NameSilo Technologies: The Domain Registrar Flying Under the Radar
NameSilo Technologies (CSE: URL) has grown revenue 5x in seven years with 12 consecutive quarters of growth - but there's a capital allocation question every investor needs to answer.
Not financial advice. Always do your own research.
Most people have heard of GoDaddy. Far fewer have heard of NameSilo - and that's kind of the point. While GoDaddy splurges on Super Bowl ads and celebrity campaigns, NameSilo has been quietly grinding its way into the top 10 largest domain registrars in the world by doing the opposite: low prices, transparent fees, and just... consistently showing up. Twelve quarters in a row of revenue growth will do that.
What They Do
NameSilo Technologies Corp. (CSE: URL) is a Vancouver-listed holding company that owns NameSilo LLC, a US-based domain registrar out of Phoenix, Arizona. The plain-English version: when you want to register a website like "yourbusiness.com," you go to a registrar to do it. NameSilo is one of those registrars - and a big one at that.
Founded in 2010, NameSilo today manages over 6.2 million active domains for customers in roughly 160 countries. That puts it firmly in the top 10 globally, alongside names like GoDaddy, Namecheap, and Tucows.
How They Make Money
The core business is wonderfully simple. Customers pay an annual fee - typically $10-$15 for a .com - to register or renew their domain. NameSilo keeps the spread between what customers pay and what it remits to the underlying domain registries. Most revenue is annual and recurring, which makes this a naturally sticky business.
Domain registrations drive about 90% of revenue, with the marketplace for buying and selling premium domains contributing around 6%, and ancillary services like hosting, email, and SSL rounding out the rest. The company is also pushing into website building - a drag-and-drop builder via CommerceHQ launched in 2025, followed by an AI-powered website builder that hit beta in November 2025.
One thing worth knowing about how the financials work: NameSilo collects cash upfront for multi-year registrations but reports revenue gradually over the contract term. The $33 million in deferred revenue sitting on the balance sheet as of Q3 2025 is essentially future revenue that's already been paid for - a healthy pipeline baked right into the books.
Competitive Advantage
NameSilo's moat isn't fancy, but it holds up. The company built its reputation on being the cheapest serious registrar in the industry - and not cheap in a bait-and-switch way. While competitors like GoDaddy advertise $1.99 domains and then charge you $15/year for privacy protection, NameSilo bundles privacy (WHOIS masking) and other extras in for free.
That approach attracts a particular type of customer: the "domainer" - someone managing dozens or hundreds of domains who genuinely cares about keeping costs low. Once a customer's whole portfolio lives at NameSilo, switching is a real hassle. That friction shows up in the retention numbers - about 55% of revenue each year comes from returning customers.
The Financials Tell a Good Story
Revenue has grown from roughly $10.6M in 2017 to $55.2M in 2024 - a genuine 5x in seven years. In 2025, the momentum is continuing: Q1, Q2, and Q3 came in at $15.9M, $16.1M, and $16.9M respectively, putting the full year on track for around $66-68M.
More importantly, the business is getting more profitable, not just bigger. Gross margins in Q3 2025 hit 26.4%, up from 22.4% a year earlier, driven by a .com price increase and stronger marketplace sales. Net income for the nine months ended September 30, 2025 was $3.9M - more than double the $1.9M earned over the same stretch in 2024. Adjusted EBITDA for those nine months was $4.8M.
The company also repaid its remaining long-term debt after Q3 ended, leaving the balance sheet clean. For a small-cap, that matters.
A New Direction: Hardware Acquisitions
Something unexpected happened in the second half of 2025 and into 2026 - NameSilo started acquiring hardware companies.
SewerVUE Technologies (acquired September 2025, $2.45M) makes pipe inspection robots used to inspect underground sewer and water infrastructure.Reach Systems Inc. (acquired February 2026, $4.5M) makes subsea cameras and winches for underwater inspection work. Together they suggest management is deliberately building an inspection and imaging technology vertical alongside the domain registrar.
Both acquisitions are small relative to the domain business - combined about $7M, roughly a year's worth of operating cash flow. But they extend a pattern of deploying capital outside the core into areas where management has no obvious prior expertise. Whether that's diversification or distraction remains to be seen.
The Investment Portfolio: The Elephant in the Room
Here's where things get uncomfortable - and where any serious investor needs to pay close attention.
NameSilo Technologies presents itself not just as a domain registrar, but as an investment company that deploys cash from its operations into outside businesses. The idea sounds fine in theory. The execution has been a drag.
FY2021 through FY2024 all ended in net losses at the consolidated level, even as the domain business grew steadily. The operating business was profitable and improving the whole time - it's the investment side that kept turning those gains into losses on the bottom line.
Ola Media is the ongoing problem. This is a digital advertising company that runs screens inside rideshare vehicles in Mexico - clients include Coca-Cola, Netflix, and Heineken. But Ola has been losing money for years, and NameSilo's equity-accounting losses from it alone exceeded $900K through Q3 2025. NameSilo has also been lending Ola money interest-free with no repayment date - effectively subsidizing a money-losing business with no clear path to profitability.
Alchemy Nanotech is burning even faster - $3.9M in net losses in just the first nine months of 2025. NameSilo has extended its lending facility to Alchemy six times, now up to $1.35M at 12% interest, convertible into shares if Alchemy ever lists. It may work out eventually, but right now it's a drain.
Cheelcare (TSXV: CHER) is the newest addition - an assistive mobility device maker that went public in July 2025. NameSilo holds shares, convertible debentures, and just committed another $250K in February 2026. Too early to call, but the pattern is familiar.
The consistent thread across these investments is worth naming: they tend to be connected to the same small network of Canadian microcap insiders, with co-investors like Pathfinder Asset Management appearing repeatedly. That's not necessarily bad - but it means investors are trusting management's judgment and network on a series of early-stage bets that have, to date, mostly subtracted value.
Key Risks
Competition is the obvious one - GoDaddy, Namecheap, and Tucows all have deeper pockets. Any prolonged price war in the domain market would pressure margins.
The working capital deficit of ~$13.2M looks alarming on paper, but it's largely structural: cash comes in upfront from multi-year registrations, but the corresponding service obligation sits on the books as a liability. Operating cash flow of $6.1M over the first nine months of 2025 tells the real story - actual cash generation is healthy.
The bigger ongoing risk is capital allocation. Every dollar going to Ola Media, Alchemy, or Cheelcare is a dollar not compounding inside the domain business, buying back shares, or going to shareholders.
Recent Catalysts
NameSilo crossed 6 million active domains in January 2026 - continued organic growth in the core. The AI website builder launched in November 2025 is a genuine product evolution worth watching; if it converts even a fraction of existing customers into paying site subscribers, revenue per user improves meaningfully.
The stock has had a big run from its 52-week low of $0.72. At 28x EV/EBITDA, the market is no longer ignoring this company - the easy gains may already be priced in.
The Verdict
The core domain registrar is the real story here - profitable, capital-light, with recurring revenue and seven years of consistent growth. For a Canadian small-cap, that kind of operational track record is genuinely rare.
But NameSilo Technologies isn't just a domain registrar. It's a holding company where management deploys operating profits into outside bets - and FY2021 through FY2024 all ended in net losses because of it. Ola Media, Alchemy, and Cheelcare are the active chapter of that story. The SewerVUE and Reach acquisitions open a new one - industrial hardware is a genuine left-field pivot, and the jury is completely out. The good news is the domain business has grown large enough that it's finally winning the tug of war - the last three quarters of 2025 showed positive net income despite the investment drag. But that drag, and now that diversification, is still very much present.
For investors considering URL, the question isn't just "do you believe in the domain business?" - because that answer is easy. It's "do you trust management's capital allocation beyond the domain business?" That's the harder question, and the track record to date doesn't make it easy to answer yes.
Worth a closer look - but go in with eyes wide open.
Sources: NameSilo Technologies Q3 2025 MD&A, 2024 Annual MD&A, Company press releases
Want the full picture on NameSilo Technologies? (URL.CN)
Check out our comprehensive research report covering valuation, financial analysis, risk assessment, and more.
View $URL.CN Analysis →