Which domain registrar is best? | Hacker News Reader

Which domain registrar is best?

cringely.com

26 pointsrfreytag38 comments

Dang, ok, I'll be the dissenter. I like Godaddy.

Despite their slimy personna, their one saving grace is that when I am setting anything up that requires a DNS configuration (example: Heroku-hosted site), there is ALWAYS a Godaddy-specific tutorial available to help me get through it. For that reason alone, I bailed on Namecheap (et. al) and embraced Godaddy as a registrar.

Now, because the brand is so horribly raunchy, I rarely mention this to anyone... as it embarasses me personally.

I don't care about a slimy persona or raunchy brands. Have you never used a registrar where making a DNS change doesn't require 11 clicks and each one takes 3~10 seconds to load?

Not to mention how everything is plastered with upsells that are worthless to me. GoDaddy goes out of its way to make what you're trying to do harder. This is why I don't like GoDaddy.

Edit: I use Dreamhost for my domains. It may be a mediocre shared hosting solution but the domain registering and managing experience is fast, clean, market-priced, and they provide free whois anonymizing.

Exactly why we created http://nametoolkit.com, I've used Gandi and they're not bad, but even their interface is a bit clunky, makes you click twice (to commit the DNS change you've just submitted).

> Have you never used a registrar where making a DNS change doesn't require 11 clicks and each one takes 3~10 seconds to load?

Yeah. And I won't be moving from name.com anytime soon.

seriously.. get amazon route53, and manage it with DNS30.com. You get all the power, in a really simple inteerface. No 11 clicks

It's not about the slimy brand, it's about how trivial tasks like updating DNS records take minutes whereas with a different registrar they would take just a few seconds, how they try to upsell you on everything, and how every page in their admin panel is filled with ads.

I also don't see how the DNS thing is an issue. Some setup guide or tutorial says "Add an CNAME for your subdomain pointing to example.com" and it's pretty clear no matter what DNS hosting you're using.

I'm in the same boat as you.

Websites usually have tutorials specifically tailored for GoDaddy.

Also, whenever I call their customer support, they've always been friendly and helpful.

Man, my karma is already negative. It's gonna plummet now...

So I've used Godaddy for years but have recently moved on to using namecheap. I've not felt the need however to move older domains over to namecheap godaddy is pretty painless now that its set up. The name host thing has become old hat so thats not a big win for me.

My biggest issue with GoDaddy has been their effing upsell process when you try to buy or renew a domain. I find it slimy how they try to stick you with all these damn add ons when you just want to purchase or renew a domain you have to go through about 3 screens of upsells with huge "Buy Me / Next" buttons and one tiny "no thanks" link at the bottom of a massive page. I would never recommend anyone to use GoDaddy because of this because there's a pretty large chance of them getting stuck with some stupid add-on they didn't need.

I'll keep my existing domains there because my understanding is that transferring is a bitch but they're not getting any new domain registrations from me.

I just registered a domain with name.com After years of godaddy it was really refreshing to try a registrar that didn't try to upsell you 100 different things during the check out process.

I also use Name.com and love them (still in the process of switching domains over as they expire from GoDaddy). Very useable interface with no up selling and excellent customer service. They have a small office in Denver which is convenient for me since I'm in school just down the road. Overall I'm 100% happy with them.

Do you actually visit the office of your domain registrar? I'm curious about the convenience afforded by their office being close...can't think of what they might do for you in-person.

I had been using a number of companies in the past, most recently 1&1 which I HIGHLY recommend AGAINST. I ended up dishing out the $90 or whatever reseller fee to tucows and I am now my own opensrs registrar at http://urgo.shopco.com . I don't really actively try sell domains, it just gives me the power to make sure things work. Been doing this for about a year now and quite happy with it.

A few things to consider with any registrar:

- Cost for a redemption if a name is deleted. There is always a cost for this since the registrar is charged for this by the registry operators. The only question is what the markup is. - How soon after expiration does the registrar put the name on hold so it doesn't resolve. - Does the registrar try to make you renew with them once the name has expired (many do but ICANN doesn't allow this). - Although a domain can be deleted by the registrar any time after expiration, most registrars offer a grace period that could run up to 44 days past expiration that you can still renew the name - Make sure they are not only ICANN accredited (in other words not a reseller) but that they are actually registering names. There are ICANN accredited registrars that actually have gone through the accreditation process and are acting as resellers for others (as hard as that is to believe). Check the registry whois on their domain for example and see if it lists another "registrar".

1and1 is not bad ... their domains were only $8.99, but now cost $9.99 ... but they offer free private whois info which others (GoDaddy and Namecheap charge for).

The downsides? ... interface is slow and annoying and to cancel domains you have to go to an entire other subdomain (something like cancel.1and1.com) ... for reasons that I do not understand.

IIRC namecheap gives you an ssl cert and whois privacy for free with their $10 domains.

Well that is a really good question. I have had the same thoughts about consolidation to one, but it's hard since none really offer all domain extenstions I own.

I have been with Godaddy for a long time (before I moved away and got on the train again). It's ugly and a shitty organisation but it just works and is rather cheap.

I have some domains hosted with mediatemple since they had a great 5£/com offer not long ago.

There are a few others out there that I hear often like

namecheap

gandi

hover

On this topic it's really interesting to read http://www.marco.org/2011/04/14/why-is-it-so-hard-to-be-a-go...

I guess I could go on and on with the list, but the only thing I can not do so far: give a surefire, perfect and reliable solution. I guess it also comes down to personal preference in the end.

My experience with Gandi is quite different. I always received timely responses to my emails and I'd say their service was always in line with their "No bullshit" punchline.

For more on this, read http://www.gandi.net/no-bullshit

I've been a satisfied customer for five-plus years. Being French, I wonder if the difference in support might be related to language issues (but isn't Marco Arment French?).

Also, they tend to hire good hackers even though they may not offer the best work experience for a hacker. I hear they let them work on other projects if roughly in line with the company's development. For example the main guy behind dotclear (a blogging engine) is/used to be working there. IIRC, a guy working on OpenBSD is also working there.

And they support some Open Source projects: http://www.gandi.net/supports/

Marco is definitely not French. Listen to a talk or podcast with him and that will be immediately apparent. ;-)

> hover

Hover apparently stores your password in plaintext, as discussed: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2727123.

Not any more: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2740887

Nice to see, thanks.

What does a domain registrar do exactly? I buy the domain and they hold the purchase records for me and then tell me when it expires. What is a crappy registrar and what problems can you face with a crappy one?

A crappy registrar spams the hell out of you and makes the renewal process long, painful, and full of irrelevant marketing.

A good registrar provides you with a service that is easy to use, unobtrusive, and provides flexible tools for managing (updating WHOIS, transferring, configuring) your domains.

The actual task of domain registration is technically straight forward, but it is the type of service that touches a lot of businesses, so it attracts a the type of business owner who looks to leverage their large customer base. This allows them to push the cost of registration down to the point of being a loss leader. The real value for them isn't in selling registrations, but building a large list of customers to whom they can sell "value add" services.

I really like NearlyFreeSpeech.net for domain registration.

I have a few at Gandi that will be moved either to NFS or to Namecheap when renewal time comes up. Gandi is nice and all, but quite a bit more expensive comparatively.

I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned dynadot yet. They're amazing. Of the several registrars I've tried, they are by far the best.

Maybe a simple vote would be more beneficial?

Trying to digest all of the comments is hard work when you are looking for a definitive answer :)

My vote goes to 123-reg though, great interface offers a nice user experience but if things go wrong, their support is awful!

Any vote would be skewed in the direction of larger registrars.

I've used Namecheap, Moniker, Hover and Godaddy. The only one I didn't like was Godaddy due to how difficult their site is to navigate.

Godaddy seems to get more orders through affiliate than retail.

http://www.dnsimple.com/ . Worth every penny.

I use 1&1. I've largely been happy with it, and they have decent 24x7 support.

It's certainly not Godaddy.

nearlyfreespeech.net is the way to go.

DYN.

I've used Joker (joker.com) for 11 years now. Barring a very large syn-flood attack on their infrastructure about 5 years ago, I've had no trouble with them. They also give you free mail-forwarding and DNS which is a welcomed bonus.

I use, and love, Joker, but they don't offer any sort of anonymous whois data which is a gap.

They at least used to allow it - I've got "n/a" on all my contact IDs (except the e-mail fields, of course). Not sure if they allow it when creating a new contact ID today. The last one I set up anonymously was 4 years ago.

namecheap

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