Top 15 Domain Registrars

Listed here are the top 15 domain registrars based on total market share and total domains sold.

1 GO DADDY
—United States 26.298% (market share) 26,739,304 (domains sold)

2 ENOM
—United States 8.439% 8,580,535

3 TUCOWS
—Canada 6.738% 6,850,997

4 NETWORK SOLUTIONS
—United States 6.528% 6,637,157

5 MELBOURNE IT
—Australia 4.820% 4,901,154

6 SCHLUND+PARTNER
—Germany 4.299% 4,371,186

7 WILD WEST DOMAINS
—United States 3.026% 3,076,602

8 REGISTER.COM
—United States 2.615% 2,659,144

9 MONIKER
—United States 2.562% 2,604,881

10 PUBLIC DOMAIN REGISTRY
—India 1.990% 2,023,362

11 KEY-SYSTEMS
—Germany 1.406% 1,429,282

12 DOTSTER
—United States 1.208% 1,228,005

13 FABULOUS.COM
—Australia 1.197% 1,216,967

14 ONLINENIC
—United States 1.120% 1,139,150

15 XINNET.COM
—China 0.973% 989,796

When it is time to decide among domain registrars, you should essentially be looking for a good price supplemented by good customer service. Those who want to purchase a domain and hosting from the same company should also check for what the different hosts support on their servers and how much space you are given for your dollar.

Many of the registrars who have made it to this list are not the cheapest and do not have the best customer support. Go Daddy is a decent choice, but its popularity is due in large part to its advertising campaign and not its quality. We’ve all seen the TV commercials with the big chested girls sporting their Go Daddy gear, and for many sad people this is the only knowledge they have about how and where to purchase domains.

Some domain registrars/hosts that I would recommend are not even shown on this list. Dreamhost, NetFirms, and Yahoo can be cheaper than most of the top 15 registrars and offer better customer service. It will better benefit you to do your research before purchasing a domain, don’t just follow an advertisement and assume that purchasing a domain is going to be the same anywhere you go.

What do you look for when purchasing a domain?

The above list is provided by the ICANN registrar rankings at webhosting.info.