Picture from here, courtesy of ds_30 (thank you!)

After some time as a Domain Name Portfolio Manager, you should be versed in defensive registration, and in this regard, having faced the question of blocklists.

What is a blocklist?

Blocklists are services related to name coverage and provided by registries through registrars.

I practice, you buy a blocklist for one year and it blocks your name on several TLDs (list of TLDs depends the blocklist).

It comes with a big discount compared that if you were buying each domain individually. Plus, since we talk about defensive registration, it is natural to block a domain registration instead of buying (for blocking only!).

The blocklists (with coverage and with approximate price):

  • GlobalBlock / GlobalBlock+ (841 TLDs + variants if “+”) - $6,000 / $8,000
  • DPML / DPML+ (314 TLDs + variants if “+”) - $3,000 / $5,000
  • AdultBlock / AdultBlock+ (4 TLDs + variants if “+”)
  • Uni EPS / Uni EPS+ (22 extension + variants if “+”)
  • NameBlock (20 TLDs)

From this list, you already see some more serious blocklists.

Also note that GlobalBlock includes DPML extensions.

You generally have to buy the bundle with the exception of NameBlock where you buy TLD block individually.

BlockList are solid because acting at registry level, so scammers can’t bypass it by just using different registrar.

For the record, I was advised to buy GlobalBlock by one B2B registrar and the other advised DPML+.

GlobalBlock is more recent (2024) and covering more TLDs, I’m sharing now some brochure of it:

Should I pay for GlobalBlock or DPML?

Well, that really depends where you are and where you want to go in your defensive registration strategy.

First, it’s not cheap. The variant “+” looks interesting because blocking variants but way higher in price (and remember we only talk about variants in the TLDs covered by blocklist).

So how to decide?

My decision making approach is the following:

  1. Look at the list of TLDs.
  2. Drop from the list the dual TLDs, I don’t like those (but it’s debatable).
  3. Drop from the list the TLDs you already own.
  4. Remove TLDs owned by someone else (more than debatable, since blocklist would probably actually get them back to you, which is a pro)
  5. Remove TLDs that sounds unrelated to your business (what’s the point of blocking .kiwi or .florist?)
  6. Look at the resulting list of what you would actually pay for and compare to price. Does it sounds interesting?

Again, 4 is probably used the wrong way in this decision process, since it’s actually a pro of BlockList?

In my case, I did this exercise for DPML+ (proposed to me at $3,000 per year) and at the end it was about 90 domains, not worth the cost!

But it really depends also how much aggressive you are with defensive registration and brand protection (and budget allocated to it).

Also, if you decide to buy this service, you would need to enroll TMCH and price varies a lot between “agents” (registrar) so ask for multiple quotes. I don’t recommend you to open an account to a new registrar just for it, though, use one that you are already in contract with.

So, ultimately, it’s finally up to your decision.

More solution about brand protection

It exists some brand reputation vendors (or some solutions offering related products as part of their offering).

They are way too expensive if you want my opinion, but I can share some names:

  • CorSearch
  • BrandShield
  • UpGuard

My conclusion

It’s good to explore and review these services. But while in theory we would want to block or own a maximum of TLDs for the name we want to protect, these block lists actually provide a poor protection.

When you consider that it exists more than 2000 TLDs (and growing constantly), it creates a fake feeling of defense, I imagine it would resemble a bit like the picture below..