
Ask HN: Best registrar only and why - biturd
I have read blogs, searched HN, and it seems it&#x27;s time again to find a good registrar.  Seems about once a year someone steps in and offers the same as everyone else plus more, and is regarded great for tech support.<p>I am in need to park 30 or so domains ( now, much more later ) all in various forms of expiration, some just renewed at places like the top 5 ( GoDaddy etc. ) and others are at obscure registrars as I inherited them that way from a client or other source.<p>I have about 6 that are up for 30 day renewal right now.  One is the domains where I have domains@example.com so I want this to be as smooth as possible.<p>I have managed DNS&#x2F;bind&#x2F;named for years, though it has been years since I have.  Now it is just troubleshooting with dig and other tools.<p><i>What is your favorite registrar only, or colo&#x2F;shared&#x2F;hosting&#x2F;ISP and why?</i><p>How are they with SSL certs, changing, and keeping up on keeping TLS secure and doing it all right.<p>I do need good DNS on their end, though I can&#x27;t say I have ever had issues with an SOA case, it&#x27;s always at the DNS level on some remote server somewhere.  Though these days I find managing DNS in most registrars browser control panels sufficient. GoDaddy is stupidly convoluted. I am not making mass changes of 1000 domain files at a time.  Just one off, add an MX, add DKIM, etc.<p>If they make setting up any of the above simpler, note that too.<p>Which ones to stay away from and why.<p>Thanks for any pointers.<p>Oh, any that will take current registration time plus what you buy is going to work better for me.  I just renewed a large batch with a terrible registrar, and want to move them, but don&#x27;t want to lose out on those 11 months I just paid for.  Some registrars offer &quot;rollover&quot; like that, where you get 11 months plus your year or more you just signed up for.
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BorisMelnik
I have been using Namecheap since 2004 which is I beleive around the time they
started and way before they were popular.

I was lucky enough to buy a ton of EMD's before the dot com bubble. Have let a
lot of them go, held on to dome. My portfolio is huge, thousands of domains
personally owned, clients, former clients, projects, etc (like you)

That said I do stand behind Namecheap. I've never had an issue with them and
any issue that comes up are promptly squashed.

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biturd
Thanks! This was the other name I was trying to remember, as I know a lot of
people like them. Thanks again.

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lobster_johnson
My company uses Gandi, and personally I use iwantmyname.com.

Gandi is a no-nonsense service:

* Seems very security-minded, and overall serious and professional. Nothing like GoDaddy.

* Their UI is conservative and well-organized; not as modern as iwantmyname.com, but not as antiquated as EasyDNS and Namecheap (and not a jumble of different, conflicting, confusing UI styles like the latter is).

* Supports (in fact, requires) zone versioning so you can always undo.

* Supports raw "BIND"-format zone files so you can quickly edit in your favourite text editor, rather than a cumbersome web form.

* Lets you share the same zone file across multiple domains. If you need more automation (eg., lots of very similar domains with a slight tweak here and there), just use the APIs.

* Great APIs.

* 2FA account security.

* Also provides SSL (cheap, toplevel CA) and very good, reasonably priced virtual hosting (US and Europe).

iwantmyname.com has a more minimalistic, modern UI, but lacks things like zone
versioning, raw editing, and they're still working on an API. Also, their 2FA
is apparently SMS-based, won't work with a standard authenticator app.

We previously used Namecheap and EasyDNS. No significant complaints, but their
UIs are horrible.

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biturd
Thank you so much. I will check it out, I have a feeling these are not going
to be 7.99 each with all the above. I also hope they are giving away domain
privacy, as charging for that in this day and age is insane.

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PhantomGremlin
FWIW about 13 years ago when I needed to register some domain names I chose
inww.com which is really Melbourne IT.

Why them? Simple. Read the terms of service you are agreeing to. At the time a
lot of them were very very biased against the consumer. Melbourne IT was
different, they were one of the few who had a reasonable policy.

Note that these terms are different for each registrar. I'm not talking about
the common ICANN rules which all registrars also require consumers to agree
to.

I don't know the current situation, for all I know Melbourne IT now has the
worst terms of service in the world! Simple inertia has kept my accounts from
moving.

Just something to think about when picking a registrar.

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Gigablah
I've been using iwantmyname.com for the past two years -- just take a look at
the front page, that's the clear, uncluttered design you'll get for your
control panel.

And yes, they let you keep your paid term for transfers.

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emcarey
I used to work for MarkMonitor so i have great insights into this. Google is
becoming a registar and they will hands down be the best in the new gtld
space. Use MarkMonitor if you can afford it- they are the industry gold but if
you can't, google will absolutely crush it in the domain space.

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sleepingspider
Gandi.net. Their system is good to use. First year free SSL, renewal is $16.
Free basic email hosting.

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tjr
I've been using Namecheap for several years, following HN recommendations. No
complaints.

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6thSigma
I really like Google Domains. All domains come with free privacy guard which
is nice. If anyone needs an invite let me know.

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jn1234
Would it be possible to get an invite?

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6thSigma
Sure, what's your email? You can email it to me if you prefer. Email is in my
profile.

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jn1234
Sent!

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stevencorona
AWS/Route53 is the best registrar IMO. 2 clicks to buy, no ads or upsells, API
access and advanced DNS features.

