5 ms·
Ask HN: Moving away from GoDaddy - which registrar do you recommend?
GoDaddy is the king of bad usability and tacky marketing, but until now I've been okay with this because they're cheap. But when I heard that their DNS servers are slow I decided I'd be willing to spend a little more to get a good registrar.
What registrar would you recommend? I've heard a lot of good things about Gandi.net, but I can't find any new reviews of them here on HN. Are they still a good registrar, and are there other good alternatives to GoDaddy?
- gbrindisi 16y agoIf your domain needs are limited to classic tdls (.com, .net, .org) I'do go with nearlyfreespeech [1]. They are one of the few bullshit-free hosting/registrar companies out there. [1] http://www.nearlyfreespeech.net http://www.nearlyfreespeech.net
- sagacity 16y agoWe've many sites running on domains registered with GoDaddy (but hosted elsewhere) and have not noticed any problems. Still, if you're looking for an alternative, try: http://www.moniker.com/ http://www.moniker.com/ HTH
- cmatthias 16y agoMy advice is to stay far, far away from Moniker. I use them at work, and their UI stinks: for example, when changing my domains' authoritative nameservers it will occasionally switch the nameservers back to the default (Moniker's own) without telling you. I contacted their support about this and they essentially said "yes, this is a known issue, and we don't have an ETA for a fix, so suck it up." The reason why I was changing nameservers in the first place is because their own DNS service has gone completely offline three times in the last year and a half, making my company's websites inaccessible for hours at a time and costing us several thousand dollars in lost revenue. I have had no issues using NearlyFreeSpeech.net for registering my personal domains.
- aeontech 16y agoI've been using http://register4less.com/ http://register4less.com/ for a few years. The price might seem higher than some others, but it includes whois privacy protection that godaddy charges extra for, as well as a dns zone editor and a nice UI.
- us 16y agoFor .com, .net, .org, and .info, I like Fabulous.com. For everything else, namecheap is a good alternative. HOWEVER, I wouldn't use them or Godaddy for hosting or DNS or anything else. If you're fine with Godaddy as a registrar, use an alternative DNS and hosting service.
- Jach 16y agoI like https://www.google.com/a/cpanel/domain/new https://www.google.com/a/cpanel/domain/new because they do privacy on whois by default.
- gbrindisi 16y agoGoogle Apps is based on eNom or GoDaddy for their domain name registering needs.
- hardik988 16y agoIf price is not an object, I would recommend Gandi.net - absolutely no nonsense domain hosting ( I even received a free SSL certificate, though I don't know if that offer is still on.) . Another good option is Mediatemple, who are giving away $5 domains as long as you're with them (that's a really great deal). You can find HN archives on domain names here: http://remembersaurus.com/askhn.html#domain-names http://remembersaurus.com/askhn.html#domain-names http://www.gabrielweinberg.com/startupswiki/Ask_YC_Archive#toc34 http://www.gabrielweinberg.com/startupswiki/Ask_YC_Archive#t... NearlyFreeSpeech an NameCheap are great alternatives as well.
- kingofspain 16y agoI've used Namecheap and Dreamhost recently for domains. Dreamhost offers free privacy (Namecheap too but it's implied that's only free for the first year). Both are $9.9x. Mediatemple were doing domains for $5 and I'm sure they're reliabe enough.
- znt 16y agoI wouldn't do any business with Mediatemple. They wanted me to purchase a hosting service just to do a 301 redirect whereas GoDaddy or Name.com do it for free.
- tam7t 16y agohttp://www.hover.com/ http://www.hover.com/ I haven't used it but some of my friends have. They do private registration, DNS management, and forwarding for $15/year.
- kamilski81 16y agoWe used to use GoDaddy and MediaTemple but have since switched to eApps. It may be a little pricey but their support service is phenomenal and uptime is 99.9%....we're pretty happy with it
- kvdr 16y agoCurrently 1and1 is running a promo for $5 domains. They are pretty good generally. Nothing special though. Would recommend eurodns or namecheap.
- kongqiu 16y agoHaven't had any problems with Hover, 1and1, or Dreamhost.
- runjake 16y agoName.com Btw this question gets asked here at least once a month, so search back to get a wider set of answers.
- tuananh 16y agoIWantMyName and Dynadot
- ohashi 16y agoFabulous was recommended by another poster. My favorite registrar but they require you to either pay a lot ($30 retail) or own a lot of domains to get an account. They cater to portfolio holders. If you don't fit, checkout NameCheap.com.
- mcpherrinm 16y agoI've been using easydns.com for my registration and DNS hosting needs. They have an excellent feature set, as well as reasonable prices. I haven't done any particular stress testing of their DNS servers, but their documentation suggests it should perform well. I have noticed no problems empirically.