{ "_meta": { "description": "Per-registrar agent profile: a single machine-readable record combining this registrar's identity, editorial category scores, Agent Readiness Index sub-scores, API-access facts, transfer/switch mechanics, and pricing-verification status. It composes data already published on this site and introduces no new facts. Sections not yet covered by a source dataset are null with a coverage note rather than guessed. Every section names the source it is composed from.", "site": "https://www.best-domain-registrars.com", "profile_url": "https://www.best-domain-registrars.com/registrars/hover/", "methodology_url": "https://www.best-domain-registrars.com/methodology/", "generated_for": "https://www.best-domain-registrars.com/data/registrars/hover.json", "last_updated": "2026-09-29", "disclosure": "Best-Domain-Registrars.com is operated within Just (Just Done LLC). Every registrar is scored by the same published methodology on the same evidence." }, "registrar": { "id": "hover", "name": "Hover", "slug": "hover", "website": "https://www.hover.com", "headquarters": "Toronto, Ontario, Canada", "founded": 2010, "icann_accredited": false, "wikipedia_url": null, "best_for": [ "Clean UX", "Canadian users", "Privacy-focused buyers", "Beginners who want no upsells" ], "not_ideal_for": [ "Lowest .com renewal price", "Developers needing an API", "Bulk domain portfolios" ], "whois_privacy": "Free, included on all eligible domains (Hover calls it 'WHOIS Privacy')", "two_factor_authentication": "TOTP authenticator app and SMS", "api_available": false, "bulk_tools": false, "last_checked": "2026-09-28", "last_reviewed": "2026-06-29", "source": "https://www.best-domain-registrars.com/data/registrars.json" }, "editorial_scores": { "scale": "0–10, higher is better; overall is weighted per /methodology/", "overall": 7.6, "why_overall": "Hover's strength is simplicity and trust: no upsells at checkout, free WHOIS privacy on all eligible domains, and a clean interface that non-technical users can navigate without confusion. It scores below average on pricing, its flat .com renewal sits above budget leaders such as Porkbun and Cloudflare Registrar, has no API, and no live chat support. The ideal Hover user is a small business owner or Canadian buyer who values a clean experience over the lowest possible price.", "categories": { "pricing": 6.5, "renewal": 6.5, "pricing_transparency": 9.5, "whois_privacy": 9.5, "dns": 7.5, "security": 8, "support": 6, "transfer": 8, "tld_coverage": 7, "developer": 3.5, "beginner_ux": 9.5 }, "last_updated": "2026-06-29", "source": "https://www.best-domain-registrars.com/data/registrar-scores.json" }, "agent_readiness": { "covered": true, "scale": "Sub-scores 0-10; overall 0-100 (weighted).", "methodology_version": "0.1", "basis": "v0.1 is a public-signal assessment. Sub-scores are derived from each registrar's published API documentation, pricing pages, and security/privacy policies as cited per registrar. They are an interpretation of those facts, not a fabricated rating, and they are NOT yet the result of an end-to-end live agent test (search -> register -> configure DNS). Independent live testing is a planned v0.2 upgrade. Any criterion we could not verify from a public source is recorded as null (unknown), not guessed.", "rank": 8, "overall": 29.3, "overall_recomputed": 29.3, "summary": "Built for people, not agents. Hover, a retail brand of Tucows, offers a clean, upsell-free buying experience, free WHOIS privacy, and solid DNSSEC-capable managed DNS, but it publishes no official public API for general users (only a partner-only 'Hover Connect' integration and a Zapier connector). Without a public API there is no scoped delegation, audit trail, or agent interface, so an agent cannot search, register, transfer, or manage DNS programmatically. Strong on the manual-use basics and Tucows-backed trust; unsuitable for agentic workflows today.", "best_for": [ "Buyers who want a clean, upsell-free manual experience", "Canadian users wanting a Tucows-backed registrar", "Privacy-focused hands-on domain owners" ], "not_ideal_for": [ "Any agent or programmatic workflow", "Developers needing a public API", "Bulk or portfolio automation" ], "criteria": [ { "id": "api_coverage", "name": "API coverage", "weight": 18, "score": 1.5, "note": "No official public API for general users; a partner-only 'Hover Connect' API exists for business integrations and a Zapier connector for no-code automation, but neither is a self-serve programmatic domain API." }, { "id": "auth_delegation", "name": "Authentication & delegation", "weight": 14, "score": 1, "note": "No public API, so no programmatic delegation, scoped tokens, or OAuth are possible." }, { "id": "agent_safety", "name": "Agent safety", "weight": 12, "score": 1, "note": "No API to delegate; account security is TOTP/SMS 2FA only, with no audit API, approval flow, or rollback." }, { "id": "developer_experience", "name": "Developer experience", "weight": 12, "score": 1.5, "note": "No public API, developer docs, or sandbox for general developers; only a gated partner program." }, { "id": "agent_interface", "name": "Agent-interface readiness", "weight": 12, "score": 1, "note": "No official MCP, capability manifest, or machine-readable pricing; the Zapier connector is a generic integration, not an agent interface." }, { "id": "pricing_transparency", "name": "Pricing transparency", "weight": 10, "score": 7, "note": "Public website pricing with a clean, upsell-free checkout and flat registration-equals-renewal positioning; not retrievable programmatically, and above budget leaders." }, { "id": "dns_infrastructure", "name": "DNS & infrastructure", "weight": 8, "score": 4.5, "note": "Solid managed DNS with standard record types and DNSSEC support in a clean interface, but no API access to it." }, { "id": "privacy_compliance", "name": "Privacy & compliance", "weight": 6, "score": 8, "note": "Free WHOIS privacy on all eligible domains; TOTP and SMS 2FA." }, { "id": "support_quality", "name": "Support quality", "weight": 4, "score": 6, "note": "Email/ticket support and a knowledge base; no live chat or phone channel listed." }, { "id": "trust_signals", "name": "Trust signals", "weight": 4, "score": 8, "note": "Operated by Tucows (IANA ID 69, a long-established public registrar group); the Hover brand has run since 2010. Hover itself registers through Tucows' accreditation rather than holding separate ICANN accreditation." } ], "last_checked": "2026-07-02", "sources": [ "https://www.hover.com/", "https://partners.hover.com/", "https://www.hover.com/domain-pricing" ], "report_card_url": "https://www.best-domain-registrars.com/agent-readiness-index/hover/", "source": "https://www.best-domain-registrars.com/data/agent-readiness.json" }, "api_access": { "covered": false, "coverage": "No verified record in Open Domain Data's registrar_api_capabilities dataset at this version; omitted rather than guessed.", "source": "https://www.best-domain-registrars.com/domain-registrar-api-access/" }, "transfer": { "covered": true, "transfer_in": { "adds_year": true, "privacy": "Free WHOIS privacy, included on eligible domains", "cost": "A transfer renews the domain for one year at Hover's price. Hover's pricing is verified on this site: see its profile and the cheapest-renewals tracker.", "eligibility": [ "Registered at least 60 days ago and not transferred in the last 60 days (ICANN rule)", "Unlock the domain and have its authorization (auth/EPP) code ready" ], "quirk": null, "doc": "https://www.hover.com/transfer" }, "transfer_out": null, "hub_url": "https://www.best-domain-registrars.com/switch/" }, "pricing": { "verified": true, "status": "verified_primary", "method": "headless_render", "summary": "Hover is a retail brand of Tucows Inc. (ICANN-accredited, IANA ID 69); domains are registered through Tucows' accreditation while Hover handles its own brand and billing. Hover's pricing page does not expose figures to a plain fetch, so they are read by scripts/fetch-pricing-headless.mjs, which renders hover.com/domain-pricing in a real Chromium browser and extracts the per-TLD Registration/Renewals/Transfers table; first_year is the current (sale) price and renewals the recurring rate. Hover's published table covers its trending TLD set and does not include .ai (Hover does not sell it), so no .ai row is recorded. Re-fetched 2026-08-19 against the full tracked catalog: coverage widened from the original core set to every tracked TLD this registrar publishes.", "last_verified": "2026-09-28", "primary_sources": [ "https://www.hover.com/domain-pricing" ], "prices_url": "https://www.best-domain-registrars.com/registrars/hover/#pricing", "dataset_url": "https://www.best-domain-registrars.com/data/pricing.csv" } }