The article stated: "and it can cause an hours-long DNS outage if it’s not done perfectly.". The only case where there would be any dns outage is if the regist

The article stated: "and it can cause an hours-long DNS outage if it’s not done perfectly.". The only case where there would be any dns outage is if the registrar is handling the dns. If the registrar isn't doing the dns there is zero dns outage. Part of the transfer process is that the old dns automatically gets carried over. (I am an ICANN Accredited registrar one of the first..) I think what people have to understand is that all registrars pay the same price for domains. Whether you are godaddy or the smallest. (The other costs are fixed). So I think it is obvious that you aren't going to have "price quality speed" all from the same place. Additionally registrars charging no money are either making money elsewhere or they are going to go out of business or using domains as a loss leader.