Uniregistry domain names due to price hike — GoDaddy drops

World’s largest domain name registrar will no longer carry Uniregistry’s top level domains.

GoDaddy has stopped selling Uniregistry top level domain names following Uniregistry disclosed a wholesale price hike effective this coming August.

This afternoon I tried to transfer a .click domain name to GoDaddy but got an error that the domain couldn’t be transferred. .Click is a Uniregistry domain. Further searches revealed that no Uniregistry domains are available on GoDaddy.

I reached out to GoDaddy. GM of Domains Mike McLaughlin stated:

We have stopped registering or transferring Uniregistry domain names into our system. The dramatic price hike Uniregistry disclosed left us no choice. Until we can assess the impact on our current and potential clients, we have stopped fresh registrations. 

GoDaddy works to deliver a great client experience. We now have clients who will be paying up to 3,000 percent more for their renewal. That’s an extremely poor client experience and does not reflect well on the domain name industry in general.

GoDaddy will continue to support our current clients who have Uniregistry registered domain names.”

I’ll be curious to see if other registrars follow GoDaddy’s lead. Ultimately, it’s the registrar that has to explain to clients why their website will cost substantially more to operate when the domain renews.

Uniregistry launched many of its domain names without distribution on GoDaddy, and this probably limited the success of Uniregistry’s initial launches. The two firms didn’t sign a registry-registrar agreement until June 2014.

Uniregistry is increasing the wholesale price of its domain names by up to 30 times (but mostly regarding 5x) beginning in August. This price increase will apply to existing and future registrations, although Uniregistry founder Frank Schilling states that discounts will be offered. (Listen to Schilling explain the price increases in this stretch’s DNW podcast.)