101domain.com

Overview

101domain.com is one of the largest and most successful registrars for international domain net businesses. It was started by Wolfgang Reile who built the company 15 years ago in San Diego, California after several previous successes in the internet domain registry business. Reile created 101domain to make it simple, easy, and inexpensive to register a domain with any type of extension and any country-designated extension from anywhere in the world. Since 1996, the company has expanded globally online and in every major social networking arena. Relocated to Carlsbad, California, 101domain employs close to 50 full-time employees. Since its founding, the company has amassed tens of thousands of clients. 

Usability

101domain.com offers a variety of services but domain registry is its core offering. It’s one of the best options when searching for international domains as the search tab offers an easily adjustable tool that makes domain searching for specific country such a breeze. A handy checklist of requirements for specific domains are also shown when you click on an international extension. For example, users wanting to know if .ru registrations come with a WHOIS Privacy will have immediate access to this and other small but essential details about a particular extension; the site does not lack for useful information at the search level. It is also possible use the site in Russian, Spanish, Arabic, Indian English, and Portuguese languages.

Among the outstanding features of using 101domain.com is the highly organized categorization of TLDs into popular (What’s Hot), generic (gTLDs), international (ccTLDs), and internationalized (IDNs). This is quite unique to them, not to mention extremely valuable when the user is looking for a specific TLD type. TLDs are also further grouped into sub-category when you click on any of the aforementioned category. This won’t overwhelm users as there is also an option to just click on the ‘All’ option for each category (eg, All countries, All Full IDNs, etc.).

Domain Privacy

There are many reasons to get domain privacy for your domains: to keep contact information private, block persistent data miners, prevent hijacking, and avoid spammers, scammers, etc. Every person who registers for a domain name is required to submit personal details one wouldn’t otherwise keep floating around the internet, accessible in a public database. Most domain registries including 101domain.com, fortunately, offer this service and even provides more than enough information about the benefits of having one.

At 101domain, this feature that helps users shield their personal information, including full name, email and address, cost $5.99 per domain per year, but the price varies for certain domains. Although it isn’t offered on some extensions, the company is working on adding more extensions for which domain privacy can be applied.

The company partners with DigitalPrivacy.co (Digital Privacy Corp), a third party affiliate which takes care of spam mail but sends legitimate mails to the registrant. Those running a business online, or uses a website to conduct their business, will still get legitimately interested parties’ mail as the company has a filtering system that determines mail that the website owner would want or need to receive.

Instead of the users’ information appearing on Whois, the company’s US-based address and phone number appears in the database. When completing a transaction, this service will be offered before proceeding to Checkout. The cost of this privacy protection is reasonable when compared to other domain registries with similar service offerings.

Features

Other non-domain registration-related services take a back seat in 101domain. The company also offers basic web hosting, but this service is not promoted as much as its domain services, domain management, trademark protection, DNS management, etc. Its ‘Unified Hosting’ plan comes with attractive unlimited features including disk storage, monthly bandwidth, domains hosted, MySQL databases, multiple FTP accounts, and email accounts, and uses Plesk Control Panel.

If you prefer a one-stop shop provider, 101domain.com might do. It may not present the optimal choice for web hosting but if offers all the necessary functions for setting up a website – personal and business website builder, email, and Google apps integration.

Since they cater to all sizes of businesses or website owners, they makes sure that small customers are also taken care of. For clients with small hosting requirements, they offer ’Host to Go’ which provides the minimal hosting ideal for personal blogs and other small-scale sites. This hosting package provides only the bare minimum for small websites, with disk storage at only 1 GB, but it comes with otherwise decent features (eg., unlimited bandwidth) and is priced reasonably. As for large businesses or websites, they offer ‘Corporate Domain Service’ which not only handles domain management but also the legal aspects of the domains. 101domain’s main strength still remains to be in domain services, with easy options for transferring, renewals, and security and bulk search and management.

Bulk Registrations and Management

Searching for one or bulk domains can be done with little to no hassle. When searching for a number of domains, just go to the BULK tab (between SEARCH and TRANSFER). It offers gTLDs, international (ccTLD), and internationalized domains names also in bulk. When looking for a group of domains to register, the system comes up with various results, with the available ones on top while the rest (unavailable) are greyed out.

You can enter a maximum of 100 names in a single search and results are shown in neat rows indicating price and availability. 101domain’s interface for bulk registration is a delight to use, but probably the best reason to register in bulk is the discounts offered for registering 10 domains or more – the higher the number of domains, the higher the discount. Further reductions might be offered if you contact them for bulk transactions. Apart from that, it is generally recommended to register domains in bulk so you can protect your brand or trademark among other reasons.

Managing domains can be done under the Account Manager tab. All the tasks a user could think of doing can be done with very little fussing; the control panel is quite easy to learn and navigate.

Access Level and Delegating

Some users will need to access their account from different locations or grant someone else domain management rights on the account. 101domain’s IP Account Lock function lets the account owner access the account from up to 3 static IP addresses. For concerns on security, its 101domain VIP Security Card provides your account with an extra blanket of protection by offering a one-time security code that is generated from a credit card-like device issued to account owners. With this security feature, an account owner is given the freedom to grant access level rights which can all be conveniently managed under Account > Security.

Pricing and Coupons

For a generic domain registration, prepare to spend around US$10 - $11 for an annual plan. While domain registration here is not among the cheapest, the pricing is competitive enough, ie, reasonably low for generic domains with just a few premium-priced TLDs. International domains fall on the more expensive side as well as the specialized extensions. In general, however, pricing structure in 101domain is straightforward. It would be impossible to miss the site’s current offers for some of its low-priced domain promos as these are featured in the topmost bar flashily labeled as ‘Domain Specials’.

Coupons are also frequently available. You may search for coupons through the company’s occasional social media posts (mostly on Facebook) which offer discounted prices for gTLDs, as well as through well-known coupon sites. In fact, one of the best ways to get 101domain promo codes is through coupon sites with some deals not even requiring promo codes. The company also offers coupons for web hosting services but most of the discounted rates are for domain registration.

Customer Service

Reaching out to its support team via chat is not among 101domain’s strengths. Chatting up a support specialist might take some time (anywhere between a few minutes to 24 hours), and given the speed and efficiency of other registries, this is a feature that 110domain needs to improve immediately; the company looks like it is in need of more customer service representatives. It is best to call during peak hours for which there is a much greater chance that a customer service personnel will attend to you. There is, however, a hotline for local (US) and international clients, while for less urgent concerns, contacting them via email is another option, and the variety of contact options is a plus.

It is inevitable that some customers might find themselves in need of detailed explanation on either sales and/or support issues, but unavailability of customer support often plagues their chat lines and other support channels.

Management Summary

101domain originated and marketed many of the site monitoring and safety protocols that most business websites use today to protect their customer's information. Content monitoring is also a distinctive feature that 101domain has pioneered and marketed successfully worldwide. The company’s usability is also one of its main strengths: setting up and naming a new domain is fast and convenient. Minimal personal info is needed and three pages get you up and going in less than five minutes. These attractive features make them stand out among many domain and web hosting services providers.

On the other hand, customer support could use a bit of improvement especially in terms of response speed. But once connected to a support technician, the quality of response and help is satisfying which could somehow appease a disgruntled customer. All in all, 101domain.com is an excellent choice for international domain registration. A seemingly incomparable number of international domain extensions and the impeccably organized system in which these are offered, as well as a complete suite of domain services and additional services make 101domain.com a top choice for domain registry.