[Review · Domain Registrars]

Name.com

Mid-tier registrar, owned by Identity Digital

[01] Verdict

Name.com is owned by Identity Digital (formerly Donuts Inc.) — the same company that operates many of the new gTLDs like .website, .agency, and .design. .com pricing is roughly $13/year first-year and $18 renewal: not cheap, but the jump is smaller than Newfold registrars.

The UI is one of the better registrar dashboards — clear, fast, no obvious dark patterns. WHOIS privacy is free, DNSSEC works, and the API is documented. Email upsells exist but aren't pre-checked.

Downsides: the parent company Identity Digital is a TLD wholesaler, and Name.com gets used to push their gTLDs harder than .com alternatives. Renewal is meaningfully higher than Porkbun/Dynadot for no obvious product advantage.

[02]

What works, what doesn't.

8 findings
+ Pros
  • Clean, modern UI
  • Free WHOIS privacy and DNSSEC
  • Reasonable upsell pressure (not pre-checked)
  • Documented API
– Cons
  • Renewal ~$5 higher than indie competitors
  • Identity Digital ownership creates gTLD bias
  • DNS is competent but not edge-fast
  • Email/SSL upsells exist (just not as bad as GoDaddy)
[03]

Pricing receipts.

Published rate
Monthly
$1.08/ mo
$1.50 / mo on renewal
Yearly
$18/ yr
intro $13
Renewal is 1.4× the intro price — most reviews bury this number.
[04]

What's being said.

11 mentions · May 17
Community sentiment
positive
Reddit, Hacker News, Trustpilot. Not used to score the provider — see methodology.
Redditpositive
What is a good, trustworthy registrar for country-based domains? (In ...

"I've not tried most of those but name.com has always been excellent in my experience."

Read source
Hacker Newspositive
Ask HN: Professional Alternative to Namecheap - Hacker News

"Name.com has always been more professional with less trick billing stunts. Easy to reach a human and they're not set on upselling you into garbage."

Read source
Redditpositive
Should I use MarkMonitor, CSC, Gandi.net, or Name.com? - Reddit

"They do a good job, in my opinion. We also looked at MarkMonitor, but they wanted something like $40K."

Read source
Hacker Newspositive
I use name.com for quite a few domains. They have a very ...

"They have a very convenient way to do bulk changes, so you can, for example, select 50 domains at once, and tell name.com to change all of them to your name"

Read source
Blogpositive
Name.com Review 2026: Is It A Good Web Host? | Cybernews

"All plans come with a free domain registration · Includes an easy-to-use custom dashboard and cPanel · Very reliable"

Read source
Trustpilotpositive
Read Customer Service Reviews of name.com - Trustpilot

"The domain renewal process was very easy. What took it down from a 5 star experience is that I saw that you gave me an option to renew for 10 years."

Read source
Blogmixed
Name.com Reviews by 183 Users & Expert Opinion - HostAdvice

"No huge benefits here, but no problems either. Pros: Simple hosting packages; Responsive support for both technical and customer service issues"

Read source
Blogmixed
Name.com Review: Honest Analysis of Its Web Hosting [2026]

"Its plans are user-friendly, affordable, and feature-rich. However, you'll notice some gaps, including a lack of powerful first-party hosting"

Read source
Redditmixed
What are your thoughts on Name.com? : r/Domains - Reddit

"I recently used Name.com for a domain, and overall I think it's okay, the two things I didn't like is that the DNS forwarding wasn't the"

Read source
Redditmixed
Registrars and Hosting : r/Hosting - Reddit

"Is there anything in particular that makes them better than others or just personal experience? ... Personally, I use name.com for my registrar."

Read source
Hacker Newsnegative
Name.com is pretty evil too. They opt you in to a "service" that ...

"Name.com is pretty evil too. They opt you in to a "service" that displays ads from your domain (where they keep the revenue, of course), and say that you"

Read source
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[04]

Closest alternatives.

registrars
At-cost domains, zero markup, no marketing
Indie registrar with honest pricing
Cheap renewals are the actual feature