101domain Adds Complete Hosting Solutions to a Massive Selection of Domain Extensions and Management Tools

TL; DR: After cultivating one of the world’s largest catalogs of available domain name extensions — that’s right, even bigger than the likes of GoDaddy — 101domain continues to introduce modern tools that enable both individual website owners and large businesses to leverage their domains into a complete online presence. The company takes a comprehensive approach to helping brands acquire and protect relevant domain names, consolidating registrations into a single, easy-to-manage portfolio. Combined with scalable hosting, security, and performance features, 101domain presses forward with comprehensive services built with businesses in mind.

Sure, we commonly recognize websites ending in .IO and .AI as belonging to the tech industry — but how many know the domain extensions actually have nothing to do with input/output or artificial intelligence?

Referring to the British Indian Ocean Territory and the Caribbean islands of Anguilla, respectively, the two-letter domain extensions are actually country code top-level domains that refer to specific geographic regions and populations. Domain hacking is relatively common with ccTLDs like the .MS of Montserrat unofficially being used by Microsoft enthusiasts, the .DJ of Djibouti for disc jockeys, and the .FM of the Federated States of Micronesia being co-opted by podcasters, radio stations, and other related businesses.

What’s less common, though, is the lengths registrars will go to help you secure such a domain. Many ccTLDs come with restrictions, such as requiring a local trademark, physical presence, or citizenship in that specific country or territory.

To buy many of these domains, registrars must often contact a small group within the local government and work through the country’s individual approval processes — steps many of the internet’s top registrars aren’t always willing to take.

101domain, however, has built a 20-year legacy on providing a greater variety of domain extensions than any other company. According to Digital Marketing Manager Nick Thornton, the company is eager to make those connections and help customers build strong domain portfolios.

“A lot of time, the big names, like GoDaddy and 1&1, decide not to carry domains that are difficult to process or require manual registration,” he said. “We worked out the cracks and ended up being one of the world’s largest suppliers. For just about any extension that’s available, we can sell it to you. We can even help you host it and secure it.”

As enterprise-level companies and other large organizations gain prominence, it has become increasingly important to collect any and all domains associated with the business name — another way Nick said that customers have learned to leverage 101domain’s vast catalog of domain extensions.

“In the very beginning, we were one of the first companies that expanded our network to cover all international domains,” he said. “We’d have big companies coming to us saying they needed to be completely covered in all of the hot markets in the world, which could mean 70 or so different extensions they need to cover their brand. On top of that, we were able to monitor their digital portfolio and ensure no one was infringing on their trademark online.”

Instead of cobbling together domains across a wide network of registrars, 101domain’s Corporate Brand Services reduce work on domain administrators who can acquire, manage, monitor, and secure relevant domains all from a centralized location.

Combined with the explosion of generic top-level domains (“.NINJA, .TECH, dot-every-word-you-can-think-of,” Nick said.), the company gained tons of momentum and early growth.

“We’re always looking for ways to continue on that ideology of making sure our customers can buy any extension they want,” he said. “We are here as a one-stop shop for all the web services a business needs to operate and grow to the next level.”

Recognizing that a domain name is just the first step in building a robust online presence, 101domain quickly branched out into various related services, including email and website hosting, SSL certificates, and website builders.

“We made it super easy for small businesses to get online, and connect all of the services we offer to create an entire online presence,” Nick said. “The domain is just one little piece of the whole pie.”

Given the team’s strong experience in the realm of domain names, however, 101domain’s hosting services struggled at first to gain traction as the company turned toward its customers for advice.

“We talked to our customers to understand what they wanted, what we needed to focus on, and the support level we needed to deliver,” Nick said. “We have really invested in our hosting department to create a flexible, easy to manage, and competitively priced service we are proud to offer to our customers.”

Near the end of 2018, the company overhauled its hosting division — modernizing its infrastructure and capitalizing on cloud hosting stability and scalability. 101domain now offers the complete range of shared, cloud, and dedicated servers, combined with multiple options for email services, SSL certificates, and a site builder.

“We completely overhauled our old hosting program and brought in Plesk and several more full-time people, where all they do is hosting,” Nick said. “We’ve got some high-level engineers that are in the back, always putting together servers and all kinds of exciting things.”

With the powerful hosting platform now humming along, 101domain can turn its attention to highlighting other strong advantages it delivers to customers: proactive customer support and above-average security and performance boosts.

“We’re not the cheapest, and we’re not the most expensive, but we are known for having really knowledgeable support staff,” Nick said. “Our customers choose us because we offer some of the best tools in the industry. They stay with us because when they are looking for help with a specific problem they know they have a team of engineers, support, and account managers a call away.”

A recent partnership with Sectigo, formerly known as Comodo, the world’s largest commercial SSL certificate authority, enables 101domain to expand its SSL certificate offerings. The company touts premium protection at surprisingly affordable rates and with a worry-free, streamlined setup experience.

In addition to a strong selection of Cloudflare-powered tools for content delivery and DDoS protection, Nick said 101domain is taking a closer look at how to best protect customers from attacks and other security vulnerabilities.

“Hackers oftentimes won’t try to attack someone’s website through the frontend side. They’ll actually go in through the DNS side, which is known as the hidden vulnerability,” he said. “If you get access to someone’s domain account, you can change the DNS in a heartbeat. Their entire website, email, and whole infrastructure can go down immediately costing them millions.”

According to Nick, 101domain is one of the few companies that maintain registry locks; to make any sort of major changes to their account, customers go through a manual process to prove their identity and gain authorization to make changes at the DNS level.

“Some of our client’s IT teams are wary that the process will not allow them to react to things quickly, but that isn’t the case, and the value is usually pretty clear to the decision makers,” Nick said. “Without registry lock in place, someone could cause devastating damage very quickly.”