

Alternatives to GoDaddy - myusuf3
http://www.mahdiyusuf.com/post/7521009923/5-alternatives-to-godaddy

======
jbyers
When migrating our company's 15 domains away from GoDaddy I evaluated around a
dozen registrars. Our criteria may be different from yours. With millions of
subdomains and tens of millions of user-generated pages, we needed a registar
that would absolutely honor our rights as domain owners. This was our top
priority. Our lowest priority was cost, though there was a reasonable upper
bound on what we'd pay per year. Features are somewhere in the middle -- we
didn't want or need lots of extras.

Our priorities were:

    
    
      1. rights as domain owners
      2. registar stability
      3. control panel usability
      4. extra features (DNS, etc.)
      5. cost
    

The winner was Gandi. Their combination of common-sense, customer-friendly
terms and European privacy laws made the choice easy.

Read your registrar's terms. See if you still want to save that $6 a year.

~~~
arkitaip
And they keep your whois info private.
[http://www.gandibar.net/post/2008/07/08/Gandi-helps-guard-
yo...](http://www.gandibar.net/post/2008/07/08/Gandi-helps-guard-your-privacy)

~~~
amesign
Except for your name. And their private whois is only available to
individuals, not company accounts.

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callmeed
I have 63 domains and 5 SSL certs with GoDaddy. While they're definitely not a
favorite company, I don't hate them so much that I'm willing to go to the
trouble of transferring everything.

If you _really_ can't handle their upselling or bad UX, then just use their
mobile site (<http://godaddymobile.com>) or iPad app.

If you have issues with Parsons or their way of doing business, fine–I get
that. Otherwise, meh ... just buy your domains and get to work.

~~~
drivebyacct2
You clearly have missed a lot when it comes to GoDaddy. You've made the same
mistakes that many have made repeatedly. Everytime it's the same, "we thought
we were fine, just hosting some domains", right before they have downtime
because their hosting was suspended or DNS info dropped at a whim that GoDaddy
acted upon with little short-term recourse.

It's not hard to transfer, that's just laziness.

~~~
leftnode
Right, it's the PayPal Law. You'll use PayPal fine for 8 years, and then one
day they'll totally fuck you over in ways that you can't imagine. Same with
GoDaddy. You'll use them fine forever, and then they'll totally fuck you over.

This is from a GoDaddy customer of at least 4 years, and I've never been
fucked over by them, but I've seen it happen a lot.

~~~
dholowiski
Is there any proof that this won't happen with the alternatives?

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bodyfour
A year or so ago I regretfully moved _to_ GoDaddy because they were one of the
only registrars I could find that supported IPv6 glue records (i.e. you run
your own nameservers with IPv6 connectivity, so a lookup of example.com also
returns an IPv6 address for ns1.example.com)

Many of the smaller players just go through OpenSRS which at least recently
only could add IPv6 glue with manual intervention. Maybe they've (finally)
fixed that by now.

I would like to get back off GoDaddy someday soon, but I've been worried that
my IPv6 glue will break. Does anybody know a registrar with solid IPv6
experience?

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treitnauer
We've started building a new domain management service at
<http://iWantMyName.com> and we're bootstrapped, profitable and proud as
37signals would say... ;)

Here is some more background information from a co-founder perspective:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2448717>

~~~
mariorz
I've been using this for a while, the site is beautiful, simple and fast, it's
like the anti-godaddy in the best possible way. the online support is also
some of the best I've experienced. really great job guys.

~~~
treitnauer
Thanks for such kind words!

Since we're on HN, I thought I'd also share the tech behind iWantMyName.

It's a catalyst app powered by a RabbitMQ based backend flavored with a lot of
CouchDB and sugar coated with some Redis: <http://lnz.me/K6MP>

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ebcase
Through our work on Domainr (<http://domai.nr/> \-- a domain availability
search engine) I've gotten to know folks at:

    
    
      - iWantMyName (Timo already posted in this thread)
      - 101domain
      - Dreamhost
      - DNSimple
    

...and I'd personally recommend all of them, for having solid services,
ethical business practices, and good design (for iWMN and DNSimple). I've also
heard good things about Namecheap and Gandi from a few friends.

~~~
timerickson
Just wanted to say I love Domainr. Thanks.

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systems
Just out of curiosity, I whoised some domains and

    
    
        google , yahoo & facebook are something called markmonitor
        microsoft is using melbourneit
        oracle is using tucows
        ycombinator is using easyDNS
    

interesting

~~~
ez77
What I don't understand is that Google, being an accredited ICANN registrar
[1], is not its own registrar, just like Go Daddy or Name.com.

[1] <http://www.icann.org/en/registrars/accredited-list.html>

~~~
silencio
Google and Microsoft both are registrars.

The answer to your question is likely that MarkMonitor specializes in
corporate domain management, and the services they probably offer make it
worthwhile to not do everything in-house even at these major tech companies. I
can only guess at what might be involved, but I mean hey, there must be a
reason, right?

It's not just tech companies (Apple and Microsoft included) that have them
listed as registrars, it's companies from my bank (Chase) to my ISP (Time
Warner) too. The portfolio, so to speak, of MarkMonitor and their clients says
a lot. Especially in the face of cheap .com renewals with Go Daddy :p

~~~
ez77
You're right, MarkMonitor's portfolio is truly impressive, so there must be
something to it. I just thought that precisely those top tech companies (maybe
not banks) would appreciate having the additional security layer that arguably
comes from being your own registrar, and do so effortlessly.

~~~
silencio
Perhaps. Then again, with an agreement between the companies involved and
whatever mostly-unknown-to-us services they provide, the additional security
layer you speak of could be meaningless. I doubt most of the legal teams of
said corporations would be okay with this arrangement if it was potentially
insecure. And of course there is no such thing as "effortlessly", someone
somewhere has to be around to manage the _huge_ domain name portfolios these
corporations have.

I really wish MarkMonitor's website wasn't basically a bunch of marketing
mumbo jumbo about all the services they provide. It'd be interesting to find
out what they are being paid to do (even in brief) for all these major
companies. For all we know they could just be a glorified godaddy for
corporations that buy and hold a lot of domain names as far as their domain
registry service is concerned.

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carterschonwald
what about nearlyfreespeach.net ? I'm surprise no one has mentioned them. I've
been quite happy with them and they're seemingly on the pretty aggressive side
of nice pricing and digital rights.

~~~
pkamb
My _one_ criticism of NFS is that there's no way to save a credit card on
file. Certainly makes those "inspiration struck, better go register the
domain" purchases much more of a have-to-pull-out-the-wallet ordeal... but
maybe making random domains more annoying to buy is actually a good thing.

~~~
soult
That is because they use a prepaid model instead of charging you after the
registration. Just keep a couple bucks in your account and you can register
domains even when you don't have a credit card handy.

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namank
Namecheap is an awesome registrar.

For hosting, try JustHost.com. Excellent customer service.

~~~
newchimedes
I just went with Namecheap. I'm moving all my domains all of GoCrappy. GoDaddy
is not only a mess to use, but it also costs a lot more.

~~~
namank
and their bombardment of emails.

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rytis
I'm now gradually migrating all domains off GoDaddy (just waiting for them to
expire), so this list comes in quite handy.

I'm moving to <https://www.dynadot.com/>, but no one has mentioned it here.
Prices are ok, UI is simple. DNS management is simple too, so probably will
not suit everyone. No upselling. So far I'm liking them, but bear in mind, I'm
only few months with them.

Just wondering if anyone has any experience with DynaDot and how they compare
to others on the list (especially Gandi, as it looked quite interesting)?

~~~
davidjade
I've used them a few years now and have been really happy. Not feature-rich
but they cover the basics and have reasonable prices with no upsell pressure.

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mieses
Dreamhost can be used for purely name registration and DNS.
<http://wiki.dreamhost.com/Domain_Registration>

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kenjackson
1&1 might be better than GoDaddy, but not by much. Avoid them if possible.

~~~
paulirish
I've heard rough things about their hosting but their domain mgmt has been
painless. Really enjoy private domain registration for free.

~~~
zbanks
I had issues with their domain management & DNS settings. Godaddy's was
actually better.

~~~
myusuf3
if you had issues with dns check out dnsimple.com

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ajhit406
We use Dnsimple. It's not Cheap, but if you have a bunch of domains it's
incredibly helpful and just gets out of the way and works. For some reason
propogation of changes is always seems faster too.

For all our super cool (.io) domains, we use iwantmyname. No frills, fantastic
support and simple UI.

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petercooper
I use several registrars for various reasons but so far NameCheap have been my
favorite. They're on the list but wanted to give them a thumbs up here. No
nonsense from them and their free "WHOIS guard" is a nice touch.

~~~
chris24
NameCheap's great. They're pretty quick and cheap. They also offered a free
PositiveSSL cert with new domain registrations & transfers for awhile too.

------
kelleyk
I switched from Godaddy to Moniker a little while back---quick, easy to use,
and price-competitive. They're outside the US (in Canada), too.

~~~
freejack
Moniker is in Florida and their parent co. has offices in NY, Portland and
Germany.

~~~
pasbesoin
tucows used to be Canadian, IIRC (Toronto?). Rebranded or sold the domain
business to Hover; not sure about them.

Hover seems to have a decent reputation, and are fairly price competitive. Not
as cheap as e.g. Namecheap, but close.

With all the seizure BS and whatnot, I'm thinking of moving some things really
off-shore. Maybe Switzerland? Or I recently read that the Bahamas are good at
telling various law enforcement agencies to f-off. Not sure I believe it,
though.

(I'm not actually running anything gray, let alone black. I'd move partly on
principle, and partly because things only look to get worse.

For me, it would be more a matter of free speech. Perhaps also free and
anonymous speech (at least, anonymous to most private and commercial
interests).

P.S. freejack, I just noticed one of your other comments. You're with Tucows?
Are you still (really) Canadian? Are Canadian registrars holding their own
against Washington (and, these days, Ottawa, I guess)?

------
kiplinger
Honestly, as a freelancer, if you want to keep your domains and email on GD,
that is fine with me. Their shared hosting is so inexcusably slow and
difficult to manage,it makes me wonder why there hasn't been a class action
lawsuit against them. Hyperbole, I know, but they suck at hosting! IF a
potential client has space up there, the first thing I do is have them move
it.

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andrewtj
For a simple registrar that supports DNSSEC I've been quite happy with
<https://www.gkg.net/>. Their prices are reasonable and their site is quick
and functional, though it's navigation is a bit clumsy. I can't comment on
their hosting (including DNS) as I've not used it.

------
nodata
NameCheap for SSL certs, dd24 for domains
(<http://www.domaindiscount24.com/?language=en>)

Edit: scrub that: gandi are the same price for SSL certs, and have a better
interface for domains. Switched!

------
skysurfer172
I've been happy with Dotster for my domain registration and some DNS
management and have been slowly moving domains over from GD to them. Anyone
else have input on Dotster?

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canassa
I am transferring my domains from GoDaddy to Dynadot
(<http://www.dynadot.com>), so far I have no complains.

------
nh
More discussion at <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=150561>

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blackboxxx
Namespro.ca is good, especially for Canadians. I transferred all my domains
there from GoDaddy after the elephant killing.

------
scorpion032
Godaddy offers Rupee transactions that no one else does. Enough feature for me
to stick and not bother transferring.

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filipmares
thanks for the alternatives. i hate the filthy up-selling from godaddy. have
you tried hover.com? they are Canadian.

~~~
jackmoore
I'm sure this is common practice, but I don't like that Tucows (Hover) is
squating 200k premium domains and auctioning expiring domains. I have too much
disdain for cyber squatters to respect Hover as a registrar.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tucows#Domain_Portfolio>

~~~
freejack
We don't run any auctions and the bulk of our portfolio was acquired on the
open market as part of corporate acquisitions (i.e. we bought businesses that
owned their own large portfolios). Cybersquatter? I'd love to know how you are
defining that term. Usually reserved for scumbags that sit on other peoples
trademarks, I can assure you that Tucows is _not_ cybersquatting. If you mean
have registered a domain name you want before you thought of it, then... well,
tough. We're actually _using_ the vast majority of the names we own as part of
our premium email business, etc. These aren't just parking pages etc.

------
latch
I'll settle for 1 alternatives to XYZ Registrar if it handles transfers in a
sane/simple way.

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peppaayaa
i use godaddy,namecheap, and internerbs. IMHO, internetbs have best DNS
management

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WildUtah
I was looking for this post or one just like it a few months ago but I didn't
find one.

I went with Gandi.fr instead and I'm so very much happier than with Godaddy
and its awful peers. Unfortunately I have to pay in euros. But it was worth
it.

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Rinum
No dynadot? Is there something I should know?

~~~
foobarbazetc
That a random article on the Internet can't cover all registrars? :)

Dynadot is IMHO the best registrar ever.

This speaks volumes:

Domain Name:WIKILEAKS.ORG Created On:04-Oct-2006 05:54:19 UTC Last Updated
On:24-May-2011 23:27:29 UTC Expiration Date:04-Oct-2018 05:54:19 UTC
Sponsoring Registrar:Dynadot, LLC (R1266-LROR) Status:CLIENT TRANSFER
PROHIBITED

------
omarshammas
just what I was looking for after all the horrible stories I heard on here.

~~~
filipmares
bro, it's a game and godaddy's winning.

~~~
rooshdi
Well if it's a "game", Godaddy's committing too many "violations" for our
tastes. Time to root for some other team.

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drivebyacct2
1&1 is on the same playing field as GoDaddy.

~~~
chaud
Their admin interface is significantly worse and they lack many of the options
found on other registrars like Namecheap or Gandi. They don't even offer DDNS
or TXT records.

------
myusuf3
This post is only reviewing domain registration, not hosting.

~~~
RyanKearney
Wait people actually use GoDaddy for hosting?

~~~
myusuf3
yeah it was an early few, and they can't seem to unregister :P

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cesar
For registering a new domain I would recommend google apps, because of all the
google apps integration to your domain. And if you are looking for server
hosting I would recommend linode.

~~~
freejack
Google Apps is godaddy and Enom.

------
myusuf3
Updated to include suggestions from discussion!

