
Ask HN: Which domain name registrar do you prefer? - cryptography
Which is your go-to service for registering new domains? One requirement: whois privacy guard.
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tue4Iezi
Gandi

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zie
There new UI has been.. less than fun, but hopefully they will fix it, before
they get rid of the old UI.

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throwaway2016a
Amazon Route53 (which is backed by Gandi). Not the cheapest but the
convenience of managing my domain in the same place as my DNS and other cloud
services and the powerful access control capabilities of AWS make me willing
to spend a dollar or two more per domain per year.

Edit: having the domain scriptable / accessible via the AWS API and CLI is a
nice feature as well.

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stevekemp
I eventually ended up settling on Amazon too.

In the past I had some domains with my hosting company, some with
iwantmyname.com, and a couple with a local registrar (because buying Finnish
domains (.fi) requires a personal ID, and most registrars didn't support
them).

I started getting annoyed that they were spread amongst different registrars,
and I couldn't look in one place to see when things were due to expire. So I
picked Amazon as my registrar and moved everything there. (The good news is
now they support .FI domains too!)

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matchmike1313
I love Google Domains

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gremlinsinc
Namesilo is the best imho -- 8.90 for .com's a great API if you're wanting to
resell, they have tons of gTLDs as well, and some of the best prices.

The biggest benefit though is FREE domain privacy (usually an extra
$10-14/year). Also 2 factor auth, and other features... I can't say enough
good things about them.

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stephenr
I’m a big fan of NameSilo too.

That they _only_ do domains is another big factor for me.

I just wish they supported .au domains

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nathcd
I quite like Hover. I moved from Namecheap awhile back because of the old
Namecheap UI. Only found out later that Hover is owned by Tucows, who also
owns Ting, which coincidentally is my data provider of choice, and whom I also
love.

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stephenr
I was a fan, until they used their "Hover is a reseller" (the parent company,
Tucows is the registrar) excuse to get out of supporting DNSSEC, as _required_
for all registrars.

They then "gave in" and said "OK, we can do this manually, on request, for
$500 per-request".

Never again.

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designnomad
Namecheap

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karmakaze
Second that.

Some registrars are only good for initial registration, as renewal rates are
out of line. Namecheap also has reasonable WhoIsGuard. Basically they run a
business based on the value they provide.

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jazoom
See also Namesilo. Cheaper registration and Whois protection is always
included for free, as it should be.

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LordAragorn
Google Domains. No nonsense, private by default, one-click DNSSEC.

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slovette
Google Domains.

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jordan_
iwantmyname.com

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poisonborz
Namecheap.

I know buying a domain is not a complex thing nowadays at most registrars, but
it was one of the best/smoothest webshop experience I ever had.

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alexandernst
Their support is as bad as it gets.
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16347525](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16347525)

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WoodenChair
GoDaddy. Not because I agree with their policies, or their constant up-sells,
or their spam. But because they are cheap, in my experience have great
telephone support, and are the registrar most likely to have directions for
setting up custom DNS settings with other sites (simply as a result of their
popularity, they tend to be the one that tutorials are written to).

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chrisgoman
+1. For some reason, only GoDaddy can expire all your domains on a specific
date (for example 12/31) so that you don't have to renew your domain names at
random times. Seems fairly trivial to implement and is a MASSIVE annoyance-
saver for customers. For example, pay $12/yr domain expires on 12/31 of this
year (instead of 3/4) so maybe on 12/29, you can look at your list of domains
and figure out which ones you want to renew.

But Google domains win for the free privacy guard (GoDaddy charges $25/yr for
domain & privacy, Google domains is $12/yr)

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gremlinsinc
you should look into namesilo: 8.90 for .com and all domains get free domain
privacy.

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dcsoftware
No-IP has a free “try before you buy” and auto update client for people on
dynamic ip’s.

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rhacker
name.com

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marklyon
I've also been quite happy with them. I moved from Godaddy to Namecheap a long
while back, but never enjoyed the management interface there. The name.com
interface seems to work reasonably well and they offer me discounts on a
monthly basis for some of my TLDs.

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ScottBurson
I haven't tried the others, but DirectNIC has been fine for me.

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bwb
Uniregistry! Great ui, just ignore the terrible brokers.

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AdamGibbins
I too use Uniregistry, decent price and decent UI. Not sure what you mean by
"terrible brokers"? Are you referring to the founders history of domain
trading?

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geoff12345
i and 1 is good then I park the domain at
[http://startmydomain.com](http://startmydomain.com)

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frfl
namesilo - includes free WHOIS privacy.

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hyencomper
1and1

