How AI Search Is Recommending Domain Registrars: Monthly Trends

Executive Summary

Namecheap holds the lead in September 2026 with 55.7% valid recommendation coverage, but its advantage over Porkbun has narrowed to just 0.1 points. Porkbun reached 55.6% coverage, up 1.7 points from August's 53.9%. This makes Porkbun the strongest upward mover among the leading brands this month, extending a two-month upward streak.

The larger movement this month is downward. Namecheap fell 7.0 points from August's 62.7% to 55.7%. GoDaddy also declined 5.3 points to 20.3% coverage. The category remains anchored by Namecheap and Porkbun, but the competitive spread between the top tier and the rest of the field shifted from the prior month.

The July 2026 baseline recorded no tracked brand appearing in any AI recommendation across 672 observations. August 2026 produced the category's first measurable recommendation signals. September 2026 is the first month where two populated months can be compared, and the current benchmark shows two brands, Namecheap and Porkbun, each above 55% coverage, while the remaining seven brands sit below 25%. Eight of nine tracked brands remain above their July baseline, with all movement from the dormant baseline classified as significant risers.

The September 2026 benchmark began with 800 prompt-surface observations (591 unique questions) across the benchmark's defined AI/search surface universe. Of those, 800 mentioned a tracked brand or competitor; 780 were relevant and 20 were irrelevant. The public metrics use the 675 observations that survive both qualification stages. For comparison, the July 2026 run began with 800 prompts (525 unique questions) with 789 relevant and 11 irrelevant, qualifying 672 observations.

Key Findings

Benchmark Context

The benchmark separates the raw collection universe from the qualified analysis set. Brand-level recommendation percentages are calculated within the qualified benchmark set.

Benchmark-Level Metrics

The core metrics below track the category from the dormant July baseline to the first populated comparison in September. August's emergence was covered in the prior report; the focus here is July-to-September movement with August detail in prose.

August 2026 recorded 260 recommendation-shaped answers and a 58.7% valid recommendation shortlist share. September's recommendation-shaped answer count held at 260, but the shortlist share eased to 56.9%, reflecting a slightly different mix of response types across the 384 valid shortlists.

AI Recommendation Trend

Two-Brand Lead Narrows While the Category Holds

Namecheap leads at 55.7% but Porkbun now sits within 0.1 points at 55.6%, a category that has tightened at the top after Namecheap's August lead of 8.8 points over Porkbun. The mid-tier brands all remain below their August coverage levels.

The July-to-September movements all reflect emergence from a dormant baseline, so the more instructive comparison is August to September. Porkbun was the only tracked brand to exceed normal month-to-month variation in an upward direction, while the broader category change came from a combination of Namecheap's larger-than-usual decline and several smaller downward movements across the mid-tier.

What Changed This Month

Namecheap: Lead Narrows as Coverage Falls

Namecheap fell 7.0 points from 62.7% in August to 55.7% coverage in September 2026, with 376 valid recommendations out of 675 qualified observations. This decline was larger than the category's typical month-to-month movement, breaking the upward pattern from the prior month.

The brand remains the category leader, but its top-three rate dropped from 46.8% in August to 36.3% in September, and its rank-one rate fell from 15.0% to 8.6%, with rank-one observations dropping from 101 to 58. Raw mention presence held nearly steady at 96.0%, meaning Namecheap still appears in almost every observation. The loss came from conversion and placement, not presence.

The distinction to notice is that Namecheap's presence stayed essentially universal while its recommendation credit contracted. This reflects a change in the output distribution rather than a change in whether Namecheap was mentioned at all. Net sentiment eased from 0.7 to 0.6, with 410 positive mentions against 3 negative ones.

Highest-priority diagnostic: which prompt types shifted Namecheap out of top-three and rank-one positions, and whether a competitor's evidence base displaced it within specific surfaces.

Porkbun: The Only Brand to Gain Ground

Porkbun rose 1.7 points from 53.9% in August to 55.6% coverage in September 2026, with 375 valid recommendations. This gain was within the category's normal range of month-to-month variation, but Porkbun was the only tracked brand besides Dynadot to record any coverage gain from August, putting it in a distinct competitive position.

Porkbun's top-three rate fell slightly from 44.0% in August to 41.3% in September, yet its rank-one rate improved from 13.3% to 14.5%, with 98 rank-one observations, the highest in the category. Raw mention presence rose from 67.0% to 70.5%. Its net sentiment score of 0.8 remained the strongest in the category, with 397 positive mentions and zero negative mentions.

The distinction to notice is that Porkbun closed an 8.8-point gap to a 0.1-point gap in one month while improving its rank-one position. This makes Porkbun the only leading brand whose placement strength increased rather than held or slipped.

Highest-priority diagnostic: which evidence sources and prompts drive Porkbun's increasing rank-one placement, and whether that pattern is concentrated on specific surfaces.

GoDaddy: High Presence Continues to Convert Weakly

GoDaddy fell 5.3 points from 25.6% in August to 20.3% coverage in September 2026, with 137 valid recommendations out of 675 observations. The decline was larger than the category's typical month-to-month movement, and it leaves GoDaddy fourth in the category behind Dynadot. Raw mention presence stayed high at 93.6%, but the top-three rate dropped from 12.3% to 7.6% and the rank-one rate fell from 4.0% to 2.7%, with rank-one observations falling from 27 to 18.

GoDaddy's net sentiment score turned slightly negative, from 0.1 in August to roughly zero in September, with negative mentions rising from 133 to 169 and positive mentions falling from 195 to 152. Negative visibility reached 25.0% of all qualified observations in September, the highest in the category.

The distinction to notice is that GoDaddy appears in 93.6% of observations but converts that presence into only 20.3% coverage. The widening gap between presence and recommendation weight, combined with rising negative framing, describes a different output distribution rather than an established cause.

Highest-priority diagnostic: which prompts produce the rising negative sentiment for GoDaddy and which evidence sources frame it negatively, alongside the question of whether GoDaddy lost rank-one positions to Porkbun or Namecheap.

Dynadot: Quiet Gain Against a Declining Field

Dynadot rose 0.1 points from 24.3% in August to 24.4% coverage in September 2026, with 165 valid recommendations. The move was within the category's normal range of month-to-month variation, but it moves Dynadot to third in the category, ahead of GoDaddy, as other mid-tier brands declined. Raw mention presence rose from 36.4% to 38.4%.

Dynadot's top-three rate held at 4.9% with 33 observations, but its rank-one rate dropped from 0.1% to 0.0%, meaning no rank-one placements in September. Net sentiment improved to 0.8, with 196 positive mentions and one negative mention, the second-highest sentiment in the category behind Porkbun.

The distinction to notice is that Dynadot now holds the third position by coverage because it held steady while others fell, not because it gained meaningful placement strength. Its top-three and rank-one rates remain far below the leaders.

Highest-priority diagnostic: why Dynadot's coverage holds without corresponding top-three or rank-one placement, and which surfaces contribute its 165 valid recommendations.

Mid-Tier Declines: Squarespace, IONOS, Name.com, Domain.com

Squarespace fell 4.0 points from 23.6% in August to 19.6% coverage in September with 132 valid recommendations, a move within the category's normal range of month-to-month variation. Its top-three rate fell from 8.6% to 4.9% and rank-one rate from 1.3% to 0.9%. IONOS fell 3.6 points to 7.4% coverage with 50 valid recommendations, a move larger than typical month-to-month variation, with top-three rate down from 2.8% to 1.5% and no rank-one placements. Name.com fell 3.0 points to 4.0% coverage with 27 valid recommendations, also a move larger than typical month-to-month variation, with top-three rate holding near zero. Domain.com fell 1.2 points, within the normal range of month-to-month variation, to 1.6% coverage with 11 valid recommendations, and its top-three rate dropped to 0.0%.

All four brands retain raw mention presence ranging from 16.4% for Domain.com to 55.0% for Squarespace, but none converted that presence into meaningful recommendation placement in September. For these brands, the distinction to notice is that their presence did not collapse; their recommendation credit thinned. Small counts matter here: Domain.com's 11 valid recommendations, Name.com's 27, and IONOS's 50 are each meaningful signals within the 675-observation set even at low percentages.

Highest-priority diagnostic: whether the shared downward pattern across these four brands reflects a common competitive shift toward the leaders or independent evidence weaknesses per brand.

Network Solutions: Minimal Recommendation Footprint With Negative Sentiment

Network Solutions recorded 0.1% coverage in September 2026, down from 0.6% in August, with just 1 valid recommendation out of 675 observations. The brand held raw mention presence of 12.4%, with 84 presence observations, but zero top-three and zero rank-one placements. Its net sentiment score fell to negative 0.2, with 20 negative mentions against 1 positive mention across 84 observations.

The distinction to notice is that Network Solutions is now the only tracked brand with effectively no recommendation coverage and a negative sentiment profile. Its presence is real but almost entirely non-recommendation framing.

Highest-priority diagnostic: which prompts produce the negative framing, and whether the single valid recommendation reveals any pattern in where Network Solutions can gain traction.

Buyer-Intent Interpretation

All 675 qualified observations in September 2026 fell into the Brand Recommendation cluster. The Pricing & Value and Multi-Brand Comparison clusters registered zero qualified observations, meaning the public benchmark cannot yet answer commercial questions about price positioning, value perception, or head-to-head comparison outcomes. The buyer-intent mix is unchanged from August, with all qualified signals concentrated in direct recommendation queries.

Brand Opportunity Summary

The benchmark identifies where attention is warranted across the category; a company-level analysis is needed to explain why specific brands win or lose recommendation credit.

Evidence Behind the Benchmark

The aggregate metrics are built from prompt-level observations, including the query, surface, recommendation outcome, rank, sentiment, and citations where exposed. Company-level analysis can go deeper into prompt, competitor, surface, and evidence patterns. Source presence is not automatically treated as proof of causation.

About This Benchmark

This report is part of the LLM Authority Index AI Market Discovery research program.

• AI Industry Market Discovery Methodology
• AI Industry Market Discovery Metrics
• AI Industry Market Discovery Standards

Report-Specific Interpretation Notes

• This category moved from a zero-recommendation baseline in July to a competitive landscape in August, and September is the first month where two populated months can be compared. Movement from July reflects emergence; movement from August reflects competitive change.
• Small counts matter: Network Solutions' 1 valid recommendation, Domain.com's 11, and Name.com's 27 are meaningful signals within a 675-observation qualified set, even though percentages are low.
• The qualified denominator (672 in July, 675 in September) is the basis for all brand-level percentages in this report.
• Movement identifies changes worth investigating; it does not establish cause. Net sentiment scores reflect mention framing, not customer sentiment.
• August 2026 figures are cited in prose where the prior month provides the sharper comparison; the table columns remain July and September per the series baseline.

Next Step

The Public Benchmark Shows Where a Brand Is Winning or Losing. A Company-Level Audit Shows Why.

Beneath the aggregate percentages sit the questions that determine commercial impact: which high-intent prompts does a brand win, which competitor takes the recommendation when a brand loses, what attributes do AI systems associate with each option, and which external sources shape those answers. For Namecheap, the question is why its near-universal presence lost 7.0 points of recommendation credit. For GoDaddy, the question is whether rising negative framing is a cause or an effect of declining placement. For Porkbun, the question is whether its improving rank-one rate signals a durable shift at the top of the category.

A company-specific AI visibility audit maps those prompt, surface, competitor, ranking, sentiment, and evidence-source patterns into a prioritized visibility strategy. The benchmark shows the aggregate picture; the audit reveals the mechanics beneath it.

Request an AI visibility audit