Directi vs. eNom

[Rick67]

As a first timer, I'm trying to figure out the advantages of one registrar over another. This is what I see based on various posts in this forum:

 

Directi has only one login for ALL our clients domain names. We have to administer them.

Directi has good support.

I can sign up with Directi thru WHMCS with no deposits.

 

With Enom, each client gets his own login and can administer his own domain names?

Enom has poor support.

And I can sign up for enom thru Modernbill with no deposits.

 

Is this it in a nutshell?

 

Thanks!

[chickendippers]

We are in the process of setting up Directi (through the reseller RoverNIC - their prices are cheaper and support is instant), currently using eNom.

 

Our customers do not get an eNom login, neither will they get a DirectI login. It's all managed through WHMCS.

 

eNom's support isn't bad, but RoverNIC's is better. Plus we can still submit a ticket directly to Directi.

[Troy]

WHMCS cannot lock/unlock a DirectI domain. You cannot change contact information for a DirectI domain without the domain being unlocked. Thus, unless you unlock all of your DirectI domains, your customers will not be able to change their domains' contact information. Who among you does not want to keep your domains locked, or at least provide the option to lock or unlock to your customers?

 

Regardless of feature sets and pricing, this alone, not to mention the fact that WHMCS does not automate dns records management for DirectI domains, makes Enom a better choice for use with WHMCS, IMO.

[JofleyUK]

I agree Troy, the DNS management for enom is great. Directi has it's pros-cons but mostly cons compared with enom. Use enom thru ModernDNS and ModernDNS team are better than enom. They do all the leg work for ya!

[mrprez]

For $499, you can get your own R/C account and pay just $7.49 rather than $7.99 at RoverNic.

[joe123]

Thus, unless you unlock all of your DirectI domains.

You Are wrong , you can lock/unlock any domain from there control panel .

[Rick67]

WHMCS does not automate dns records management for DirectI domains, makes Enom a better choice for use with WHMCS, IMO.

 

Can you please explain what is meant by "automate DNS records"?

 

If Directi is not automated, does this mean I have to manually register domains?

 

Thank you!

[joe123]

Can you please explain what is meant by "automate DNS records"?

 

If Directi is not automated, does this mean I have to manually register domains?

 

Thank you!

NO . whmcs will register the domains , and your clients can only modify the nameservers and there domain contact information from whmcs .

[Troy]

You Are wrong , you can lock/unlock any domain from there control panel .

 

You might want to look more closely at my post before claiming I'm wrong. I didn't say you can't unlock a domain name from DirectI's interface - it's WHMCS where you can't unlock a DirectI domain.

 

If you use DirectI, a customer comes to your site and registers a domain through WHMCS. That domain is, by default, locked at DirectI. Then, the customer goes back to your WHMCS to change the contact information, and cannot, because the domain is locked. DirectI does not allow changes to contact information while the domain is locked. They cannot unlock the domain through WHMCS, so they will open a support ticket asking why they can't change their contact information, and you'll have to manually unlock the domain at DirectI before they'll be able to. That will mean a lot of extra work for you.

 

The only other option is to configure DirectI to not lock new domains, and mass unlock any domains you already have registered through DirectI, so that customers can change their domain contact information through WHMCS. I don't know if DirectI can be configured to not lock domains, but even if it can, you're stuck with all domains being unlocked, preventing your customers from using that extra layer of protection against unauthorized transfers.

 

As far as I know, you cannot provide your customers with direct access to your DirectI supersite, (or whatever they call it), because all your domains are registered under a single customer at DirectI.

 

So, do you now understand what I mean? Using DirectI with WHMCS is either going to creaet more support headaches for you, or your going to have to not use domain locking at all.

 

For these reasons, I personally don't consider DirectI to be a good backend registrar for use with WHMCS at this time.

[Rick67]

NO . whmcs will register the domains , and your clients can only modify the nameservers and there domain contact information from whmcs .

 

Are you referring to Enom in your quote above?

 

I still do not know what the difference is with Enom's "automate DNS".

 

Thanks again for the response and help!

[Troy]

Can you please explain what is meant by "automate DNS records"?

 

If Directi is not automated, does this mean I have to manually register domains?

 

Thank you!

 

WHMCS has the ability to manage the DNS records for domains that are 1) registered through Enom, and 2) have nameservers set to Enom's nameservers (dns1.name-services.com through dns5.name-services.com).

 

It is separate from registration/renewal/transfer automation, which WHMCS will do via DirectI. DNS records management, however, is only available for Enom domains through WHMCS, at this time.

[Rick67]

Using DirectI with WHMCS is either going to creaet more support headaches for you, or your going to have to not use domain locking at all.

 

For these reasons, I personally don't consider DirectI to be a good backend registrar for use with WHMCS at this time.

 

if you specialize in a niche website business as opposed to trying to be a domain seller for everyone, then you can turn this around and charge for unlocking services. This only makes sense and can be a revenue stream. The customer should understand that locking is done for protection and if they need your help to unlock the domain name, then there will be a charge. Just MHO.

[Troy]

Quite true Rick. I always speak from my own experience and objectives. We're a medium sized host with a small staff and don't really want our system to be confusing to our customers, so for us it doesn't make sense to use DirectI right now, even though we have about 1500 domains there from where we recently started using them under AWBS. Once we converted to WHMCS, I found that customers could not unlock their DirectI domains, and couldn't edit contact information. Having to do the unlocking is simply a workload we don't want, and we would never charge our customers for it, so we went back to Enom.

 

Hey, if the 67 in your user name happens to be the year you were born, then you're in good company here, same birth year for me Plus I was born in Columbus, though I live in the Nashville area now.

[MACscr]

Enom has much better support and a history of quality support, plus a fast api. Heck, every time ive called Directi some indian answers that i can barely understand if at all. Forget that.

[chickendippers]

WHMCS cannot lock/unlock a DirectI domain. You cannot change contact information for a DirectI domain without the domain being unlocked. Thus, unless you unlock all of your DirectI domains, your customers will not be able to change their domains' contact information. Who among you does not want to keep your domains locked, or at least provide the option to lock or unlock to your customers?

 

Regardless of feature sets and pricing, this alone, not to mention the fact that WHMCS does not automate dns records management for DirectI domains, makes Enom a better choice for use with WHMCS, IMO.

 

I am distressed to hear this having just set up a DirectI account (on the assumption it was good because WHMCS themselves offer it). Are these limitations due to WHMCS's DirectI module, or their API?

[Rick67]

It sure helps to ask a lot of questions and be persistent in order to bring out the type of details newbies need to make decisions.

 

WHMCS should setup some kind of spreadsheet listing the features each domain registrar has or does not have when interacting with WHMCS including costs/deposits required. Or else these type of questions will be asked forever and folks will be making wrong choices IMHO.

 

Is anyone aware of any websites that compare registrars in detail?

[Troy]

I am distressed to hear this having just set up a DirectI account (on the assumption it was good because WHMCS themselves offer it). Are these limitations due to WHMCS's DirectI module, or their API?

 

The limitations are in WHMCS's module. The DirectI API is capable of domain unlocking, and dns record management, they're just not available in WHMCS's module yet. (I say "yet", hoping they will be eventually.)

[Rick67]

Let's all go to the FEEDBACK section of the forum and request Directi's API be fully developed. Afterall, WHMCS offers Directi as a special deal.

[PPH]

The limitations are in WHMCS's module. The DirectI API is capable of domain unlocking, and dns record management, they're just not available in WHMCS's module yet. (I say "yet", hoping they will be eventually.)

Are you sure about that? I recall Matt making a post that it was a limitation in the Directi API.

[chickendippers]

Let's all go to the FEEDBACK section of the forum and request Directi's API be fully developed. Afterall, WHMCS offers Directi as a special deal.

If you care to start the thread, I will happily lend my full support.

[ur]

There is an event called changePrivacyProtectionStatus in Directi's API. So this can be done if WHMCS is storing the necessary info. Here is the complete method:

 

if($requestedMethod == "changePrivacyProtectionStatus")
{
	$lockerId = $_POST['lockerId'];
	$orderID = $_POST['orderID'];
	$newIsPrivacyProtected = $_POST['newIsPrivacyProtected'];
	$reason = $_POST['reason'];

	$returnValue = $serviceObj->changePrivacyProtectionStatus(
		$SERVICE_USERNAME, $SERVICE_PASSWORD, $SERVICE_ROLE, $SERVICE_LANGPREF, $SERVICE_PARENTID, $lockerId, $orderID, $newIsPrivacyProtected, $reason);
}

 

I am certain Matt already knows about this, and it's probably on his long todo list, but it can't hurt asking

[trine]

For $499, you can get your own R/C account and pay just $7.49 rather than $7.99 at RoverNic.

 

We have $7.25 with a $99 payment with RoverNIC. They still offer top pricing of 6.99 too but don't know the full details. If do a lot of domain biz, chat with them and they'll give you a good deal.

[chickendippers]

Yup, RoverNIC did us the same deal. And their support is much better than some people have indicated Directi's is.

[Rick67]

If you care to start the thread, I will happily lend my full support.

 

I posted a request in feedback...

[Troy]

Are you sure about that? I recall Matt making a post that it was a limitation in the Directi API.

 

Yep, I'm sure. I can dig it up again and link you to the API Documentation if you would like. It's not an extremely easy API call, and that's probably what Matt was refering to. It has been awhile since I looked at the API documentation, but for most things in DirectI I think you have to have the order number, so you have to first use the API to determine the order number for a registered domain name before you can do much else. It's not a whole lot of extra work, just means you have to make more than one API call to unlock a domain.