EuroDNS

Overview

If you’ve been looking around the web for the most affordable domain registrar and landed on EuroDNS.com, you would have realized that this Luxembourg-headquartered company might not be the best option (a simple .com extension would cost $16 which is at least $5 more than what you’d spend on other registrars). But you might find that this premium pricing is due to the extra services that come with a registration. For this alone, you might find that EuroDNS is worth a try. But if you do not want any premium yet reliable, Godaddy.com is a better option.

There are of course other reasons to use EuroDNS for registering a domain or as web host, such as having one the most extensive collection of domain extensions. The company, founded in 2002, has served thousands of clients since it was launched which means that this business model has been working for them just splendidly. Despite not having the most competitively priced service, what works and what doesn’t with a EuroDNS registration?

Usability

The control panel is very straightforward and reliable. That EuroDNS has one of the biggest selection of international and common Top Level Domains (TLD) is one of the company’s more obvious characteristic. But what makes them preferable over other registrars is its unique TLD and domain search page where a user can conveniently check price, popular domains, special offers, restrictions, new domains, and domain privacy availability. The tiny buttons just below the TLD is either greyed out or highlighted in blue which means there’s an update for that particular button. For instance, the highlighted globe icon means there is no restriction for this extension. Meanwhile, clicking on the other buttons directs you to a page with details on exact price, basic facts, format, subscription and renewal period, and conditions or restrictions.

What it all boils down to, finally, is ease of use, and EuroDNS is very simple to use. Despite not having the lowest priced products, purchasing a plan often comes with practical freebies. If you’ve used other registrars before and have transferred or are thinking of transferring your domains here, you’re not going to have a hard time managing your account and finding out where everything is – renewable domains, internal transfers, expired domains, pending actions, statistics, export data, and registered domains. The control panel also provides a snapshot of your billing information which is also quite convenient.

Domain Privacy

As a EuroDNS domain registrant some of your personal information will make their way into Whois, a database that stores said information in a public domain. The thought of having one’s name and contact info must be inconceivable to most; there are many good reasons to avoid having your sensitive information published online but not as many ways to go around it. The simplest, most obvious one is to purchase a privacy registration plan for your registered domains. An additional $5.17 a year gets you domain privacy from EuroDNS, a feature which is imperative for certain websites whether personal or business.

EuroDNS provides in-house domain privacy which means your name, email address and the rest of your contact details are shielded from public view by EuroDNS’s own details. In-house private registration is excellent because any issues that could arise will be addressed by EuroDNS’ own team. Although third party domain privacy providers are generally okay, having to deal with just one service provider could significantly reduce the hassle when renewing, cancelling or forwarding just about any concerns on privacy. It’s important to note that this service can’t be applied to all domains particularly country code domains (ccTLDs). This and other vital information on privacy are provided in their page.

Features

Aside from having one of the widest international domain names, EuroDNS.com also offers additional services that complement its domain services.

An Open-Xchange email account comes with each domain name, and is offered for both private and business clients. Pro DNS enhances websites’ performance by reducing down time through a mechanism that directs users of a particular website to fast servers. EuroDNS also offers Dynamic DNS and a Firefox Domain Search Plugin, two products that have specific uses and advantages to the right client. Its web hosting provides unlimited traffic, storage and number of websites. Setting up a hosting account is straightforward and offers easy setting up options. Further on its hosting capabilities, EuroDNS offers one-click installation for WordPress Blog, osCommerce, Joomla and Drupal, among others. Its domain registration is stellar as it is, but the extra services are almost all equally good.

Bulk Registrations and Management

EuroDNS is probably the best registrar to use if you want a large variety of extensions. They offer one of the largest collections of TLDs which is a nice option to have when you’re considering different extensions for different websites. They also separate these extensions into categories including Euro, generic, American, etc. to make it easy to search. It bodes very well that they also have one of the most user-friendly control panels among registrars. On one tab is the Domain List which a user has the option to filter however he wants. There is a separate tab for Renewable domains and Reactivable domains which also allow the same easy-to-filter/manage functions.

Bulk domain checker permits up to 100 names to be entered in a single search. This is a small number compared to others that allow a maximum of 500. This isn’t a serious downside, but some users might find the lack of an extension filter a bit tedious. When searching in bulk, one has to enter a full domain name and extension. Results can be filtered through status (available, unavailable), special (popular domains, promotion), and categories (generic, European, Asian, people, adult, business, entertainment, etc.). Hitting on the x button on each filter option will lead the user back to all search results.

Access Level and Delegating

The Shared Access function, found under Control Panel>Account, is heaven-sent. If you happen to have a lot of delegating to do and need other users to take over certain aspects of any of your domains, you can do so and manage these users’ profiles very easily. Whether you have a big or small domain portfolio, sharing administration rights to other users relieves the primary owner of some management burden while retaining full control over the account.

Shared Access gives the account owner the option to grant four different levels of authority to different users: Viewer Profile, Config Profile, Buyer profile, and Manager Profile. A Manager Profile gives a third party a wider scope of responsibilities and therefore more access and authority over the account, while a Viewer Profile grants only domain details viewing privileges without being able to make any sort of change on the account or domain. This can be done through a simple procedure of adding the required details on the Control Panel.

Pricing and Coupons

Pricing is a bit variable at EuroDNS.com. Depending upon the desired extension, prices for one year range from about $18 to $61. You could purchase, for instance, a basic .COM extension for 1$16.53 and with a domain privacy could total to $33 for just one domain. Some extensions charge no trade, transfer, or update fee while others charge the price of registration which can be a bit confusing. There is also a nifty option to change currency from US dollar, Euro and British pounds. It’s a small thing but convenient in ways that might just surprise you.

Under the Price List on the user’s account, pricing is displayed in columns and includes setup, annual, update, transfer, trade and reactivation fees which also indicate whether an extension includes a one-year extension or an annual renewal price. This list also lets you view prices based on international domain categories: generic, European, Asian, Americas, Oceania, Africa/Middle East. There’s an option to download this price list.

Don’t expect a lot of coupons and promotional deals at EuroDNS, though. You will have to search outside of the site for coupons and promotions. Their blog occasionally has good offers but coupons aren’t regularly offered.

Customer Service

EuroDNS lists two separate help lines for support and sales. When phoning support, local numbers for specific countries are provided (Argentina, Australia, Bahrain, Singapore, USA, UK, etc.) which are charged on a local rate, with the calls redirected to their main office. Support can be contacted from Monday to Friday, 8:00 to 5:00 PM.

There is also a Help & Support page which has links to its FAQ and Knowledge Base pages which contain a rather streamlined approach to providing solutions to most queries. An email contact form is provided and provides some efficiency in having queries addressed by listing categories for concerns: register domains, account information, renew domains, billing and payment, SSL, and other conceivable issues. Different means to contact customer service also provides great convenience especially if you’re managing bulk domains and encounter tricky bulk management stumbling blocks which shouldn’t be too frequent an occurrence.

There is no live chat but its Twitter page seems to address some general issues on connectivity, server downtimes and other non-account-specific problems. Do not expect to get frequent responses from its social media pages, however, as these are of course not intended to address user problems.

Management Summary

There are things that clearly works for EuroDNS which makes it one of the more trusted registrars around. A crucial selling point is its international domains which takes care of the complicated details when registering for one. It is simply a good option if you want to get rid of unexpected restrictions or any sort of issue when registering using an international domain. Also, if having a wide range of extensions is something you find indispensable, EuroDNS will fit your needs perfectly. That and the clean interface, the easy-to-manage domain lists and manageable user profiles. However, if you are planning to register common TLDs such as .com, .net, and so on, it's better to use Godaddy.com since it's cheaper with similar quality level.

EuroDNS.com is a well-established, user-friendly, and functional domain registrar for registrants looking for variety and reliability.