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Ask HN: What is your preferred domain registrar?
31 points by livinginfear on Aug 12, 2023 | hide | past | favorite | 42 comments
I'd really appreciate some recommendations for a good domain registrar. A few years ago I bought two domain names on Epik.com. I only chose them because a friend of mine had been using their services for a few years without issue, and had a referral code. Recently I've been really unimpressed with their lax security, poor management, and shady business practices. I'd like to move my domains to a new registrar, but I'm not sure who to choose. Any recommendations would be really appreciated!


Porkbun has been excellent for a long time and over the years I moved all my domains to them. They also provide a lot of built-in functionality at no additional cost.

The only issue I have is that they moved their DNS offering to Cloudfare instead of running it themselves, which is understandable to some degree as running DNS for a large numbers of domains for "free" must've been a lot of work for them and I'm sure Cloudfare made them a great offer, but I fundamentally disagree with. It also caused a few domains from certain TLDs to stop working after the transition and I later had yet another issue with url https forwarding due to DNS verified SSL certs not being issued. I expect from my domain provider that included services are solid and that they never break any aspect of my domains that they're are responsible for.

Nonetheless, apart from this one incident their offerings and support have been outstanding and I would still recommend them.


Is there anything wrong with Namecheap? It was the standard option a decade ago. I'm still with them because I never had a reason to switch.


When choosing a company I often check their about pages, checking who they really are, etc.

I came across Namecheap's affiliate marketing program, and they really seemed to treat affiliate marketers like shit. Now, think what you want about marketing, but as a business I'm for treating any business partner with respect, and if you don't like affiliate marketers then don't have the program, but don't have the program then abuse them, especially small time ones.

So, yes, there is something wrong with Namecheap. Perhaps it manifests itself in areas outside their marketing programs too, YMMV, it was enough for me to not go forward with them, an incompatible corporate culture.


I switched from a bunch, settled on Namecheap. It was easy to set up, and well, cheap.

My previous registrar actually tried to hold me hostage by registering an expired domain and reselling it to me for absurd rates. I let one domain with Namecheap expire because I never check that email, but they didn't do anything evil, so I'm happy with them.


Nothing wrong with them. I use them for a few names and inexpensive hosting. I've had a good experiences the few times I've used their chat-based support. I was saddened that there were some CSR issues when Russia invaded Ukraine, but the company routed around that.


I went to use them today and their page was down. Crazy! First time I’ve seen them down in as many years as I’ve been using them.


I found it so unusual. Sure enough they're reporting an ongoing DDoS attack.


I’m actually in the same boat. Looking for a suggestion for a registrar that will 100% respect legal, free speech, and will only take down a domain in response to a legal court order.

That excludes most examples people are providing.


Dynadot. Low prices, free domain privacy, domain tasting (refunds within 72 hours).


I've been using Cloudflare, and it has been good so far. https://www.cloudflare.com/products/registrar/

The only downside is that they don't have top-level domains that other registrars do, but it is worth checking out.


I would avoid CloudFlare as non-paying customer. Their free tier limit is 1k domains. Might sound like a lot, but if you run multiple subdomains (e.g. dev, stg, prod) in kubernetes using dynamic domain registration (e.g. external-dns), you'll hit that limit quickly.

To compare a popular service, Route53 (no affiliation) limit is 10k and they won't charge extra if you want to increase the limit, all you need to do is open a support ticket explaining the use case.


Hmm according to OP "A few years ago I bought two domain names on Epik.com", I doubt he wants to have more than 1k domains. Of course your use case doesn't fit the free-tier of CloudFlare but I wouldn't rule it out for all the other people that just want something that works from a legit company that cares about their users and the internet.


Sorry, I meant 1k registered subdomains per domain.


I used NearlyFreeSpeech many years ago...

https://www.nearlyfreespeech.net/services/domains

I may switch back to them now that Google sold out to Squarespace.


I'm a serial hobby-domain purchaser and Namecheap has never done me wrong, even when I end up using the domain for something!


Glad I'm not the only one paying the domain tax for incomplete projects.


Cloudflare due to their security posture around customer accounts.


Not the OP but I’d be interested in hearing from anyone that’s used multiple - which ones have you used, and which you prefer from a user experience perspective.


I started with GoDaddy when I was a kid because I didn't know any better. I transferred to DreamHost and was with them for a long time, tried Gandi and Namecheap a few years ago, and have settled on Dynadot.

The UI with Dynadot is pretty good (better than what I remember of GoDaddy, Gandi, and Namecheap). The customer service with Dreamhost and Dynadot was pretty good (never used Gandi or Namecheap customer service, and I actually called GoDaddy for help back then, and they were good on the phone, just crappy everywhere else).


Gandi were my go to, however, there recent movements caused me to move. I've now gone over to Mythic Beasts and so far seem decent.


+1 to Mythic Beasts. Small but effective.

Their .com/.org domains are a bit expensive though.


These days I use Cloudflare.

Before, I used Namesilo (decent prices, good customer support and mediocre UI) and iwantmyname (expensive, good customer support and no BS).

Namecheap and name.com are fine as well, but I wouldn't use them when having other options.


https://www.sav.com/

https://www.ovhcloud.com/en/domains/


https://www.bookmyname.com/ is very cheap, they don’t make money, and has a HN friendly website.

I don’t know how is their security track record though.


I like Namesilo.


Years ago, someone here on HN recommended NameSilo and I'm a happy customer ever since. Though my use case is login once a year and make the payment.


Cloudflare, it works well and is fast and the dashboard is easy to use and not full of ads. Fair pricing, good product, integrates well with their other offerings.


Cloudflare, Porkbun, used to use Namecheap but their prices are too high now.


In abandoning Gandi due to recent changes, I've been quite happy with Netim, also France based.

I've also been happy with Purelymail for email. More than happy.


I use gandi. They recently started to charge for email inboxes, which is a shame. Besides that I don’t have other complains. I now use iCloud+ for email.


Currently: DirectNIC and Namecheap

Past: One&One, Hostgator

Hallowed antiquity: Network Solutions, when domain names cost $100 and you were happy with .com, .net, or .org dammit.


iwantmyname.com, because I couldn’t find anywhere else that would sell .ms domains for cheap. Never had a problem with them


https://www.inwx.de/en


https://joker.com


Been using Pair Networks' service pairdomains.com for years

Never an issue


Have used both Porkbun and Infomaniak, neither with any issues.


I’ve been a happy customer at Dynadot for many years.


Am surprised. No love for iwantmyname.com?


I use TransIP, they're ok.


Cloudflare


namecheap / porkbun / njalla


Route53




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