Why 1&1 is One of the Worst Registrars on the Planet

For those of you who know me – I'm a very optimistic person. It takes a lot for me to start complaining but sometimes I just have to do it. I use this blog to educate new and experienced Domainers alike and feel it is important to steer my readers in the right direction.

When running a Domaining business, or just getting started in the Domaining world it is absolutely essential that you have a registrar that can meet your needs. I have been a customer with 1&1 for eight years now and am sad to say that it has finally become impossible to use them as a registrar. Here are the biggest problems that make 1&1

*very*

limiting for anyone managing multiple domain names through their service.

No Bulk Updates
This is the biggest problem by far. I currently host about sixty domains through 1&1 (a small portion of our portfolio) and sometimes need to update things like the admin contact email or our address as we recently moved our offices from Boston to Los Angeles. With most registars you can simply select all of your domain names and change the contact information for all of them. With 1&1 you have to change the contact information for each domain name one at at time. 

I can tell you from experience, this process takes about an hour with sixty domains – which would mean that if you hosted 600 domains with 1&1 it would take you easily 100 hours to update your contact info every time you move!

Painfully Slow Domain Transfers

When you transfer a domain name from one registrar to another you must accept the transfer at the original registrar (registrar you are transferring from). Almost every registrar gives you the option to accept the transfer. This means that you can transfer a domain in a matter of minutes. If your registrar does not provide this option – in the case of 1&1 – then you have to wait 5-7 days until the transfer goes through. This may sound crazy so let me put this in plain English – transfers with 1&1 take 5-7 days whereas with almost every other registrar in the world you can complete your transfer in a matter of minutes.

Outdated Interface
Like I said, I have been with 1&1 for eight year now and the Control Panel has not been updated even once in this time period. This clearly shows that 1&1 is not investing in their infulstructure. The Control Panel is clunky and slow making every task take the a very long time to complete. Simple things can be next-to-impossible to figure-out and repetative tasks oftentimes involve opening multiple browser windows leading to a degraded user experience.
Terrible Technical Support
1&1's technical support mirrors the rest of the company. It is unreliable and I have actually never had a call where they have been able to fix my problem. I am pretty sure the job of tech support at 1&1 is simply to explain to users that you can't do a certain task. 

Everytime I call tech support our conversation goes something like this:

Me:

Hi, I'm wondering how to do [BLANK]

1&1 Technical Support:

I am sorry, we currently do not support that option.

Me:

Any idea when you will update the system to allow something like this?

1&1 Technical Support: 

You are not the first person to complain about this. Your opinion is very valuable to us, I will make a note of this. The tech support folks always sound like they are on anti-depressants and I can understand why!Whether you are new to domaining or a seasoned pro I would avoid 1&1 like the plague. There are much better registrars out there for Domainers like Moniker and Fabulous that take customer service seriously and provide features that make it easy to scale your business.

One final note

: If anyone from 1&1 is reading this post – PLEASE – send me an email! I would be very interested to hear from someone who actually has the power to make changes. In these tough economic times quality of service is paramount and only the strong will survive. I hope this post has been useful to Domainers looking to choose a registrar. I've always said that the best way to learn is by making mistakes. Hopefully my mistake in choosing 1&1 can help others avoid the frustrations that I've had.Have a Happy New Year and as always Happy Flipping!If you want to get a head-start in the Domaining world don't forget to Read my BookLooking for Free Domaining Resources – check-out Domaining Library


Morgan Linton

Morgan Linton