

Ask HN: Which domain registration site would you recommend? - hvasishth

I am planning to register a domain and would love to hear if this group has any recommendations.
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Shooter
Going beyond shady sales practices and bad customer service, I've actually had
several registrars (and/or individual registrar employees) try to steal
domains from me in the past, In some cases, I had to resort to lawsuits to get
my domains back. I own a few thousand domains (no, I'm not a domain squatter),
and all of the domains I've had trouble with were very valuable. The worst
instance was over a two-letter .com domain. It took almost two years to get it
back.

I will not use Register.com, Network Solutions, or InterCosmos Media/DirectNIC
ever again. I occasionally use GoDaddy as part of a multi-pronged backorder
strategy, but I get my domains out of there as quickly as possible. I will
never do straightforward new registrations there again. They did some of the
most egregious stuff.

I use several registrars that have been mentioned, but I still haven't found
one that I consider both really good and cheap.

~~~
onwardly
How do you own several thousand domain names without being a squatter?

Also interested to hear any details about how they tried to steal domain names
from you.

~~~
Shooter
1\. I define a domain squatter as someone that buys domains and sits on them
in the hopes of achieving a (usually inflated) payday, without actively using
them except for maybe a scammy AdSense page. In contrast, I think about 90% of
my domains are in active use, and the rest have been reserved for projects
that are in the pipeline. [And by 'in the pipeline', I mean funding has been
set aside and other work is being done on the project.] I own quite a few
companies, and once you get into lead generation for those companies (and
clients in turn), localization efforts, landing pages, educational materials,
etc. - it is very easy to start racking up the domains. I've also been buying
domains for many years.

I HAVE sold several domains, but usually only ones that I find a better domain
for, or ones where I have abandoned a project. A tiny number of the 'empty'
domains were reserved for my existing companies that are not accepting new
clients...just to hold onto IP. I would develop them if we started accepting
new clients. I have also bought a few domains with the sole intention of
reselling them quickly, but only when I had a buyer in mind for a brandable
name that had not been registered yet or for a very unique/rare domain that I
had gotten indirectly via corporate acquisition.

2\. In the simplest case, a registrar employee turned off my transfer block
and then moved my domain directly into his account. He also disabled my email
alerts.

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charliepark
I've used a number of different registrars, and the one I keep coming back to
again and again is DreamHost. I don't know whether you need to host with them
to use them to register domains, but ... here's what I love about them:
DreamHost makes it really really easy to move your domains away from
DreamHost. That sounds counter-intuitive (if they're so good, why would I want
to move them away?), but it isn't. When you set up an account with GoDaddy (or
other registration services), if you later decide that you want to change your
registrar, they have a CRAZY process that you have to go through where you
have to get an e-mailed code, that you then have to enter back into a random
form at GoDaddy's site, and then you have to do something else, and only THEN
do you get the authorization codes to actually move your registration. At
DreamHost, those auth codes are one click away. And that's the kind of thing
they do: They make it easy to work with them. And if you ever decide you need
to move on, they make it easy to stop working with them.

So, yeah. I don't get any kickback or referral for referencing them. But you
should absolutely check out <http://dreamhost.com>.

~~~
asb
I recently moved a domain from Godaddy and did not have this experience, so
perhaps things have changed. I just unlocked the domain and requested the
authorisation code be emailed to me by clicking the relevant link in the
control panel. My transfer to namecheap was complete within 3 hours.

------
DotSauce
I recommend GoDaddy with coupon code for cheapest option.

Name.com and NameCheap are great registrars. Their clean user interface, tools
and customer service make it worth the little higher price point.

Do NOT register at Register.com, Network Solutions, 1&1 as you will get price
gouged and have a generally poorer experience.

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mthoms
As mentioned already, the domain industry is known to pretty shady. Be
careful.

I am working on a web service and iOS App that enables completely private
domain name searching. That is, you can search for available domain names
without even _us_ knowing what you are searching for (this will all be
verifiable and 100% transparent).

To be clear, we are not a registrar. We allow people to search available
domain names without fear their domain idea will be stolen (by front running,
etc). When ready to register, you can go to the registrar of your choice.

Any interested testers can contact me.

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gexla
I use Dynadot, I consider them both really good and cheap. ;)

Dynadot is also an actual registrar rather than a reseller. I don't know if
they allow this anymore, but last time I ordered an incorrect domain name I
was able to delete it for a refund through the control panel of the site. I
don't know of any other registrars that allow that.

Otherwise they have the same features of most other sites. Their interface is
simple and maybe a little ugly but at least it's not plastered with ads.

~~~
wrs
+1 for Dynadot, I've been using them for a few years and been happy. Simple
but full-featured site, no in-your-face marketing, great pricing. And yes,
they do give you direct access to the domain grace period feature (though now
restricted like everyone else by the domain-tasting prevention quotas).

Only downside I've experienced is that they have business hours -- if you have
an issue on Sunday night they won't see it until Monday morning. They've been
increasing the hours as they go, though.

------
mcav
I use namecheap. Works well for my purposes, but I only have a dozen domains.

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onwardly
I highly recommend BlueHost if you plan on buying multiple domains. Its
$10/domain, and for ~$60/year you can host unlimited domains there. It comes
with SimpleScripts, which makes it a cinch to install wordpress, which is fine
for putting up placeholder pages (or hosting a blog, of course).

A few other sites offer unlimited domain hosting, but the other thing that
separates BlueHost in my mind is their support. There's 24/7 live chat
support; I can't tell you how many times its gotten me out of a jam.

------
morganpyne
I've been happy with gandi.net; I also like their DNS hosting options.

~~~
iampims
Gandi has great support, a friendly web UI and fair prices. You should give
them a try.

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philderksen
Been moving all domains gradually from GoDaddy to Namecheap over the last
year. Much faster to login, navigate around and get things done in Namecheap.

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miles
Just stumbled onto this comment by PG from a few years back:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=150565>

"I use EasyDNS. They're expensive, but reliable and never do anything evil."

Figured I'd post it here, since EasyDNS has not been mentioned yet. Also, it
looks like Y Combinator is still registered there.

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bobf
I use pacnames.com - very simplistic design/interface, easy to use, $9.99/year
registration, timely renewal notices, etc.

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niico
I use Name. I love their costumer service. + I get a special discount code
every month because I'm on their "Investors club" for people with 25+ domains.
You will also get a direct line to name and a bunch of other cool features.

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romymisra
Not Godaddy.com. They always try to upsell other services and they have
terrible customer service.

My recommendation would be www.brandstack.com. It's awesome and they make the
process so simple (as it should be).

~~~
jamesbritt
I'm quite happy with godaddy.com. Yes, the checkout process leans towards a
day-glo gauntlet, but it's not that big a deal.

Easy to manage domains, and with one exception from a tech guy who insisted on
just making shit up, pleasant helpful customer service.

------
known
<http://gnu.org> is registered with <http://www.gandi.net/>

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mshafrir
Switched from Godaddy to Namecheap recently and I'm happy with my decision.

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alexkiwi
Moniker.com is where it's at for me, privacy-wise they have been awesome.

~~~
photon_off
What specifically are they awesome at with regards to your privacy?

~~~
alexkiwi
Back maybe 2 years ago, I got a C&D for copyright infringement on a website
for a college student organization. Basically what happened was that we used
the school name in the domain and the school was trying to bully us into
giving them the domain.

The school called moniker and when they refused to give them my contact
information or take the site down because their request was illegitimate.
Moniker + DMCA loopholes are awesome.

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gdltec
Namesecure.com has worked for me for the past 10 years ;)

