.Com rankings: Squarespace continues to fall, Gname surges

Squarespace registers fewer new .com domains, and Gname moves up the overall leaderboard.

Last month, I wrote about how new registrations at Google Domains plummeted after Squarespace (NYSE: SQSP) took over. I mentioned that a primary reason was likely the brand name.

I heard from several domain registrants who said their issue isn’t the brand. Instead, it’s the Squarespace registrar UI and feature set, and pricing.

These are both valid points. Squarespace is catching up to Google Domains’ functionality. And instead of charging $12 a year, it charges $12 only for the first year and $20 afterward. That’s a big turn-off and certainly impacts registrations.

I also heard from the company, which pointed out that it has more domains under management than the total leaderboard shows. Before becoming a registrar, Squarespace was a Tucows reseller. It has over 1 million .com domains at Tucows.

A lot of companies start as resellers and then get their own accreditations. It would be nearly impossible to calculate their numbers every month. Still, it’s worth noting that Squarespace has about one million more .com registrations with customers than the leaderboard shows.

ICANN just published data from .com registry Verisign showing new registrations at each registrar for October. Squarespace’s new registration numbers dropped a bit more compared to September. It will be interesting to see where it heads from here.

In another chart movement, Gname jumped its Asian rival Alibaba on the overall leaderboard. It had a huge month for new registrations, too.

Below is a chart showing how the largest registrars did in terms of new registrations in October. Note that the rankings include multiple registrar accreditations within families of registrars. You can see the list at the end of this post.

1. GoDaddy.com (NYSE: GDDY) 752,613 (715,431 in September 2023)
2. Namecheap Inc. 304,155 (283,620)
3. Gname.com 205,943 (133,917)
4. Newfold Digital 201,035 (216,538)
5. Tucows (NASDAQ: TCX) 170,236 (163,648)
6. Squarespace (NYSE: SQSP) 160,931 (189,713)
7. Alibaba 86,237 (71,895)
8. Hostinger 85,029
9. NameBright 78,621
10. Dynadot 78,357 (71,212)

Here’s the leaderboard of the top registrars in terms of total .com registrations under management as of the end of October.

1. GoDaddy 56,065,221 (56,142,674 in September 2023)
2. Newfold Digital 12,338,513  (12,380,044)
3. Tucows 11,076,704 (11,113,636)
4. Namecheap 9,428,909 (9,387,689)
5. Squarespace 8,173,894 (8,184,335)
6. TurnCommerce 5,949,178  (5,940,486)
7. IONOS# 5,689,842 (5,669,464)
8. Gname 4,374,509 (4,237,209)
9. Alibaba 4,153,986 (4,187,402)
10. CentralNic 3,769,801 (3,826,492)

Many domain companies have multiple accreditations, and I’ve tried to capture the largest ones. See the notes below.

• GoDaddy includes GoDaddy, Wild West Domains, Uniregistry, GoDaddy Corporate Domains, MeshDigital, the 5 “Go Country” registrars, and 123 Reg
• Namecheap includes Namecheap and Spaceship
• Tucows includes Tucows, Enom, Ascio and EPAG
• Newfold Digital Includes PDR, Domain.com, FastDomain, Bigrock, Network Solutions, Register.com, MarkMonitor, SnapNames registrars, and Crazy Domains/Dreamscape. There are other Newfold registrars, but these are the biggest.
• Squarespace includes Squarespace and Google
• TurnCommerce Includes NameBright and DropCatch registrars
• IONOS includes Includes 1&1, PSI, Cronon, United-Domains, Arsys, and world4you
• CentralNic includes Key-Systems, 1API, Internet.bs, TLD Registrar Solutions, RegistryGate, Moniker, Instra

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