Ask HN: Buying domains on behalf of users, good idea or bad idea?

1 pointzachrose1 comment

It seems like there aren't any web services/applications out there that will register domains on your behalf. Imagine signing up for mybiz.yourapp.com and then paying $10/year to get mybiz.biz and a CNAME.

Is there a good reason not to do this? Are there any registrars that have "merchant accounts"? (Googling around is not serving me well here.)

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A scenario I've seen is "weeeeell, your first year is up; our ToS says we can change the pricing at any time, so it's now $1000/year. Don't like it? All right, but remember, the domain is ours. You're completely free to start your business anew on a completely different domain; how about $10/year for that new domain?"

I would not trust such scheme _at all_ - it is much, MUCH safer to buy the domain and set up the CNAME yourself.

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