Q1 2026: Top 20 Fastest Growing EU Operators

Winners in this category capture a disproportionate share of new demand in the European market. ShareShift defines fastest-growing providers through:

1. Acquisition Index, how much new inventory is a provider capturing. Values above 1 indicate that a provider is capturing more than their fair share of the new demand, and thus taking share from competitors. It's often the result of successful market entry or branding campaigns (cf. Hostinger), or a bulk-migration event as in the case of OpusDNS, one of this quarter's winners.
2. Annual Expansion Rate, how fast the provider is expanding relative to its size. This percentage-based number is annualized from recorded quarter's value, and tends to be the largest for smaller players.

Taken together, the Acquisition index and the expansion rate tell readers how fast any given competitor is growing, and whether it's a major disru based on its expansion rate.

Formulas:

Acquisition Index = Share of New Domains / Overall Market Share
For example, NameCheap has 0.8% market share in Europe, but acquired 2.4% of all new domains added to our inventory in Q1'26. Their Index is 2.4/0.8 = 3

Annual Expansion Rate = New Domains / All Domains
For example, NameCheap had 377,000+ domains under management, and added 37,000 more. Their quarterly expansion rate is 37/377*4 = 40%.

Scope and methodology:

Our full analysis includes 500+ providers, but this shortlist only covers vendors with 50,000+ active domains under management. Additionally, two providers were excluded from this report due to differences in their business model: Just Eat (vertical) and Afternic (marketplace).

Winners in this category grow their overall portfolio the fastest. They capture a healthy share of new inventory, lose little through outbound migrations, and keep churn in check.

Given that only 5 out of 20 providers in Part 1 made it to Part 2, ShareShift can confidently say that many gainers are running a leaky bucket: acquiring a lot of new domains, but losing even more through churn.

The reverse is also true: 15 vendors that are growing at above-market rate overall, are not in the Top 20 Acquirers list. They are likely under-investing in marketing campaigns and coasting on their current growth trajectory + loyal customer base.

Kudos to Hostinger, SEOHOST, and Cloudflare for scoring in the Top 10 for both. OpenProvider and Dynadot get honorable mentions for getting into the Top 20. 

Formulas:

Velocity = QoQ growth of Provider / QoQ growth of Market

For example, Vercel's European portfolio grew by +34% vs Q4'25, but the market overall only grew by 4%. Their Velocity is 34 / 4 = 8.4

Scope and methodology:

Our full analysis includes 500+ providers, but this shortlist only covers vendors with 5,000+ active domains under management. Additionally, several providers were excluded from this report due to differences in their business model: Saw.com, ParkLogic, Above.com, Premium.pl, GoodDNS.