Blacknight

What the vendor is

Blacknight is a domain registrar and hosting company based in Carlow, Ireland. Its about page describes it as 100% Irish owned, an ICANN accredited domain registrar and hosting company, and part of Avalon Group (Avalon Internet Holdings Ltd); the trading company, Blacknight Internet Solutions Ltd, carries company number 370845. The company says its technical support, engineering, accounts and sales are provided by its own staff at the Carlow headquarters, that it operates data centers in Carlow and Dublin, and that it is certified to ISO/IEC 27001:2022. For a site operator it sells .adult domain registration alongside shared web hosting, WordPress hosting, cloud VPS, dedicated servers and colocation. The .adult page pitches the extension as "The Domain for Adults Only" and names starting an adult business among its uses.

What it sells an operator

The .adult page sells registration by the year, with a starting price shown beside the search box, which in October 2026 reads from €119.99 for 1 year, and a footnote that individual domain name promotions are limited to 5 per customer. The page calls .ADULT "A new safe space for adults-only content" and gives its reasons to register: to start an adult business, to protect a non-adult brand from someone else registering it, or to be early to a new extension. Once registered, the name can carry custom email addresses or a site built on the company's website, email and site builder plans.

The FAQ says a customer does not need to host with the company to register a domain, and that domain registration on its own is welcome. Transfers of an existing domain are started through a transfer page, and the method varies by domain type. A domain already registered with the company can be moved internally to another account through the sales team. The hosting page lists free DNS management, and the menu adds registry lock, brand protection and DPML blocking for brand owners.

Hosting is sold in tiers. In October 2026 the hosting page lists web hosting from €4.99 per month, excluding VAT, for simple, personal or small business sites with basic email. The WordPress hosting page offers a first month at €0.99 with no setup fee, renewing at €14.99 per month. The dedicated servers page lists its Professional configuration, with dual Xeon Gold processors, 32GB of RAM and 100TB of data transfer, from €149.99 per month excluding VAT, with 99.99% power and network SLAs. The Advanced and Enterprise configurations sit higher on the same page, Enterprise is quoted on request, and the home page says dedicated servers come managed or unmanaged on fixed price contracts. Hosting terms of 1, 2 and 3 years carry discounts, according to the terms.

The terms that decide the choice

The .adult page sets no content rule of its own for .adult names beyond the uses it lists, and the hosting pages do not mention adult sites either way. The master terms let the company terminate a contract at once on breach of its Acceptable Use Policy, and the UDRP page asks the registrant to confirm the name is not registered for an unlawful purpose or used against applicable laws. Whether adult sites are accepted on the hosting and server products is not stated.

The GDPR page says some registries require extra identity information during registration, giving utility bills, a passport or a driver's license as examples, and that the data goes to the registry as part of the application.

The terms say subscriptions renew automatically. A customer can switch auto-renew off through the control panel before a renewal invoice is generated, but switching it off afterwards does not cancel that invoice. Leaving during the initial subscription period can bring a cancellation fee equal to that period's subscription fee less sums already paid. In October 2026 the terms list a charge of €40.00 plus VAT for a chargeback on a legitimate charge, and a €50 administration fee on an account that is canceled and later reactivated. A payment that is not honored suspends the registration or service until the account is paid. Data for a service that is not renewed, or is unpaid more than 30 days after expiry or cancellation, is deleted. The company may change the agreement at any time, effective on posting.

Liability is capped at twice the fees paid in the 12 months before the event, with exclusions for lost profit and indirect loss. The UDRP page bars moving a registration to another registrar during a pending administrative proceeding, or for 15 business days after one concludes, and says changes to that policy are posted at least 30 calendar days before they take effect. The legal page lists an abuse policy and law enforcement guidelines; a DMCA procedure is not set out.

Getting started and support

New services are bought on the company's new platform through a cart and checkout, while existing customers can still reach the older platform. Domain names are searched from the home page and the registration page.

Technical support for existing clients runs through a support desk that the contact page describes as available 24/7, with tickets, live chat and email as routes. Sales and office hours run 9am to 5:30pm Irish time, Monday to Friday, and telephone service follows those hours. The support page says customer service and technical queries are generally answered within one working day, and that a complaint reaches an escalation team of department managers, one of whom responds within an hour on Irish working days. Billing questions go to a separate billing address. Hosting includes a control panel for installing applications such as WordPress, and a migration team can move an existing website.

Company and track record

Blacknight describes itself as an ICANN accredited registrar and hosting company and says it has built its reputation over the past 15 years, with awards at local, national and international level. Its about page says it owns and manages its own infrastructure and network, peering directly at multiple points of presence and internet exchanges, and that its servers are hosted in Ireland under European Union data protection law. The servers page names INEX in Dublin as a peering point and describes Cisco routers with multiple 100Gbps links. The company says it is a member of the IIA, Hotline.ie, INEX, RIPE, AFNIC and Nominet, a Microsoft CSP Partner at Tier 1 for Office 365 and an Azure partner, and a member of the Guaranteed Irish scheme. The terms refer to a DORA addendum for financial sector clients.

Who it suits

It suits an operator who wants a .adult name and its email and DNS in one Irish-based account, with ISO certified information security and in-house support. A site that needs dedicated capacity in Ireland, with power and network SLAs on the listed configurations, will find the server pages the most specific of the company's published material. It fits less well for an operator who needs a written adult hosting policy before signing, since none is published. The WordPress offer renews well above its first month, and the .adult promotion is capped at 5 names per customer. Its clearest published strength is the operating model: the company says it owns its network and staffs its own support, and its terms set out renewals, chargeback charges and data deletion in full.