Vistaprint offers turn-key solutions, such as business cards, stationary and assorted print services. They also offer web hosting and domain registrations.
In the past, we used Vistaprint for everything else except the last two, web hosting and domains.
It seems that users who register domains at Vistaprint to take advantage of the hosting & domain registration combo, often face difficulty to move their domain names elsewhere.
WHOIS for a domain registered at Vistaprint.
Vistaprint charges more than your average domain registrar to register and renew domains. For example, a new dot .com costs $15 dollars, as opposed to roughly $9 bucks elsewhere.
That’s understandable, however, when taking advantage of web hosting promos, Vistaprint apparently keeps the WHOIS information of the domain as theirs, using “csadmin@vistaprint.com” as the Registrant. In other words, one is leasing their domain from Vistaprint.
Come renewal time, many business owners make the discovery of this fact, and decide to move their domains elsewhere, such as GoDaddy.
Vistaprint .com domains cost $15 /year.
According to user complaints, Vistaprint seeks an administrative fee of $20 dollars to release the authorization or EPP code. We aren’t sure if that’s in accordance to ICANN’s guidelines, but as Vistaprint is a Tucows reseller this charge is most likely legitimate.
If you need to take advantage of Vistaprint services such as marketing, printing and web hosting, it is advisable to first register your domain name elsewhere; this way, you will own it outright and will be able to manage it hassle-free.
