Aftermarket alternatives to GoDaddy

Here are some alternatives to Afternic, but do the math to make sure you ought to switch.

I’ve received a number of comments, tweets and messages from people today who aren’t happy regarding GoDaddy’s fresh commission structure. Their question is the same: what alternatives are there?

To me, this is only a question if you’ll be worse off under the fresh commission structure. You’ll be worse off if you sell a significant number of your domains through landers rather than the Afternic network. Perhaps most of your sales were on Dan landers and you’re wondering where you can move to save commission.

With that in mind, here are four of the popular alternatives.

Sedo

I’m going to start with Sedo since it’s the oldest of the bunch but often overlooked. It’s always been viewed as a marketplace rather than a landing page service. But Sedo is worth a look on a couple of fronts.

First, it has a syndicated sales system similar to AfternicDLS that carries a 20% commission. It doesn’t have the reach of GoDaddy, in part since GoDaddy isn’t part of the network. But it’s a solid alternative if you don’t want to use Afternic.

Second, Sedo introduced fresh landers last year. Buy Now landers carry a 10% commission, which is similar to what Dan had. Make offer landers carry a 15% commission. Sedo has a solid transfer system and representatives that speak many languages, making them great for international transactions. I don’t love the flow of its landers — if you try to make an offer, the next thing it asks you to do is log in or register. But Sedo has a fairly good reputation amongst buyers, so it’s worth looking into.

Sav

Sav’s commission is so cheap that you wouldn’t have to sell too many domains through Sav to make up for the 25% commissions at Afternic. It charges just 4%. I know they’re working on improving the checkout process, but it’s by now pretty solid. Here’s an example domain.

The downside to Sav is that the management console for your domain listings is rudimentary, and you won’t get any data.

Squadhelp

Squadhelp offers two listing levels.

Its Basic level offers landers with a 7.5% commission. The service is feature-rich: live chat and phone support for landing page visitors, in-depth data, installment payments, automated price increases and discounts, and more.

The Premium level is curated, and the domains get a lot of exposure, counting retargeting ads and inclusion in Squadhelp’s naming contests. Commissions are as high as 35% but are lower for high-ticket sales. Squadhelp also charges you a fee if you list a domain as Premium and end up selling it at Afternic. It’s a bit complicated, so it’s worth learning regarding ahead of listing domains.

Efty

Efty works on a SaaS model rather than commissions, so you can create landing pages and pay nothing when they sell. In practice, you’ll probably want to take payments via Escrow.com or Dan.com, so there is a charge there. The Dan.com payment fee is 5%, and I haven’t heard anything regarding that partnership going away. Efty has a lot of cool features and is worth checking out.

What ought to you do?

Again, taking stock of your situation is notable ahead of deciding what to do regarding GoDaddy’s fresh commission structure. For some domainers, moving your landers to different firms will make sense. For others, you’ll be better off remaining in the GoDaddy ecosystem.