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Comment by LunarCamper | Hacker News Reader

What's a better one? I've been using Google Domains, I don't really have a reason to complain about them, but I've always wondered whether parking everything with a big corporation like that will have its drawbacks one day.

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I got angered by the domains part of Google Workspace (technically it's not the same as the Google Domains team), as they "lost" my access to the root domain name that I was using for a Google Workspace account that I deleted later:

- there was no way to move the "root" domain name away from Google Workspace while the account was still in service,

- after deleting the account, any access was definitely lost (I spent a lot of time on the phone with them, but they provided no help),

- the lost domain name was never "released", it remained officially under my ownership until the very last day of its registration period, even though I had no way to act on it.

- when I called that out a bug, they firmly replied that no there was no bug...

So, the lesson is: never use a domain name important for your business as the root domain name of a Google Workspace account, unless you really are sure that you will never need to move it to another registrar nor to delete the account.

A clients domain that was purchased through Google Workspace was actually a white labelled Godaddy.

Yep, but GoDaddy Support refused to help as it was the responsibility of Google Workspace to manage it...

Moreover the domain did not belong to my GoDaddy account (which makes sense, as I created the GW account and acquired the root domain several years before I signed up to GoDaddy). So maybe it was a hidden GoDaddy account, something like a service account for the exclusive use of GW internal tools?

I switched to NameCheap a couple years ago. I don't have anything to complain about.

I, too, use namecheap. In fairness I’m not as sophisticated as at least 95% of people on hacker news but it has certainly met all of my needs for the half dozen sites and 2 dozen domains I own

namecheap is fine as long as you don't have a problem. but if you have a problem you can be absolutely sure that they will never fix it.

Ive had the COO call me personally on a sunday before to iron stuff out. That's not true.

How many domains do you have with them/what's your monthly spend? I suspect this varies wildly.

Can't speak for aliquot, mine is around a low hundreds of dollars per year across two accounts (personal and professional, not linked) and service has been exemplary.

I have purchased a hundred or so since I got with them almost 10 years ago, but keep about an average of 5-10 at any given time. Monthly spend is minimal, I pay for 2yr+ up front.

Not my experience at all. Every time I've opened a support ticket, the initial response has been fast and the problem has been resolved quickly (based on the 3 or 4 incidents I've had over around a decade with them).

I use hexonet. Can't complain. They do everything right.

The website's homepage is deceiving. The control panel they offer is really for power users. They expose literally everything, and have APIs for most things that you'd want to automate. For people who have to manage multiple domains, it's helpful.

Porkbun is really good. Cloudflare also sells domains at registry prices, very convenient if you already use their services.

Most of my projects heavily use AWS, so I just use Route53's registrar for them. I ain't keen on parking everything with a big corporation like Amazon, either, but at least their transfer process is pretty thoroughly documented so I could always migrate elsewhere.

My main personal domain is through freedns.afraid.org, which in turn uses registryrocket.com for the actual registrar. I'm sure there are better options as far as nameservers and registrars go, but (aside from me forgetting to renew every couple years) it's been rock solid and worth every penny of whatever pittance I ended up paying for a premium account a decade-ish ago.

And then I've got a random .is domain registered through 1984 Hosting. Still haven't figured out a use for it.

Note that Amazon themselves only register com and org directly: for most other TLDs they resell Gandi.net or other registars.

Most companies use some other company. The company I use, which is local to where I live because I want the local reliable support, uses Enom. I can't be bothered to get an Enom account so I pay them. Others use resellerclub etc. So instead of going with Godaddy or any of the big names, get a hosting provider with rock solid customer support and service. Either way, you'll probably end up with a domain from Enom but at least you'll have good service from a local provider.

Again, in case most people don't know this, most hosting providers are resellers of the big companies. They all do the same thing and have access to the same stuff. The only difference is that individual company's pricing and service. Pick wisely!

I miss dyn.com. They were my registrar for over a decade before Oracle bought then and made them suck. They were the one registrer where you felt like you were dealing with a professional company, not "Crazy Eddie's discount Domains". When Oracle closed them down, I moved to namecheap, which is pretty good overall.

I would love a Crazy Eddie’s Discount Domains website built using 90’s html where the domains are sold like timeshares. Do I even own this domain? Not clear, but at $0.90 cents a year who can complain. A counter for page visits and Eddie’s cocaine budget.

It's possible that whatever you bought the domain for will be existentially dependent on an urgent need to talk to a human at your registrar (such as in the case of transfer, fraud, hacking, or a mistake).

Never ever use any google product if you might need to talk to a human.

We use a combination of AWS and Gandi.

Hover. Been SO happy with them for a lot of domains for a long time.

i recommend porkbun. namesilo is good. and never use namecheap.

Moved all my domains to cloudflare. Never been happier.

joker.com

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