NamePros

Acquisition by Bodis

Bodis, a domain parking company, acquired NamePros in January 2012, and the acquisition was publicly confirmed later that month by Bodis owner Matt Wegrzyn. Wegrzyn stated that improvements to the website and its services would follow and that Bodis would continue to keep NamePros an open community.^[14][15]

On May 14, 2013, NamePros released a series of updates to its service, including a new layout and the addition of a domain sales history tool. The new tool, developed by a community member, scraped domain sale information from other websites and RSS feeds. According to the announcement, the tool indexed over 80,000 sales that members could query.^[16]

Ownership Change (2013)

NamePros changed ownership again in July, 2013.^[2]

In May, 2014, NamePros released another series of updates. They migrated from vBulletin to XenForo, resulting in significant changes. DNForum, a competing website, made a similar update a month prior.^[17][18]

By the mid-2010s, industry coverage described NamePros as the primary forum for domain investors, as older competitors declined. Domain Name Wire wrote that NamePros had been the "go-to place" to discuss domains with peers, and later noted that DNForum was "supplanted by NamePros" and went offline in 2016.^{[19] [20]}

April Fools' Day activities

NamePros has periodically marked April Fools' Day with humorous forum-based pranks and parody features directed at its domain industry audience. In 2018, TLD Investors wrote that NamePros had been participating in April Fools' Day activities annually for the previous four years, describing it as an ongoing tradition and summarizing pranks carried out in 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018.^[21] These activities typically take the form of parody feature announcements and satirical posts published on April 1 within the forum.

In 2024, Domain Name Wire reported on one such April 1 announcement related to NamePros' domain sales landing pages platform.^[22]

Forum for domain investors

NamePros provides forums for domain investors. Namecheap has described NamePros as a “go-to” forum for domain name investors where users discuss purchases, seek appraisals, and buy and sell domain names.^[23] The service implements a freemium model: typical use is free, but users can purchase additional features on a subscription basis.^[24]

Domain name marketplace

As part of its forums, NamePros provides a domain name marketplace, where users can buy and sell domain names. The marketplace combines various models, including auctioning, fixed price, and bargaining. Domains considered particularly valuable can be listed in a dedicated area.^[25]

A 2021 Namecheap guide described the NamePros marketplace as organized into categories (for example, numeric, brandable, and traffic domains) and using thread-based listings, including fixed-price sales, auctions, and offer-based formats.^[26]

Around 2008, NamePros also offered live auctions.^[27]

Domain sales landing pages

In April 2023, NamePros launched NamePros Parking, a free service that allows users to point domain names to “for sale” landing pages and route inquiries to the seller.^[28] In 2024, NamePros added an optional fixed-price workflow that can require buyers to confirm an email address before viewing the price, allowing sellers to capture lead information while offering a “buy now” option.^[29] In August 2024, NamePros introduced custom short and long descriptions for its landing pages.^[30]

Domain investor chat room

In May, 2014, NamePros revived its online chat service for domain investors. It had offered a chat service previously, but it had been discontinued. Initial reception was positive.^[18]