Ask HN: How to reliably register domains in Europe? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How to reliably register domains in Europe?

6 pointsFreeHugs8 comments

Where do you HN people register important domains?

I have a domain that my life kind of depends on. I built my business on top of it for many years now. If I lose it, I would go from a comfortable lifestyle to zero income immediately.

Currently it is registered with a small German ISP, which recently got bought by a US company.

That makes me uncomfortable. God knows how professionally they run their business. If they make a mistake or maliciously take or sell my domain, God knows whom I would have to sue.

I think I should move the domain elsewhere.

What options do I have? How do you guys handle this?

View on HN

Gandi.net is France-based and apparently one of the best in the business.

( I had a rough move at first with them, coming from using another service for a decade, but they've been solid so far. )

I second gandi.

A very good UI/UX on their web service, a clear API that's usually well supported for domain TLS auth (certbot), a very complete documentation, and a good support.

What makes them "one of the best in the business" when evaluating their trustworthyness?

I wonder if it really would be a good choice to use a registrar from another country.

Since I am not based in France, I could probably not afford to sue them in case they mess up.

So if they mess up, my leverage to get them to act is probably non existant.

I mentioned France because EU regulations are better than elsewhere for customers, you also asked specifically about Europe. It's hard to find a bad review or a disgruntled customer anywhere, they consistently rank high in all articles or reports you might find about registrars / hosts, and they do not advertise themselves.

Also, they're not a newcomer, but a relatively big player ( despite the lack of advertising ) and independent, not part of one of those American umbrella companies with dozens of fake subcompanies who couldn't care less about individual cases.

I am based in Asia and even here they have an excellent reputation. I happened to find them at a time they were short on hands and releasing new products, their replies to my issues were slow and I was not happy about it -- full disclosure. Yet here I am recommending.

I was contacted directly by the area manager and offered compensation in the form of free services after I complained. In my experience they are serious, and I haven't found any better as yet.

You want GANDI.

They have been well known and respected in the RIPE (https://www.ripe.net/about-us) and Free/Open Source communities for something like two decades now.

My personal vanity domain goes back to 1995, and I registered it through Heller Information Systems, back when they were one of the biggest BBSes in the world. But every domain I’ve registered since then has been exclusively through gandi.net.

https://domains.google.com/ ?

Not sure Google, whose favourite past time is shutting down every couple of years services millions use would be the best option particularly when absolute reliability is a requirement.

Ars Technica has a 'graveyard' mini site somewhere devoted to listing everything Google shuts down.

Edit : https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2019/04/googles-constant-pro...

I've used gandi.net for years without any issue.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com