I now use namecheap and love them. They also have no delays in registration: when I was at a talk by Randall Munroe, he mentioned a domain name he thought was funny. 3 or 4 people lunged for their laptops to register it, and despite me having to enter my CC# (I have to start leaving $10 in my account for such emergencies), I won it, even though everyone claimed to have gotten confirmation of a successful purchase.
Chris
funny, I thought their hosting was actually quite good.
Namecheap also offers dynamic DNS, and a number of creature comforts that godady just does not have. I have been a long user of namecheap and i have not heard a single complaint from any one that i have recommend use the service. namecheap in my opinion is easier to recommend that dreamhost.
I really like NameCheap's simplicity. GoDaddy's domain controller is horribly inflated and annoying to navigate.
Domain names are so cheap that it isn't worth it to me to risk shenanigans in an attempt to save $2 or $3.
It has a clean user interface and even lower prices than Godaddy. If you deposit $500, you get an API and even cheaper prices.
They also have "domain tasting" for everybody for 5 days, which means you get a full refund for your domain name in that time period. Therefore, you can register domain names and cancel them later if you change your mind. I've lost a lot of domain names where I hesitated registering them for a few days.
Oh, and their domain privacy is only $2. It doesn't obfuscate your name, just all of the other parts. However, they can forward physical mail sent to the domain's private address to you, though I'm not sure what the cost of that is.
If you do choose to use Godaddy, always buy with their 20% off coupons found on Google if you're renewing. If you're registering a new domain, simply google "Godaddy" and then enter by clicking their ad on the search results of Google. That will give you 6.95 pricing instead of the 9.99 they currently charge--that's $3.04 cheaper per year per domain!
Re: Godaddy, how do you find the coupon codes for renewals? It wasn't clear to me from your post. Thanks!
Anyway, Dynadot is better. Rather than hunt for coupons to get Godaddy's after-coupon price of $6.95, I'd rather pay the extra 55 cents to Dynadot($7.50 bulk pricing) as standard pricing.
In order to get their bulk pricing, you have to prepay $500. And you may not ever get any of your $500 back ever again. So for me, with my half dozen or so domains, that means I have to decide that Dynadot will be my registrar for the next 9 years or so.
That's too much of a commitment for me.
They appear to be Canadian too -- which I feel is a point in their favour.
It's not too expensive and they have a very nice web interface to manage multiple domains (different edition modes, zone versioning system, free primary/secondary DNS). They're also hosting and helping several OpenSource projects.
http://www.google.com/a/cpanel/domain/new
Since it's only $10, works well, and I get all their apps and other junk with it.
I mostly use 1&1 now, but their domain management tools and interface suck. I'd love to find a cheap, non-evil registrar that has a good domain management interface and good customer service. Every time I ask around, I get new suggestions...but the people usually turn out to be shills or to have limited experience with their recommendations.
When is the Y Combinator Registrar launching, eh? ;-)
If you find a good one, let me know, as we provide automatic registration in our product, but we're not ecstatic about only supporting one registrar (Register.com) that is known mainly for being expensive...they are seemingly honest and their tools are fine, but even reseller pricing is too high (and their retail prices are laughably high).
To be honest, I haven't ever considered switching; Has anyone switched to or from DynDNS and have an anecdote about their experience to share?
6.99 domains free private registration i've pushed through 100 domains through them
Other shops come and go, but Joker is a rock.
As a downside, any purchase I make with them via Wells Fargo causes Wells Fargo to pitch a fit.
Anyone else have this problem with Dreamhost?
Of course, one of the classic problems with registrars is an inability to get your names out when things go bad. (Presumably the ones that make it difficult to join are rapidly culled by natural selection.) And it's kind of hard to judge that. I'm certainly not going to leave Moniker just to see how easily they let me go...
Moniker has services for domain appraisal and all that junk if you are into it.
I use Dreamhost and eNom.
I'd recommend them for small sites.