundamentally agreed with the imaginary requests. So I presume- NONE
I've owned thousands of domains over the years and haven't had any issues with US based domain registrars. If you do shady shit you'll have problems at most registrars.
+1 for Porkbun. Customer supports seem okay, price is cheap. Big fan of the interface (speaking for myself only). But the trade off is they don't have as many tld as others, particularly cctld, no .eu, .de, .fr, .ca.
Wasn't there some recent controversy about Porkbun suspending customer's domain?
Thanks, Dynadot's prices look reasonable and it seems to have been around for long enough.
Yes they have been around for some time now.
Prices are reasonable and support experience has been great so far, for the past 3-4 years I’ve been with them.
How about namecheap?
Why would someone move their domains around? What is the bad side of this news? I mean, I used a few registrars and never had a serious problem with them. What worth the hassle to move my domains when namesilo changed hands?
WOW! I just started transferring all my domains to Namesilo because the renewal at namecheap is too expensive.... lets hope they don't raise the renew prices or I will be looking for a new home for my domains.
Exactly my thoughts
Calm down sparky, I'm speaking hypothetically about any registrar under US jurisdiction.
Although now that you ask... It appears they have acted on their own to take down or replace(!) domains they control:
https://www.thedomains.com/2020/06/03/namesilo-has-taken-control-of-breonnataylor-com/
http://www.circleid.com/posts/20170215_narcotics_traffic_is_not_part_of_a_healthy_domain_system/
But these appear to be TOS violations, and could happen under any jurisdiction...
TL;DR: Any registrar under US jurisdiction will likely face more pressure to take down sites than other more progressive democracies.
Here are the numbers: Namesilo crossed the 3 million domain milestone on July 1, 2019.,
according to this information on their website.
https://www.namesilo.com/domain_count.php
I need Cloudflare to add .ca tld to get off NameSilo. Get on it, Cloudflare!
No Porkbun or Dynadot.
Porkbun "suspends" your domain directly the moment Google marks your site un-safe in their Safe Browsing report! Porkbun has confirmed it officially on another forum that they suspend domain relying on Google safe browsing reports. So if you accidentally install a malacious wordpress plugin, Google finds that file and markes your domain un-safe, and BAM! You domain gets suspended by registrar!
Dynadot is also not that safe. If your domain receives many DMCAs... they are ready to "disable" your domain. Read their forums on their own site.. People opening thread: "domain disabled- why?" etc.
Namesilo and Namecheap are reliable and safe. I haven't seen them increasing prices of atleast popular TLDs in recent years. Also Namesilo does not entertain DMCA/copyright infringement and SPAM complaints (According to their "report abuse page"). They ask complainant to direct it to whoever the Web Host/email provider is because they are just a registrar. Namecheap forwards DMCA to domain owner. And I think, after the acquisition by Netherlands company, Namesilo (may) follow Dutch laws which are privacy friendly than the U.S. ones! Also remember, Netherlands is also a safe haven for offshore hosting!
Openprovider is another best Netherlands based safest registrar but not cheap. You need to deposit minimum €20.
Hexonet (EU and US) was also quite cheap. But recently after acquisition, they hiked minimum deposit/Paypal payment from $20 to $75 (and each subsequent deposit should be $75). that's quite a huge sum of money for single .com or other cheap gTLDs registrants.
Cloudflare also seems cheap! But still you can only transfer domains to them, plus its mandatory to use their DNS hosting, you can't use your own namesevers/thrid-party nameservers. Also you can't register new domains. (I don't know if they opened new registrations recently, couldn't find the link)
.
that was because the makers of the movie “Hellboy” filed a complaint at a Hawaii federal court and then approached to Namecheap with DMCA.
In such cases ANY registrar (at least withing U.S.) will have to comply notice and release the name of the registrant. Even offshore registrar Shiniju/ilovewww complys to infringement notices when approached in Malaysian court.
I was earlier referencing to random DMCA notices sent to registrars, without court proceedings/order.
@JasonM do you know anything about Epik.com?