Dynadot.com review

First impression

Dynadot is an ICANN-accredited domain registrar and web host headquartered in California. They were founded in 2002 by a software engineer and state their primary focus is engineering and design excellence.

They are one of the myriad smaller domain registrars that have a dedicated following compared to the big brands. According to Domain Name Stat, Dynadot has over 3.1 million domain names under management. This puts them as the 16th largest domain registrar.

Dynadot’s main pitch is to help customers “register domain names and create websites simply and affordably”.

Dynadot provides a website builder for customers to create functional websites with little technical work. It's a drag-and-drop builder with no coding required. You can choose from various templates for your website and customize them to suit your tastes. The website builder includes tools for users to launch online stores. It has integrations with multiple payment gateways to let users collect payments. You can also include product reviews on your online store.

Their simple, no-coding-required website builder lets you get started right away, creating a new and uniquely you online presence for your domains. Use their tools for full control over the design and functionality of your site so that it is perfectly tailored to you and your brand.

With their built-in tools allow you to focus on the creative side: design and content. Placing text and images, customizing visuals, blog setup, and more are all just a few clicks away and you can choose a website template from their Template library.

Dynadot lets you search for any available domain and buy it straight away. Just head to the website and type your desired domain in the search bar. If it's available, you can proceed to buy it immediately. Dynadot supports various payment options, including PayPal, Skrill, Alipay, bank wire transfers, and credit/debit cards.

You can transfer domain names registered elsewhere to Dynadot. Any domain name you want to transfer must be at least 60 days old. The transfer process is quick and straightforward, and it takes 1-2 weeks to complete.

Trial period

You can enjoy their Free plan for website builder for as much as you want and try all the builder tools to create a stunning professional website. 

Not to mention, you can create as many website layout using their pre-made templates.

Billing cycle

Dynadot.com billing cycle starts at yearly subscription and up to 10 years subscription on all of their services including Domain registration, website builder and SSL certificate.

Control panel

Dynadot.com focuses only on Domain registration, Website builder and providing SSL certificate that’s why they don’t have any Control Panel hosting service.

Limits

Dynadot.com website builder both Free and Pro plans have its limits.

Free Plan includes Drag and Drop builder, but they do display some Ads in it, and up to 500 MB storage.

The Pro plan includes Drag and Drop Builder, no Ads display, Unlimited storage, advanced site stats, password protection, video backgrounds and many more.

Security

There's no denying security is important, both to you and to your customers. Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) keeps websites secure by encrypting communication between your customer's browser and your server. Here's how Dynadot.com can keep your site secure with SSLs.

Alpha SSL certificates are chained root certificates, which means they offer more security than single root certificates because they require an intermediate certificate to be installed.

OS

Dynadot.com does not offer any hosting services which means they don’t offer any Operating System servers at the moment.

Support

Dynadot offers customer support through live chat, email, and telephone, and they're pretty reliable. You can contact human support representatives directly when you encounter difficulties with the platform. These reps are experienced and likely to help you find solutions. Dynadot's telephone and live chat support channels give instant answers but are vulnerable to clogging if there's too much demand. If you send an email inquiry, expect a response within 24 hours.

They do offer Online Chat support and a Ticketing system but you have to login first with your account before you can submit a ticket. They also have a 24/7 chat support which I tried using and asked some questions, It only took seconds before I got a response from their live support and it’s obviously not a robot as their response is in accordance to what I asked about their services.

Conclusion

Dynadot is a good enough domain registrar and web hosting company. It supports a broad range of domain name extensions, and some of them are pretty affordable. Dynadot also offers a website builder for customers to create websites with little technical work. However, this web builder has rather limited features and bland templates.

Dynadot also offers limited hosting plans for websites built using its web builder. It's a good platform for registering domain names but not for building versatile websites.

FAQ:

❔Do they support the use of favicons with their stealth forwarding service?
No, they currently do not support the use of favicons with their stealth forwarding service.

They do, however, support favicons on their Website Builder! Build your own custom website with their beautiful, easy-to-use templates and get access to add your own favicon with any upgrade!

✔️What is the "Account Lock" feature?
The "Account Lock" feature is a security feature used to prevent anyone from hijacking your domains and/or changing important account information. You are required to verify your identity before the system allows you to unlock your domains and/or change your account details.

They recommend adding 2 step verification to your account to further enhance your account and domain security.

Please note that if left unlocked, their system will automatically lock it again for your security after 1 hour.

❇️What is the difference between regular SSL and wildcard SSL certificates?
Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) facilitates e-commerce by encrypting communication between your customer's browser and your server. They offer two options to help you secure your website:

Regular SSL allows you to secure both your https://yourdomain.com and https://www.yourdomain.com versions of your website with 1 certificate.

Wildcard SSL allows you to secure all of your website's subdomains beyond just the typical "www". Wildcard SSL also secures the https://yourdomain.com version of your website.