Last Update | May 2022

Monthly Update – May 2022

During May, Register.com:

• No updates.

I don’t know if you have noticed until now. But, lately, I have been all about domain registrars. I have started my ‘hunt’ with Namecheap. And today, I am here to introduce Register.com.

Register.com provides Domain Name Search, Premium Domains, Bulk Domain Registration, Domain Transfer, Domain Forwarding, Private Domain Registration, Domain Expiration Protection, and WHOIS Domain Lookup.

Better yet, that’s not where it ends. Sure, its specialty is domain name registration. However, Register.com also provides Web Hosting and WordPress Hosting, Website Builder, eCommerce Websites, Website, Email, IT, and Marketing Services.

Register.com is part of Newfold Digital’s portfolio, along with Bluehost, CrazyDomains, HostGator, Network Solutions, Web.com, and many others. Thus, it’s part of a leading web-presence solutions provider that serves millions of small-to-medium businesses worldwide.

So, let’s get right into it. The question is, what can you expect from Register.com? I am here to do the testing and provide you a firsthand review from the standpoint of a regular customer.

Getting Started with Register.com

First impressions matter, and Register.com certainly understands this issue. As soon as you visit its site, they will welcome you with a simple interface that’s especially easy on the eyes. It’s somewhat of a WP theme, but that’s what is super trendy nowadays. So, it’s a green light from me.

Now, you can immediately spot what Register.com offers – Domains. They welcome you with one such offer. It should be a promotional one, providing the domain at a discount for the first year. However, many other domain registrars offer the first year for free. So, I’m not sure where I stand with this one. It’s too early to tell.

If you click on ‘Get My Domain,’ you’ll see the following screen.

Register.com offers the most popular domains, including .com, .org, .net, .us, .com, .biz, .info, .ca, and .tv. If you don’t find these suitable or simply a bit expensive for your taste, you can always go for the additional domains.

Here, you will find .ac, .academy, .accountant, .accountants, .actor, .adult, .agency, .airforce, .amsterdam, .apartments, .archi, .army, .art, .asia, .associates, .at, .attorney, .auction, .audio, .auto, .autos, .band, .bar, and .bargains, on the first page. Keep in mind, there are 20 pages you can scroll to find your best fit for a domain.

If you scroll a bit down, you will find other domain-related tools and services, such as Domain Expiration Protection, Private Registration, or Domain Transfers.

Okay, back to the homepage. At the top, Main Menu, you can find all services that Register.com has to offer. I listed this earlier, so I guess there’s no need to repeat myself. After all, I would not like to bore you.

As always, I will go for web hosting. To get a plan, you need to click on Website Hosting straight from the Menu.

Register.com offers four different web hosting plans, Started, Essential, Professional, and Premium.

I like that Register.com provides a recommended use for each of the plans in the form of a motto. For instance, you can find ‘Ideal for entrepreneurs and freelancers’ next to Profesional, or ‘Ideal for small business owners’ under Premium.

I am just starting, or at least I want to seem like it, so I will go for the Starter plan. It comes with 15 GB of disk space, one website, and one email box. If you need more, you can always upgrade or dedicate yourself to a more expensive alternative.

The Premium plan is the furthest you can go. With this option, you will get Unlimited Disk Space, 10 Websites, 10 Email Boxes, Domain Name, SiteLock Premium (Malware Scanning, Auto Malware Removal), and an SSL Certificate. It’s a bit limiting; I have to say.

I clicked on ‘Add to Cart’ on the Starter plan, taking me to the following screen.

With Register.com’s web hosting plan, you can register a new domain or use an existing one. I want to save a bit of money, as I am here for the testing only. So, I will use what I have, ‘testtesting.club.’

Once you click on ‘Continue,’ you will get to specify your purchase further.

Register.com offers monthly, 1-year, 2-year, 3-year, 5-year, and 10-year plans. It’s sure a lot. It might be the first time I see such a long-term offer if I remember well. It’s a commitment, but it sure pays out.

Register.com offers discounts on longer-term plans. As with most web-hosting providers, it’s a rule of thumb – the longer the term, the better the deal. More precisely, Register.com provides almost 50% off on the ten years service term.

Anyways, I will go for the monthly plan. Register.com provides no-risk refunds. According to their policy, “If you’re not satisfied or have a need to cancel your participation, Register.com will refund any unused balance in your Registration Fund within two weeks after receiving a written request of your termination of your Register.com Partner Agreement. No refunds will be given for any fee transactions, e.g., registrations, transfers, and renewals”.

Still, I don’t want to risk it. It has happened in the past for a provider not to return my money, and it’s sure a lot to lose if you go for a longer-term plan.

I continued to Checkout. Here, you have two options – to register if you are a new customer or log in if you are an existing one.

I entered the Account Holder Information – my first and last name, address, city, state, province/state, etc. Then, I continued with the Login Information, including User ID and password. At last, you can select a security question to use the response to verify your identity if you need to retrieve your User ID or Password on Register.com in the future.

Next, you’ll get to Payment. You can go for a credit card or PayPal. More precisely, you can use Visa, MasterCard, Discover, American Express, JCB, or Diner’s Club/Carte Blanche.

Who would say that I would get this disappointed? I tried with three different cards, all of which have the needed resources. However, Register.com denied my transactions three times. I got a message saying I need to contact customer support via phone to process my payment.

So, I went with another approach. I logged in to my account first.

After entering the credentials, I got the following message.

Register.com offers three steps to strengthen its security. First, you can set a PIN. Then, the provider will ask for it each time you call or chat to verify your access to the account.

Next, you can add your trusted phone as a backup method to authenticate yourself as the owner of your account when talking with Customer Support.

Finally, you can verify your phone number by entering the code you receive via message.

After I completed all three steps, Register.com proposed another solution, to add an extra layer of security by activating 2-Step Verification.

Now, back to my purchase. After entering the needed info, I thought Register.com would work. Once again, I am back to where I started.

Unfortunately, I am unable to use the phone support. The fee for this option is too expensive in my country, as I have to pay for international calls. So, I had to consider other options, such as a ticketing system and live chat.

Initially, I wanted the assistance of a live chat agent. However, as that wasn’t possible either (the button isn’t working), I settled for the ticketing system.

Here’s how it worked.

I clicked on ‘Create New Ticket,’ taking me to the following screen.

After filling out the needed information, I submitted my ticket.

See, they don’t inform you when you will get a response. So, I added a comment to get the attention of the team. Then, I received a message saying the team responds to tickets in a 24-hour time frame, working business hours, from 8 am to 8 pm ET.

For a US citizen, this might not be as frustrating. However, as I am from a different time zone (and so are many other Register.com users), I have to wait hours for a response, and there’s nothing I can do about it.

At this point, you might think it’s terrible. But trust me when I say it gets worse. I waited three days for them to respond. During this time, I entered the card credentials approximately 20 times (yes, I am a bit persistent), none of which worked. Even after three days, I still didn’t get a response.

So, I had no other options left. I had to make a slight sacrifice for the sake of my followers. I decided to use their phone support. I called the number from the message, “We were unable to process your transaction. Please contact customer service at 1-877-485-7742 to complete this transaction.”

I talked with the agent for 13 minutes. I am surprised, and it’s in all ways but positive. He asked for personal information, aka credit card details, via phone. Not only did he ask for the card number but also for the CVV. I was like, is this person serious? But it gets worse. He said like, “Over 100 people shared this information via phone. Why is it an issue for you”?

Anyways, he didn’t help me to purchase a product. He shared some instructions, which I followed exactly as given. And once again, I got the same message.

See, at this point, I got utterly concerned about what they are doing with this information. If over 100 people asked for such assistance, shouldn’t you fix the system? Apparently not. Register.com asks for the credit card info via phone instead. Of course, I didn’t give it to them.

The saga continues. I gave up on Register.com, thinking it was a waste of time and resources. However, they probably felt a bit motivated to assist me after the phone call.

So, the following day, I received a message by email. Essentially, it’s a response to the email I send a few days back. Here’s how it looked.

Honestly, I was hopeful for a minute or two. That was until I re-run the process. I have nothing more to say. I will dream of this message for days. It’s a nightmare.

Register.com didn’t allow me to register from North Macedonia.

You might be able to get a service from another country. So, I will continue this review as I want to remain objective and professional. Still, keep in mind, I couldn’t access the user interface, so that it will be pretty limited in this regard.

Performance, Speed, and Uptime

Register.com offers 99.99% Unix uptime. It manages your files across multiple servers, which protects your site from server crashes.

As mentioned, I couldn’t test this by myself. However, Register.com users have reported lots of downtimes, so that I would consider that as well.

Level of Support at Register.com

Register.com has a comprehensive Help Center with many articles divided into categories. You can find Domain, Email, Hosting, Security, Account Management, Marketing Services, Website Builders, and Other products.

You can also check the providers’ blog page to find interesting topics and hosting-related information.

If you cannot find what you are looking for, you will need an expert to assist you in your quests. Register.com claims to offer phone support, a live chat, and a ticketing system for its clients. However, they are a bit limited in this regard.

Register.com offers phone support from 7 am Et to midnight, seven days a week. You can find three numbers, two for the US and Canada and one outside the US.

The live chat agents also have limited work time. You can use the live chat feature from 8 am to 11 pm ET Monday to Friday.

When it comes to the ticketing system, they specify a 24-hour time frame as average response time, working business hours, from 8 am to 8 pm ET.

I will not elaborate further when it comes to the level of support of Register.com. You can find all interactions I had with them in the first heading, the registration process. All I have to say is that I am utterly disappointed. It is the worst experience I had up to date.

Security and Backups

Register.com offers several security-enhancing features, promoting the safety and privacy of its customers. As a user, you can benefit from CodeGuard, SSL certificates, SiteLock.

SiteLock is the global leader in website security that offers complete malware protection. More precisely, it continually detects and removes malware. Essentially, this is the only way to avoid such dangers.

Register.com provides four Sitelock plans, Premium, Defend, SiteLock911, and 911 + Defend.

CodeGuard is an automatic website backup solution for customers with web hosting packages.

You can find five plans to secure your site for your business and your customer regarding SSL certificates: Xpress, Basic, Advanced, Wildcard, and Extended.

All SSL certificates are available for a month, year, two, three, four, or five years.

The Xpress SSL Certificate comes with a $10,000 guarantee, the strongest data encryption, domain name validation, and over 99% browser compatibility. The Basic SSL offers a $50,000 guarantee, the strongest data encryption, complete business validation, and over 99% browser compatibility. The Advanced plan takes this to another level with the $1 million worth guarantee. Wildcard adds unlimited sub-domains to the Advanced offer. And finally, the Extended SSL is the only one with a Green address browser bar.

Finally, there’s the Cyber Security Solution as an all-in-one support system your business needs. It provides for on-call security, threat mitigation, theft prevention, identity protection, device monitoring, and safe mobile browsing.

Specific Features of Register.com

Here’s what you can find within the Register.com plans. The following features are indeed superior and challenging to find within other web hosting services providers:

• 99.99% Unix Uptime
• PHP5, Python, Ruby on Rails (Unix Only), JSP (Unix Only), And ASP/ASP.Net (Windows Only) Support
• Phpmyadmin
• Cron Jobs (Unix)
• MS Access And MS SQL Database Access (Windows Only)
• Website Builder (Requires Some Coding Skills)
• Do-It-Myself Web Design Services to Fully Custom Website Design
• Available Auto-Installers and Drag and Drop Features
• Free Domain Name and Personalized Email Address
• Five Different Available SSL Certificates
• Hundreds of Free Templates, An Online Product Catalog, And Mobile Ecommerce
• A Full Suite of Domain Services
• Local Directory Submissions, PPC, SEO, And Email Marketing

Monthly Updates

During April 2022, Register.com:

• No updates.

During March 2022, Register.com:

• No updates.

During February 2022, Register.com:

• No updates.

During January 2022, Register.com:

• No updates.

During December 2021, Register.com:

• No updates.

During November 2021, Register.com:

• No updates

During October 2021, Register.com:

• No updates

During September 2021, Register.com:

• No updates

During August 2021, Register.com:

• Performed system upgrades (causing disruptions with its self-service and customer support tools)

Summary

Register.com is the perfect choice for users looking for advanced features and lots of add-ons at affordable prices. It comes with a Website Builder with some Drag-and-Drop features and auto-installers for those who want to use WordPress or other CMS software. Still, you might need some coding skills to work around it. So, I would not recommend it for rank beginners.

Furthermore, Register.com offers both Windows-based or Unix-based hosting. As a user, you can benefit from lots of security-enhancing features, such as SSL certificates, SiteLock, and CodeGuard.

However, I had a horrible experience with Register.com. First, they need to work on their registration process. Yet another issue is their customer support. Their live chat, phone support, and ticketing system all come with work hours. Not only that, but their team also lacks expertise. It took them days to reply to my email. Even when they did, they didn’t resolve my issue. The same was with the phone support agent. We talked for 13 minutes, and still, he didn’t assist me a bit.