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I asked Gandi.net why I should consider them when shopping around, since they are a bit more expensive. Here was the response I got:

It is true, Gandi does charge slightly more for domains than some other registrars. We do feel that we are still affordable, however. The reason we need to charge a small premium is that we have a different business model than other, larger companies, and cannot get by on razor-thin margins. We are a commercial organization, certainly, and we do make money, but we also support the community of innovators in the hosting and domain name management space, and we do not advertise, but rely on word of mouth for our marketing. We do not buy market share with ads, and we do not make empty promises to capture customers. We also include some services (such as a free year of SSL certificates and the ability to obfuscate your whois data) that other registrars tend to charge incrementally for. This is because we believe that your data is yours. We will never sell your private information as some others do, and so we do not have that revenue stream.

We appreciate your willingness to consider Gandi as an ethical, no-bullshit alternative to GoDaddy. Right now a lot of domains are available at $8/yr through the end of 2011. We hope you will join us.

Seemed like a very reasonable response. I've been happy with them for the past few months with a few new domains. Just finished transferring all my existing GoDaddy domain names to Gandi.net.

I use DreamHost for my registrations (with no hosting account).

They accept Amex and will auto-renew. They're $9.99/yr (or within a few cents of that) and that includes private registration if that's something you're looking for. I've had no problems with them, their interface isn't perfect, but it's a lot nicer than most registrars' systems that I've used.

Now for the bad. They don't offer DNS service without a hosting package. I actually use NameCheap's DNS. NameCheap (being kinda a stand-up company) offers free DNS service to you even if you aren't their customer. And, frankly, their DNS control panel is nice enough that I would switch to them, except for the fact that they don't auto-renew and they charge extra for private registrations.

If you don't need DNS, DreamHost seems to work nicely. Decent control panel to make changes in, private registration included in the fee, auto-renewal, $9.99 price, and accepts Amex. It isn't their primary business, but they are ICANN accredited - and they aren't that small (http://www.dotandco.net/ressources/icann_registrars/details/..., see New Dream Network - not that far off from Name.com or Gandi).

I do this, and I actually have DNS. I think it's because what I did is:

* Sign up for a hosting plan one of the times that it was super-cheap (I paid like $9 for a year of hosting and got a free domain for the year.)

* Cancel hosting after cheap period is over

So all of my DNS stuck around, and I can change it and everything like normal. I think I can even buy domains elsewhere and use Dreamhost as my DNS server for them.

The one complaint I have with them is that their forgot password scheme is "email your password in plaintext", which makes me feel a little bit like my domains aren't safe. So if I were to find my ideal registrar (~$10, not evil, decent interface, free DNS), I'd switch for that reason.

Hover came out of TuCows. Perhaps that rep can provide a more detailed description. (Amongst other things, I have a feeling I'm missing an intermediate business name, but it just won't come to me at the moment.) I've noticed his comments here, a few times, and he's never seemed pushy.

I've had a domain registration with TuCows, now Hover, for over a decade. No problems. A bit pricier than Namecheap, where I have some other domain registrations.

As for Namecheap, they've been immediately responsive, the few times I've needed customer support. My problems were nothing difficult, though.

I'm glad Namecheap switched their site to be entirely SSL/TLS, a couple of years ago. (Formerly, they only encrypted the payment process, with obvious implications.)

P.S. DomainDirect. That's the missing name. They were a TuCows company. They turned into or assets were acquired by Hover. Transition was smooth. As far as I know, still Canadian (though with the attendant U.S. baggage associated with .com, .org, .net and such).

If you put funds in your Namecheap account in advance, you can auto-renew just fine. And when you add funds, you can use Amex via Google Checkout or Paypal.

Regarding Gandi:

1) They are more expensive, but not that much per domain. Meanwhile, as opposed to helping draft SOPA, take a look at what they support:

https://www.gandi.net/supports/

2) The language barrier and the time difference have made for a slight obstacle on the one or two occasions I've had to contact support in 11 years. It wasn't completely insignificant, but it never made me regret my choice.

> They are more expensive, but not that much per domain

With no coupons, .com extension, including ICANN fees:

Gandi: $17.94/year

GoDaddy: $11.62/year

Namecheap: $10.16/year

So Gandi's premium is almost the whole retail price of a domain elsewhere. They're charging more than double what they pay Verisign per domain. It might be worth it, but it is a big difference.

After using Namecheap, Godaddy and a number of others I have settled on Gandi because I find their whole attitude great. I really appreciate the way they dont try and upsell... ever. And a while ago they did a promotion where they gave out a free domain for every year you had been a customer. I believe they really do care about their customers and it shows in the way they do business and how they get out of your way until you need them.

> Gandi: $17.94/year

$15 even is both what's on their price list and on my bank statement for the domain I renewed this month. If there are fees, I think they're included.

But even if I'm missing something, an ~$8 difference kindof proves my point. Sure, it's a big proportional difference, but the only reason that's the case is that the price of domains themselves isn't much in absolute terms -- it's not hard to spend more on dinner than any of the domain prices you listed, and the difference between Gandi and GoDaddy/Namecheap represents lunch, or a couple of coffees or sodas.

I use joker.com. They're a Swiss company that does both German and English perfectly, and aren't very expensive. They accept AmEx.

I used to use joker.com about twelve years ago. I liked them a lot; can't remember why I stopped using them.

Check out https://www.nearlyfreespeech.net/. You pay for what you use and they are the most upstanding domain/hosting service I've ever used.

Sorry for not being clear, but I'm asking about domain registrars, not hosting services. They're not an accredited domain registrar and I know I'm not the only one that cares about that.

I want to deal with the company that controls my fate in the event of a legal issue, domain theft... or if we lose this battle, responding to SOPA actions. A reseller is a bit powerless to help you with those things.

I watched Nearly Free Speech go to bat for a friend being sued over a possibly frivolous trademark dispute. In the end, after my friend lost the lawsuit and the court ordered the domain name to be transferred, somehow Nearly Free Speech interpreted it as allowing said friend to keep the domain with a blank page on it and it's still up, several years later.

Ah. I hadn't actually realized NFSN wasn't an accredited registrar. http://faq.nearlyfreespeech.net/section/domainregistration/a...

I just initiated a full transfer to http://iwantmyname.com -- this is the sort of company where the co-founder personally replies to your support tickets.

That's a very bad thing. Domain registration isn't something you want to trust to an upstart that could go out of business, sell the business, or encounter legal problems they're not big enough to handle. Losing a domain name for an extended period is about the worst thing that could happen to an online business, like mine... worse than losing a payment processor, ad network, web host, or any other service. Without your domain, your customers can't reach you and nobody can buy from you... and you can't simply buy another. Stick with accredited registrars with a few million domains in their portfolio.

Now add SOPA to the mix for a site that hosts user content (like blog comments). If anyone files a right of action against you, the registrar pulls your domain, and you have 5 days to file a counternotice to get it back. If you're buying from a reseller like this, how many of those 5 days are wasted between the time they're notified by the registrar they resell and them notifying you? You really don't have the time to spare -- you need to get that notice, retain counsel, write and send the counternotice, and get it to the registrar (who you may not be able to directly contact by buying through the reseller) before time's up.

IWantMyName is an accredited registrar (at least, they claim to be) and their founders post on HN, so there's that. I understand what you're getting at though -- I don't run an online business so I can take the risk.

By the way, Hover.com is basically TUCOWS, which makes them one of the biggest registrars.

This works for me http://www.reg.ru/en/

I've used pairnic.com for years. No issues so far. They're delightfully boring and aren't going anywhere any time soon.

Regarding item number one: They do have auto-renew. You can enable it in the control panel.

Only if you pre-deposit funds with the company. They still won't charge your card each year like everyone else.

http://www.namecheap.com/support/knowledgebase/article.aspx/...

From what I can tell, the domain registration business is a tough business to be in. Prices are controlled, so you either have to deal with other product/service up-selling or expect to pay more for the privilege of not seeing the clutter of 'related' services.

I don't know if it's possible to have it both ways. The registrar has to make money somehow. Personally I'm at the point where I'd rather pay the premium of $5 per domain per year (an approx. $500 premium in my case) than deal with the nonsense.

I responded (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3388223) to the same person to whom your comment is directed. I recommended INTERNET.BS, and from my experience, what you say doesn't seem to apply to them. Their prices are low, and I have no knowledge of them imposing any related service, or charging for not imposing such. Whatever they are doing differently, to make a profit, is not obvious to me.

Thanks. I'll check them out. They're new to me.

Honestly, as a US citizen, I do get nervous about using a non-US company, but I have no good reason for that feeling.

The name, Internet.BS, did make me smile though. This whole SOPA mess could be called Internet B.S.

I also like the name, and I have yet to find anything to dislike about them, except for the already-mentioned, occasionally-flaky DNS, but I've also experienced that with "bigger" players such as NAME.COM. Apparently, for any domain considered important, DNS should always be handled separately from the registrar.

i use omnis.com. $8.95/year. They will gently try to sell you hosting and privacy controls - I gently ignore them. With bulk, it's down to $8.70/year IIRC (and lower, I just don't have that many there). The bulk of my domains are there now, and I will probably have all there by next year.

It's not the best interface, but the price/performance is fine, and I don't have to go hunting for coupons every few months. They've not modified prices in the 2+ years I've been there.

Name.com is pretty bad too http://nathanhammond.com/namedotcom-another-unscrupulous-reg...

Basically: They opt customers in to a "service" where they show ads on any subdomain they haven't setup a DNS record for. Name.com keeps all the money, but the TOS says that you are responsible for making sure that they content that they choose to display on your domain is legal.

Been using dynadot for a couple years now, solely for registrations (so can't speak to any of their other offerings). No problems so far.

Related question: When transferring domains (if I have 2-3 years paid through GoDaddy), do those years transfer as well? I'm assuming no and that's the only reason I'm holding back from transferring yet. I'm planning on doing it when the domains are ready to expire. Is this a smart/dumb move? Any advice?

Those years transfer, and another year is added, no matter where you go.

Interesting. So does that payment stay through GoDaddy or does it pass through whoever I transfer it to (namecheap, name, gandi, etc)?

Think about it like this: Verisign manages the .COM registry, a database of domain names, what registrar controls that domain, their expiration date of the domain and its DNS servers.

Verisign makes available a few very simple operations that registries can invoke on this database in exchange for specific payments:

* Add X years to expiration date ($fee times X)

* Change registrar of domain and add 1 year to expiration ($fee)

* Change DNS servers of domain (free)

You paid GoDaddy to invoke the first operation, GoDaddy paid Verisign the fee, and the change was made in the database.

You are now going to pay some other registrar to invoke the second operation, they will pay Verisign the fee, and the change will be made in the database.

Your payment to GoDaddy was for a single thing (make this update to the database) and they already did it. There was not going to be any ongoing activity on subsequent years, there's no reason for any payment to move to anyone else.

This was really helpful. Thanks man. I'll be switching very soon.

I decided to go with name.com since they didn't have an F rating with the BBB, mainly due to that they responded to all of their complaints (7). You'd be surprised how many companies don't. I am a bit concerned about their $25 lock out fee if there are too many failed logins to your account though.

I don't disagree with point 1, but I will say that Namecheap has always been very good about warning me if a renewal is coming up. It's hard to miss their warnings if you've got some simple filters on your inbound email.

If you register a lot of domains then I recommend eNom. It took a little while to open our account, but their support has been fantastic on the rare occasion we needed it.

http://www.dynadot.com/

They have .coms at $9.75, accepts Amex and has auto-renew. I've never been let down by this company.

1) Namecheap supports Google Checkout, so you can pay through Checkout but have it backed by Amex. Pretty sure I've done that in the past with Namecheap

I usually use 1and1.com and I don't have any complaints.

I love http://dyndns.com -- their customer service is awesome.

I've been using Netfirms. About 30 domains over last 7 years or so. Have also used Gandi.net, 1and1.

please let us know where you move to. i'm also disappointed by the lack of good options

I'm moving to Namecheap. Gandi was my first pick but the advantages are not worth doubling what I spend on domains. Namecheap is big enough (accredited, as many domains in its portfolio as Gandi) that I don't think they'll be going anywhere. I also like how they deal with lawyers trying to shut down domains -- where GoDaddy immediately caves and pulls the domain in response to an abuse complaint, Namecheap has consistently refused to take down domains or uncover privacy-protected WHOIS info without a court order.

That's about the best I can expect from a US-based registrar, they're on top of the PR right now so I'm sure they'll provide good service in case of any problems with the transfers, and their prices are competitive with what GoDaddy was offering.

As for my complaints about payment, I pre-funded my account through Google Checkout. That let me use my American Express card and I put enough on it to cover at least 2 years of auto-renewing my domains.

For language barrier try a uk company...

I use uk2.net and daily.co.uk

Reliable. Don't know of any sopa stance.

Does anyone register with dreamhost? Their DNS system isn't bad either.

I've had luck with bulkregister.com (they have auto-renew, at least).

Have been using namecheap for few years already.

Have you checked out http://domainsite.com

I use INTERNET.BS, which is in the Bahamas. They are about as cheap as anyone. Their interface is simple, fast, and comprehensive. They give you total, self-serve control over every aspect of your domain, including moving it to another registrar. I've never needed any special support from them. They don't hijack anything. They provide whois privacy for free. They have no hidden fees. They don't charge any tax. The only problem I've had with them is that their DNS sometimes goes out, and my domains become temporarily unreachable. You'll have to use someone else for DNS, as will I, when my domains become more important to me, but as far as registering and maintaining your domains, I honestly don't think that anyone else I've come across is really any better than these guys. I'm saying all this as just another customer. I don't have any other connection to them.

http://internet.bs

Here is a thread where their CEO personally responded to some concerns.

http://webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=1081420

Here are some positive comments about their reliability.

http://webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=1072054

Here is a thread about using CloudFlare with them, which is something you might want to do when it comes to better DNS.

http://webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=1090725

EDIT: They take American Express, they automatically renew, and given that you are concerned about SOPA, you should know, for what it's worth, that your agreement with them will be "governed by the laws of The Commonwealth of The Bahamas".