DomainState has been around almost as long as DNForum.com. Their whois states that their domain was first registered in February 2002. Since then they have been shoulder to shoulder with DNForum.com on most issues.
What makes this forum different from DNForum is the fact that DomainState is a free forum. There is no tiered membership structure – everyone is equal. Additionally, this forum has provided domainers with some great domaining tools like the all-in-one whois tool that is used by many domainers today. The Multiple Who is Checker is a free tool. You can download both for free in their tools section.
DomainState also offers visitors a plethora of free goodies, including links to various free Overture tools, PPC calculator tools, and more. This is something DNForum should seriously investigate.
This forum saw a huge increase in traffic when DNForum.com reorganized into a paid membership forum. This increase in revenue probably explained why they were able to develop so much free software.
On the other hand, the lack of an intuitive user interface and a boring, old design really drags down a new visitor. They would likely benefit from a redesign, which would definitely affect the number of new signups. This also affects their domain marketplace. In terms of the number of offers you can get for your domains and quick response times for reviews, they definitely rank lower than their main competitors.
The lack of a proper design and intuitive interface probably explains DomainState’s lack of community spirit. There is no forum money and no live chat or auctions.
Overall, they rank as a medium to high quality domain marketplace that could be great with a few small tweaks. If you want to make a quick sale I would prefer them to NamePros.com or DNForum.com at this point.
