# best .ca registrar



## domains (Nov 20, 2020)

I use several but mostly Namespro.  overall I find they have an easy to use interface for domain management and very fast support.  also you can get a discount on renewals and transfers in.


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## jaydub__ (Nov 20, 2020)

NamesPro for me as well...almost exclusively for 16 years now


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## MapleDots__ (Nov 20, 2020)

Canspace.ca gives you new registrations at $10.99 and the same for renewals, which is rare.

WHC.ca gives you new registrations for $9.99 which is probably their cost but the renewals are $13.99 which are $3 higher than Canspace.

Also WHC has a ton of specials to register at cheap rates so they probably need the $13.99 to subsidize the specials.


I have had hundreds of domains at WHC and Hundreds at Canspace and always had to transfer between the two to take advantage of pricing. I finally moved most to GoDaddy with the Domain Discount Club that gets me $11.99 for both .ca and .com.


So for me the short answer is...

Canspace for renewals - best price ongoing

WHC for registrations - best price ongoing


I think if WHC could give domainers with hundreds of domains a renewal break they would probably end up the clear winner.


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## MapleDots__ (Nov 20, 2020)

PS. In the .com area both Canspace and WHC perform poorly because they sublet them to another company.

I know for sure Canspace does, I  am assuming with WHC.


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## MapleDots__ (Nov 20, 2020)

jaydub said:
			
		

> NamesPro for me as well...almost exclusively for 16 years now



What is the registration price at namespro?

What is the renewal price?

Any sales for domainers?

One of the things that is bothersome at namespro is that most things are still done manually. I have done some deals with domainers and always had to wait for namespro.


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## jaydub__ (Nov 20, 2020)

Some things are manual but they are very quick to respond in my time with them.
Also I like that they easily allow pushes before the 60 days window from purchase and are right on the ball changing all info to the new oensr at the correct time without having to ask them to do it.


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## dancarls (Nov 20, 2020)

I get the best consistent pricing from Hexonet($10.90) and Canspace ($10.99)

with hexonet I also get good pricing on other TLD's / cctlds / gtlds

lately I have been using Epik lately I pay a bit more but I'm using there sales platform and parking.

NamesPros is one of the worst pricing for me, ($13.99), every time I renew a domain I have to msg them and ask for a discount, they will meet the other registrars pricing, but i need to ask support each time I renew.

Whc / Rebel I use when they have special pricing, then transfer them out to another registrar by the time renewals come around. 

I still use Uniregistry at times, I was getting good pricing years ago and they seemed like they were going to do big things...... then they didn't.

I don't have a huge portfolio so I don't have a lot of buying power with registrars.

Dan


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## Nafti (Nov 20, 2020)

As a few others have mentioned, I love Namespro.ca as well. Their pricing is great but their customer service is absolutely amazing. They are also polite and willing to answer any questions you may have.

I also love Epik.com. I use them for their landers and Escrow as well. They also have excellent support. I would pick them over Namespro for the fact that they pretty much do everything except your dishes.


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## rlm__ (Nov 21, 2020)

That hexonet and canspace pricing, can you make payments via CC at that rate? or are you required to pay via interac to avoid the CC charges?

What's the best NP domainer pricing?  Anyone know their pricing tiers?  I know they make deals, as does everyone.  And is that NP rate good for CC purchases or only for interac payments?  If you can't post it, can you PM it to me?

FYI, registrar pricing from CIRA is $9.50.  It was 8.50 but they did raise it a $1 a few years back.

I've had many registrars try and woo me over the years, they would match my deal, but no one would better it, and who would want to do all that work for nothing gained?


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## MapleDots__ (Nov 21, 2020)

The canspace price is for everyone without asking but also no discounts for anyone.

I checked out hexonet and saw no special pricing, it shows $18 CAD


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## Nafti (Nov 21, 2020)

I basically pay $13 through Epik for my .ca’s. It could be a couple of bucks more than somewhere else but I really like what they have there. The “1 stop shop”.


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## dancarls (Nov 22, 2020)

MapleDots said:
			
		

> The canspace price is for everyone without asking but also no discounts for anyone.
> 
> I checked out hexonet and saw no special pricing, it shows $18 CAD





I have been dealing with Patrick from hexonet for prob 4 years, He made it out the Domain event here in Vancouver a few years ago that Richard Lau put on. I believe he still works at hexonet. 

I sent him an invite to join the form and discussions.

Patrick McCleery
Sales Manager
patrick@hexonet.net


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## dancarls (Nov 22, 2020)

rlm said:
			
		

> That hexonet and canspace pricing, can you make payments via CC at that rate? or are you required to pay via interac to avoid the CC charges?
> 
> What's the best NP domainer pricing?  Anyone know their pricing tiers?  I know they make deals, as does everyone.  And is that NP rate good for CC purchases or only for interac payments?  If you can't post it, can you PM it to me?
> 
> ...




Hexonet and Canspace allow CC with that pricing.


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## DomainTrader (Nov 22, 2020)

dancarls said:
			
		

> I have been dealing with Patrick from hexonet for prob 4 years, He made it out the Domain event here in Vancouver a few years ago that Richard Lau put on. I believe he still works at hexonet.
> 
> I sent him an invite to join the form and discussions.
> 
> ...



Patrick is a really great guy to boot


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## DomainTrader (Nov 22, 2020)

I am not sure how much is ok to say at this point but there is about to be a new entrant into the dot ca name space 

There is a new registrar coming and they have plans to make big waves


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## MapleDots__ (Nov 22, 2020)

DomainTrader said:
			
		

> I am not sure how much is ok to say at this point but there is about to be a new entrant into the dot ca name space
> 
> There is a new registrar coming and they have plans to make big waves



If it involves .ca it is ok to say, in fact I would encourage you to share.


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## DomainTrader (Nov 22, 2020)

MapleDots said:
			
		

> If it involves .ca it is ok to say, in fact I would encourage you to share.



I will ask the people behind the new registrar to join here! I am sure they will be happy to share their plans and news! I just don’t want to tell tales out of school!! The principle shared the play with me but I am not sure how many others are aware if it at the moment! May even be old news already! 
I’m not sure who has told who what but I will say that I think that a little bit more competition at the registrar level is a good thing


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## dancarls (Nov 22, 2020)

MapleDots said:
			
		

> If it involves .ca it is ok to say, in fact I would encourage you to share.




Waves.. Can't wait...


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## DomainTrader (Nov 22, 2020)

Nafti said:
			
		

> I basically pay $13 through Epik for my .ca’s. It could be a couple of bucks more than somewhere else but I really like what they have there. The “1 stop shop”.



$13 is too much. No one should have to pay $13 when you can get the same thing for $11

Think about this 

The difference between paying 11 and 13 is 15%
That is huge money Nafti
If you could make 15% return on your money at the moment would that be good?
Saving 15% would be huge

I am going to work on getting everyone here a better price on their domain names. No one should be paying 13 
I already have some great relationships in the registrar community and i am going to attempt to leverage them to get dn ca members some decent pricing


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## MapleDots__ (Nov 22, 2020)

DomainTrader said:
			
		

> I am going to work on getting everyone here a better price on their domain names. No one should be paying 13
> I already have some great relationships in the registrar community and i am going to attempt to leverage them to get dn ca members some decent pricing



Thank you so much, looking forward to adding some more perks for our members.


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## rlm__ (Nov 23, 2020)

I've been with Baremetal forever for .CA.  IMO they're the best for .CA, great bulk tools, great price, great personal service and you never have to beg for an auth code, its always accessible.  Another thing I like is its pure html, not a bunch of javascript bs.  I hated the WHC interface because it was all javascript generated, and it was horrible for managing domains in bulk.  I had thousands of domains there and it was torture managing them.  Anyways, Baremetal's website may look old school, but that's what I love about it.  Simple, straight forward, easy to use, no lagginess from javascript loading thousands of domains, etc...

Baremetal's default .ca price is 12.99.  I believe they automatically drop your price to $11.40 after you have 100 domains, or, 100 years of cumulative renewals, so 20 domains renewed for 5 years, etc...  So that's still not the cheapest out there, but I like knowing my .CA's are where I know the owner and I personally trust them.  BTW, if you do need to transfer in a bunch of domains, just send the list to support, they'll take care of it for you.

I do have a special bulk deal there so my pricing is very good.  I've had registrars offer to match it, but no one has ever offered to beat it.  At one time I owned 1% of all .CA domains (over 10K)... That kinda helps negotiating.  I sold a very large chunk of .CAs for a few $M a while back, so I'm well back into the 4 digit range now.

I think the problem with domainers is they're almost more pain-in-the-ass than is worthwhile.  Most registrars make the majority of their money on everything but domains.  So when a domainer never buys hosting or other services, yet expects free DNS, email & customer support, registrars aren't always too excited about dropping prices so low...

As for other TLD's I basically have one primary registrar for each TLD I invest in - as I've never found one registrar that gives the best deal across the board.


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## Nafti (Nov 23, 2020)

DomainTrader said:
			
		

> $13 is too much. No one should have to pay $13 when you can get the same thing for $11
> 
> Think about this
> 
> ...



I agree. An extra $2 per domain is quite significant on a lot of domains but I have less than 50 there. 

Looking forward to cheaper prices. Are you able to list the registrar?


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## DomainTrader (Nov 23, 2020)

So funnily enough [notify]Nafti[/notify] one of the guys I am going to reach out to is Rob Monster who you may already know as the founder of Epik. Rob is in the process of partnering with some Canadian guys and together they plan to launch a new register at ALL dot ca

Things are still in build process at the moment but Rob is a progressive guy and someone who I know will be open to assisting domainers mover their businesses forward. I am guessing you may not be getting his lowest tiered price at the moment which  maybe based on your volume? 

Anyways my hope it to create a group co-op price and if it doesn't work out there I have some working relationships with other registrars who I plan to reach out to as well


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## MapleDots__ (Nov 23, 2020)

The problem with Epik right now is they do not have Canadian pricing that is one of the reasons I am not with them and they also charge quite a bit for the .ca

I would like to see them with a Canadian presence for .ca and .com where we could pay in CAD because the credit card companies hammer us with another 2% on top of the us conversion.

You might want to give rob a link to this post so he can answer himself.


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## DomainTrader (Nov 23, 2020)

Since ALL.ca will be domiciled in Canada their prices will be in CAD


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## Nafti (Nov 23, 2020)

I have spoken with Rob a few times [notify]DomainTrader[/notify]. He’s a class act in my opinion. I was also aware of all dot ca. The current owner of all is/was very active in the .ca TBR’s and also great to talk to. We exchanged emails a few times early on in the year. 

I am probably not getting the lower tiered prices, you’re right. As I mentioned, I only have less than 50 domains at Epik so I didn’t ask for a lower price.

[notify]MapleDots[/notify] They do indeed charge in US funds. Maybe they can make the switch to CDN at some point. I pay $9.90 US for a new .ca registration.


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## MapleDots__ (Nov 23, 2020)

Nafti said:
			
		

> I have spoken with Rob a few times @DomainTrader. He’s a class act in my opinion. I was also aware of all dot ca. The current owner of all is/was very active in the .ca TBR’s and also great to talk to. We exchanged emails a few times early on in the year.
> 
> I am probably not getting the lower tiered prices, you’re right. As I mentioned, I only have less than 50 domains at Epik so I didn’t ask for a lower price.
> 
> @MapleDots They do indeed charge in US funds. Maybe they can make the switch to CDN at some point. I pay $9.90 US for a new .ca registration.



$10.95 at Canspace regardless of new or renew!

Best deal is to register at WHC because they have new and transfer in at 9.95
Their renewal is much larger so after a year you move to canspace.

Gives you the cheapest all around but sucks when you have hundreds of domains to constantly move around.


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## DropWizard (Nov 24, 2020)

A few cents over $11 @ Namespro. We've dealt with them for 12 years, and I highly recommend their support. I swear the answers show up before I've sent the question.

A couple of years ago, I got an offer around 8 PM on New Year's Eve. We'd been discussing it for a couple of weeks. I suspected the guy had been drinking and decided to do it. I didn't want buyers regret the next morning.

I wrote Namespro for the EPP code and had it back twenty minutes later. The cash was already in Paypal, so the deal was done, and the domain was transferred in no time. How many companies do you know that would respond to a support request on New Year's Eve almost instantly?

I have a great price from them, and that kind of support means more to me than a few cents one way or the other.


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## DomainTrader (Nov 24, 2020)

Hey Gord

Nice to see you again!


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## jaydub__ (Nov 24, 2020)

In addition to what I said earlier in the thread, I heartily agree [notify]DropWizard[/notify] regarding NamesPro. I have been with them since 2004 and that is where all of my .ca end up. Although I only have about 120 these days, they were really helpful when I had many more and when , as many of us will recall, the transfer process was MUCH more convoluted, they still managed to excel in service and support and make sales/ purchases much less difficult than they could have been.


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## dancarls (Nov 24, 2020)

MapleDots said:
			
		

> If it involves .ca it is ok to say, in fact I would encourage you to share.




I just got tipped off as well, I was inviting them to the forum....


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## rlm__ (Nov 24, 2020)

Last time I saw Rob was at NamesCon a few years ago.  I talked with him for a while, tried to convince him he needed to be a real CA registrar - without it, I couldn't even begin to consider using Epik as my registrar.  I suggest he consider just buying out, or partnering with, an existing registar.  Looks like he finally decided to do it.

Ben is an intriguing guy, is he ever on any of the forums?  I don't think I've ever had a conversation with him that I can remember.  I've talked to nearly every other major .ca domainer that I'm aware of, at some point or another.  Hopefully he shows up here.


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## CanSpace__ (Nov 25, 2020)

Thanks for the recommendations, guys! Our goal at CanSpace is to be the lowest priced registrar in Canada, and as mentioned earlier in this thread we do offer this price to all customers with no special conditions, and no increases at renewal.

We like to think our support is the best in the industry, but I obviously cannot be objective about that 

If anyone has any questions about us at all I'd be happy to address them!


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## jaydub__ (Nov 26, 2020)

And you have pretty darn good Canadian based hosting services as well.
[notify]CanSpace[/notify]


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