

Ask HN: What are some good GoDaddy alternatives? - starnix17

Hey HN'ers,<p>I was just about to register a new domain and before going through all GoDaddy up-sell BS I thought I'd ask HN if there are any good GoDaddy alternatives.<p>Any suggestions?
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nickpinkston
<http://NameCheap.com> has no hidden fees and has been great for me.

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nreece
NameCheap is great. I have loads of domains with them. Btw, they post discount
codes on their Twitter page - <http://twitter.com/namecheap> (coupon code for
August 2010 is HARVEST).

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pasbesoin
You can google "namecheap coupon" and the top site or two is consistently one
that keeps track of their coupon codes.

If you follow their "free SSL" link from their front page and register from
that direction, your cart will contain an entry for a free PositiveSSL
certificate. Note that you have to then follow the link listed on its line in
the cart (or something like that) to actually get the free certificate
included in your order. (I don't know how widely accepted/pre-installed this
certificate provider is, but it's "free".)

You can also elect free whois protection (their contact info and a rotating
email address that forwards to you) for the first year.

Note that after the first year, "free" goes away from the whois protection and
the certificate. The protection is US$2-3- for subsequent years. I don't know
about the certificate, but they also offer RapidSSL certificates, which I
believe are pretty widely accepted, for fairly cheap.

No association with them, just a satisfied user.

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shantanubala
I use <http://nearlyfreespeech.net/> for domain registration/cheap shared
hosting.

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huyegn
wanted to upvote nearlyfreespeech. Even though being a registrar is not their
main business, their site is a no-bs godsend for managing your domains. My
only wish is that they had support for more than the usual .net, .com. .org
domains

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briandoll
I haven't used them yet, but when I asked friends this question I got several
recommendations for <http://www.gandi.net/>

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bensummers
I use them. They've been consistently not evil for years.

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terrellm
Godaddy is the largest domain registrar by far and often times you can
register domains for $8 or less with a coupon. The upselling is annoying to
tech savvy people but absolutely confusing to non-techies. I'll admit that a
lot of my business's domains are registered there because they are cheap
though.

I also do some domain name investing on the side and use Moniker.com and
Fabulous.com. Both of these, as well as Dynadot and Enom, offer APIs so you
can write your own domain registration code. That's a sure-fire way to avoid
upselling :)

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sushi
I have found Google Apps to be a great place for domain registration and
perhaps one of the cheapest since they provide whois protection along with
domain at flat $10/domain name.

Nearlyfreespeech.net is pretty awesome too. I haven't purchased a domain from
there but I host my sites and they are perhaps one of the honest people in the
business.

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duck
Is there a way to use Google Apps domain registration if you aren't actually
using Apps?

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mattchew
Last I checked, Google Apps domain registration is actually a front end for
either the Namecheap or GoDaddy registrars.

Namecheap offers free whois protection too. I don't know about GoDaddy.

Namecheap + NearlyFreeSpeech.NET + Google Apps Standard for mail is a pretty
sweet combo giving a lot of bang for small bucks.

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gexla
Dynadot.com is good. Simple interface, not filled with ads. Last time I
registered a domain there I messed up the spelling and they had an option to
cancel the registration and refund my money right in the interface (I think
you get 4 days to do this.) They are also a real registrar as opposed to a
reseller.

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clark-kent
I have used Network Solutions for over 6 years and have very good experience
with them. <http://www.networksolutions.com>

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mgkimsal
i use <http://omnis.com> for many domains - they're starting to put a bit of
upsell in the process too, but it's not half as overbearing as godaddy. they
also seem to be holding prices steady - i didn't notice a big jump recently,
and the renewals are the same price - there's not (yet?) a deep discount then
hiked price on the next year.

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solost
<http://www.namesarecheap.com> has performed great for me for the last 5
years.

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mrjbq7
EasyDNS has been fantastic.

<http://www.easydns.com>

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codebaobab
<http://dynadot.com/>

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nc
Gandi.net

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RexRollman
I use Gandi.

