Hosting.fr, part of the German group hosting.de, has announced the acquisition of the French domain registrar Netim.com. This move marks another example of the ongoing consolidation in the European hosting and domain registration market.
For Netim’s customers, the change means a migration of their services to the hosting.fr platform. For the industry, it sends a clear signal: scale and synergy are becoming decisive factors in the competitive landscape.
Why this acquisition matters
Netim is a well-established domain registrar and hosting provider based in France, accredited by ICANN and serving customers across multiple countries. With its global Anycast DNS infrastructure and support for DNSSEC, the company has been especially attractive to international clients.
By acquiring Netim, hosting.fr – operating under hosting.de – gains access to cutting-edge DNS infrastructure, expands its market reach, and strengthens its competitive position in the region. Strategically, this acquisition paves the way for greater unification of management panels, billing systems, and domain administration.
Migration timeline – July and August 2025
Hosting.fr has announced that on July 22, 2025, it will begin migrating all Netim hosting services to its own platform. The process will be fully automated to minimize customer involvement. Clients will receive detailed email notifications a few days before the migration.
A new billing model will take effect on August 1, 2025. Hosting.fr will introduce two payment options:
- Postpaid – pay after receiving the invoice,
- Prepaid – top up your account in advance.
Customer balances held with Netim will be fully synchronized on July 31, 2025.
Hosting.fr will take over complete domain management, including automatic renewals for all domains – even those expiring during the migration phase. Customers who do not wish to renew specific domains will be able to disable automatic renewals directly from the client dashboard.
A signal to the industry
This acquisition is part of a broader consolidation trend in the European hosting market. Through hosting.fr, hosting.de is steadily building a multi-brand portfolio, leveraging economies of scale and process automation to strengthen its market position in France and beyond.
For other players, this raises an important question: how to maintain competitive advantage in a rapidly consolidating environment? Options include pursuing strategic acquisitions, focusing on niche specialization, or investing heavily in automation, infrastructure, and security to remain relevant.