{
  "_meta": {
    "dataset": "registrar_ownership",
    "purpose": "Who actually owns the registrar you are choosing. The retail domain market looks like dozens of independent companies and is in practice a handful of groups: two brands on a comparison page can share an owner, a support desk and a pricing policy. Nobody publishes this for consumers, so 'is Domain.com the same company as Network Solutions?' has no good answer anywhere.",
    "why_it_matters": "Ownership is the hidden variable behind price rises, forced migrations and support quality. It also breaks the illusion of choice: putting two sibling brands on a shortlist is not diversification, and moving between them is not really switching registrar.",
    "scope": "Corporate ownership of retail registrar brands. Registry operators are named where the same group runs both sides of the market, because that is itself the notable fact.",
    "maintained_by": "best-domain-registrars.com",
    "license": "CC BY 4.0",
    "last_updated": "2026-08-24",
    "method": "Each group below is sourced to reporting or primary corporate material, linked per group. Registrars we could not source a parent for are recorded as independent rather than guessed."
  },
  "groups": [
    {
      "id": "newfold-digital",
      "name": "Newfold Digital",
      "type": "private",
      "summary": "Formed in 2021 by combining Endurance Web Presence and Web.com Group. It is the largest consolidation in the retail domain and hosting market, and most of its brands still trade under their original names. In June 2025 it reorganised into two divisions: a Network Solutions Group covering Network Solutions, Register.com, Domain.com, MarkMonitor and Crazy Domains, and a Bluehost Group covering hosting. Web.com now redirects into Network Solutions.",
      "brands": [
        "Network Solutions",
        "Domain.com",
        "Register.com",
        "Web.com",
        "Bluehost",
        "HostGator",
        "Crazy Domains",
        "MarkMonitor"
      ],
      "registrar_ids": [
        "network-solutions",
        "domain-com"
      ],
      "sources": [
        {
          "label": "Domain Name Wire — Web.com is now officially part of Network Solutions, Newfold divides into two divisions (2025)",
          "url": "https://domainnamewire.com/2025/06/18/web-com-is-now-officially-part-of-network-solutions-newfold-divides-into-two-divisions/"
        },
        {
          "label": "Newfold Digital",
          "url": "https://www.newfold.com/"
        },
        {
          "label": "Wikipedia — Network Solutions",
          "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_Solutions"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "tucows",
      "name": "Tucows",
      "type": "public",
      "summary": "The second-largest domain registrar group in the world, built by acquisition. It runs a retail brand (Hover), a reseller platform (OpenSRS), a wholesale registrar (Enom, bought from Rightside in 2017 for $83.5m) and a European wholesaler (Ascio, 2019). A great many small registrars are OpenSRS or Enom resellers without saying so.",
      "brands": [
        "Hover",
        "Enom",
        "OpenSRS",
        "Ascio"
      ],
      "registrar_ids": [
        "hover"
      ],
      "sources": [
        {
          "label": "Tucows — to acquire Enom from Rightside",
          "url": "https://www.tucows.com/news/tucows-inc-to-acquire-enom-from-rightside"
        },
        {
          "label": "Tucows — acquires Ascio Technologies (2019)",
          "url": "https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2019/03/19/1756858/0/en/Tucows-Inc-Acquires-Wholesale-Domain-Registrar-Ascio-Technologies.html"
        },
        {
          "label": "Wikipedia — Hover",
          "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hover_(domain_registrar)"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "namecheap",
      "name": "CVC Capital Partners",
      "type": "private_equity",
      "summary": "Namecheap was founded in 2000 by Richard Kirkendall and independent for its whole history until September 2025, when private equity firm CVC Capital Partners agreed to take majority control in a deal valuing it at $1.5 billion including debt; the founder retained a large stake. Namecheap also operates Spaceship, marketed as a separate registrar aimed at domain investors — so two brands that appear side by side on comparison sites belong to one company.",
      "brands": [
        "Namecheap",
        "Spaceship"
      ],
      "registrar_ids": [
        "namecheap",
        "spaceship"
      ],
      "sources": [
        {
          "label": "Domain Name Wire — Private equity firm is buying Namecheap in deal that values company at $1.5 billion (2025)",
          "url": "https://domainnamewire.com/2025/09/12/private-equity-firm-is-buying-namecheap-in-deal-that-values-company-at-1-5-billion/"
        },
        {
          "label": "Wikipedia — Namecheap",
          "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Namecheap"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "identity-digital",
      "name": "Identity Digital (Ethos Capital)",
      "type": "private_equity",
      "summary": "Runs both sides of the market: it operates one of the largest portfolios of top-level domains AND owns the retail registrar Name.com, acquired with Rightside in 2017. Ethos Capital took majority control in March 2021, and Donuts and Afilias were rebranded into Identity Digital in 2022. When a registry group also sells retail, the wholesale price and the retail price are set under one roof.",
      "brands": [
        "Name.com",
        "Identity Digital registry portfolio"
      ],
      "registrar_ids": [
        "name-com"
      ],
      "sources": [
        {
          "label": "Ethos Capital — acquires majority control of Donuts Inc. (2021)",
          "url": "https://ethoscapital.com/2021/03/31/ethos-capital-acquires-majority-control-of-donuts-inc/"
        },
        {
          "label": "Donuts Inc. and Afilias rebrand to Identity Digital (2022)",
          "url": "https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/donuts-inc-and-afilias-inc-rebrand-to-identity-digital-301572401.html"
        },
        {
          "label": "Wikipedia — Identity Digital",
          "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identity_Digital"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "total-webhosting-solutions",
      "name": "Total Webhosting Solutions / Your.Online",
      "type": "private",
      "summary": "A pan-European hosting group that acquired the French registrar Gandi in February 2023, folding it into the Your.Online brand family. Gandi's post-acquisition price increases became one of the more visible registrar-exodus stories in Europe.",
      "brands": [
        "Gandi",
        "Yourhosting",
        "Versio"
      ],
      "registrar_ids": [
        "gandi"
      ],
      "sources": [
        {
          "label": "Domain Name Wire — Total Web Solutions acquires domain registrar Gandi (2023)",
          "url": "https://domainnamewire.com/2023/03/02/total-web-solutions-acquires-domain-registrar-gandi-forming-new-entity/"
        },
        {
          "label": "Wikipedia — Gandi",
          "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gandi"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "squarespace",
      "name": "Squarespace",
      "type": "private",
      "summary": "Not historically a registrar. It acquired Google's domain business in 2023 — around ten million domains and the ICANN accreditations — and migrated those customers through 2024, which is why a great many people hold domains at a registrar they never chose.",
      "brands": [
        "Squarespace Domains",
        "formerly Google Domains"
      ],
      "registrar_ids": [
        "squarespace-domains"
      ],
      "sources": [
        {
          "label": "Our coverage — Google Domains shut down",
          "url": "https://www.best-domain-registrars.com/google-domains-shut-down/"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "united-internet",
      "name": "United Internet",
      "type": "public",
      "summary": "The German internet group behind IONOS, which listed separately on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange in February 2023. United Internet remains by far the largest shareholder.",
      "brands": [
        "IONOS",
        "1&1"
      ],
      "registrar_ids": [
        "ionos"
      ],
      "sources": [
        {
          "label": "Wikipedia — Ionos",
          "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ionos"
        },
        {
          "label": "Wikipedia — United Internet",
          "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Internet"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "namesilo-technologies",
      "name": "NameSilo Technologies Corp.",
      "type": "public",
      "summary": "NameSilo LLC is majority-owned by NameSilo Technologies Corp., listed on the Canadian Securities Exchange. The holding company was formerly Brisio Innovations, which acquired NameSilo in 2018 and renamed itself after it.",
      "brands": [
        "NameSilo"
      ],
      "registrar_ids": [
        "namesilo"
      ],
      "sources": [
        {
          "label": "Canadian Securities Exchange — NameSilo Technologies Corp.",
          "url": "https://thecse.com/listings/namesilo-technologies-corp/"
        },
        {
          "label": "Wikipedia — NameSilo",
          "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NameSilo"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "top-level-design",
      "name": "Top Level Design",
      "type": "private",
      "summary": "Porkbun is a Top Level Design company, based in Portland, Oregon. The group also operates registry business, though at a very different scale from Identity Digital.",
      "brands": [
        "Porkbun"
      ],
      "registrar_ids": [
        "porkbun"
      ],
      "sources": [
        {
          "label": "Porkbun — a Top Level Design company",
          "url": "https://porkbun.com/"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "independent": {
    "note": "These registrars are operated by the company whose name they carry — the brand and the owner are the same entity, whether privately held or publicly listed. Listed here so the map is complete rather than selectively alarming: consolidation is real, but it is not universal.",
    "registrar_ids": [
      "godaddy",
      "cloudflare-registrar",
      "dynadot",
      "hostinger",
      "ovhcloud",
      "aws-route-53",
      "wix",
      "shopify",
      "wordpress-com"
    ]
  }
}