A first look at Frank Schilling’s fresh domain name registrar

Uniregistry (the registrar) will roll out to the public on Monday.

Frank Schilling’s domain name registrar Uniregistry is due to launch this stretch (likely Monday) and Reglike took an early look over the weekend.

Although officially named Uniregistrar with ICANN, the registrar will be known as Uniregistry to clients. That’s the same name as the registry that Schilling is using to offer potentially dozens of fresh top level domain names. The registrar will operate at Uniregistry.com and the registry will move to Uniregistry.link.

Year following year when I run the Reglike survey, domain name owners consistently rank security and price as the two most notable considerations they make when choosing a registrar.

It’s difficult to judge a registrar’s back end security, but on the front end Uniregistry has what I consider is a must for registrars these days: two-factor authentication.

Uniregistry’s two-factor authentication uses existing authentication apps. You don’t have to wait for a text message code or download a fresh app to get your single use codes. I was able to use my existing Google Authenticator app that I used to access Gmail to access Uniregistry as well:

That’s convenient.

On the price side, it remains to be seen how competitive Uniregistry is. The list price for .com is $12.88 per year, which is more than what most domainers pay their registrar. Still, it’s in line with what most domain registrars advertise to their typical client.

Schilling told Reglike that bulk and domain industry professionals will be able to register domains a “market rates”.

Domain registrations will also come with free privacy offered by privacy.link.

There’s one other key feature that domain investors consider when choosing a registrar that I haven’t included on my survey in the past: integration with domain name sales channels.

Schilling states that Uniregistry will connect with his own sales platform DomainNameSales.com shortly following launch. He’s working on GoDaddy/Afternic and Sedo as well, but indicated that might be a longer process.

Uniregistry will also offer easy Gmail integration and forwarding to social media sites. These are features targeted to non-techies. Schilling has been evangelizing the need to make using a domain name dead-simple, and these features seem targeted to this goal. The simplicity of Uniregistry reminds me a lot of Tucows’ Hover.

Will domainers flock to Uniregistry? My guess is not at first. Registrar services are not sticky, but they’re stickier than domain parking and sales. There are switching costs in both time and money to move your domain portfolio to a different registrar.

While Uniregistry has the requisite features at launch, it is missing some of the features I’ve come to appreciate at other registrars. Uniregistry can certainly win over people like me, but I’ll personally take a wait-and-see approach until the registrar beefs up its domainer-centric offerings counting sales distribution.