Epik wins the Namepros 2020 Best registrar
As I have stated before this year’s poll was pretty contentious for the first time the poll was public.
This allowed for everyone to see who voted in the interest of transparency. Over 28,000 views and over 500 replies.
The number of votes this year was almost identical to last year. 914 members voted this year vs 915 in 2019.
When you look at the four polls there are some interesting trends developing.
Epik went from not being included in 2016 to 29 votes to 54 votes to 246 votes.
In 2016 GoDaddy had 52% of the vote, this year 15.5%.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, Epik had close to 30 employees vote for them, in the eyes of some this makes Dynadot the real winner.
To be fair to everyone, previous polls were not public. How many GoDaddy employees voted? I don’t know. I believe the win is legit.
Other employees did vote for their company like @dynadot voted for Dynadot (obviously) @Joe Styler voted for GoDaddy.
Namepros has said they know several employees from several industry participants belong to Namepros.
2019
First poll that ended end of the year 2017
2016
Go Daddy Wins Namepros Favorite Registrar Poll with 52.5% of the vote
Cloudflare is the best if you actually develop websites. Their DNS response/resolution is like 40ms while most these places are around 200ms. Technically, for ‘hosting domains’ (what they’re meant for), cloudflare should be the winner. I would of voted for them. Though I love porkbun and dynadot, for ‘domaining’ exclusively.
Depends how you wanna look at it and what you are using it for. I never felt namepros was suited for anything more than domainer though. Any time I tried to post about websites or SEO research, I got laughed at.
Technicalities.
Right. NP is for name domain people. They are not interested in sites and have no clue about SEO. There are other forums for that.
Great for epik!
I’m so happy for you, Rob.
What hard work, and ingenuity gets you.
Samer
Dynadot all the way!
Congratulations Rob and to Epik! The move from 5.9% to 26.96% within a single year says it all. The shifting tide where true innovation – and dedicated focus to customer experience – finally get the recognition and vote they both deserve. Bravo Rob Monster – well done! This speaks volumes about the hard work and commitment of the team that makes Epik tick. It also reveals part of the brilliance of the very reason they have taken the industry’s top spot.
I believe the continued focus on reducing the validity of this great achievement is out of line. Poor taste even for those who have selective bias and private knowledge of where their own real objectivity ends. It is more than just a compromise for those who know the degree by which employees secretly voted for other winners in the past, but no pen was ever granted or keyboard ever stroked detailing the ethical tragedy of those final outcomes. But I guarantee Epik will turn every lemon thrown at it into lemonade.
Rob Monster and Epik didn’t win this because a bunch of “employees” stacked the deck. To keep inferring this just shows you don’t get it. They swept GoDaddy and others because over these past few years, they focused on real EMPOWERMENT. Where you see an employee, I see a new liquidation service run by a domainer that Rob gave support to because he realized other investors could benefit from it. Where you see an employee, I see a group of engineers that Rob empowered to build better security. Better server resiliency. Better interfaces. Where you see an employee, I see new technology being perfected to reduce fees on future sales, maximize liquidity for domain investors, and enhance the industry as a whole.
Some are conflating real domainers that have real portfolios and real experience with many registrars, and reducing them to less than nothing like their opinion and user experience should not have a voice, because they chose to reveal that they had some working relationship with Epik. Organically. As a team that came together from all over the world – and almost in entirety works remotely – to help build something truly greater that the industry can benefit from.
This is but a small example of the projects Rob and Epik are leading, and I believe it will speak greatly to exactly what I am saying:
https://www.epik.com/about/labs/
So I would submit if there is an issue with the Namepros 2020 Best Registrar vote, it is the number of people who voted to slow Epik down. There is certainly some bias that may never make it into the light. Real bias. It is not the kind though that comes from wanting you to have the best choice for future options, service, and the positive market outlook that we unanimously deserve.
So I say again, congratulations Rob, and to all of your hardworking staff, their long hours, their perseverance, and continued work to support others – even while the world can look like it is falling apart. You absolutely deserved this, and I have no doubt that the industry as a whole will come to recognize this as well, so that more can learn from your innovation and grand vision of what is possible.
I am thankful for all who voted! May this year see all of you, your loved ones, families, your friends, staff, employees, and co-workers… stay healthy… stay positive.. and know that you are loved!
Congrats Rob.
Thanks for running the poll Raymond, I love namepros one idiot named coolhands disagreed and frank-troll congratulated dynadot.
Congrats to Rob and he deserves it.
We might agree or/and disagree with him but that not the point.
The point is he is the face behind his company and he is always contributing to the domain community. We know where he lives, what he eats and what he likes….so tell me do other CEOs or other owners of the other registrars do that?
Rob at Epik is the only one that is here for us…. and he gives excellent customer service!
Thanks Raymond and thanks all for your your votes and your kind words.
It is an honor to be recognized as a the “Best Registrar” of 2020. The NamePros community is among the most discerning. Rarely have we seen where anyone got a free pass there.
As for the topic of Epik staff voting in polls, it is not a secret that we heavily recruited staff for Epik from the NamePros community. This is for 2 reasons:
1. People who know the domain industry intimately don’t grow on trees. Many of them are on NamePros. Ironically, even the people who openly and recursively poo-poo NamePros come to NamePros.
2. The professional domain investor is our core customer. Sure, we continue to gain in other sectors but the ones with the best inventory tend to be domainers, or people who are accessible to domainers.
I want to acknowledge Dynadot for their strong showing. They have a great product and a loyal customer base. Todd Han is a capable CEO. If/when, Godaddy acquires them, they should hope he stays onboard.
In the meantime, ICYMI, I made a video comment here:
https://twitter.com/robmonster/status/1245025748995444737
Congrats Rob Monster and Epik. As one who voted for Epik I can see why there popularity has soared, constant innovation great support and an engaged and avalible CEO.
Great work Raymond on putting together the poll and analyzing the results.