I want to get some domains for selfhosted stuff, but I’d like to use a registrar that I won’t regret doing business with later, both in terms of ethics and potential customer service stuff. Who do y’all like most?
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Top answers from the last 39580202 times this was asked:
- Namecheap
- Porkbun
- Gandi
- Cloudflare
I was with Namecheap for years, and they’re totally fine. I am now with Cloudflare because they’re a bit cheaper and their API is well supported in various tools, and they also seem fine.
I use porkbun and you get cloudflare through them, not sure to what extent, porkbuns just cheaper, I like their ui, straightforward, everything you need on one screen.
Exactly this. Also it annoys me that Namecheap tries to automatically “top up funds” over a month before renewals are due. I think they’ve always done it but it wound me up enough this year to move to Cloudflare.
Counterpoint, I quite like this. I’m terrible at keeping payment details up to date, and I’ve got long renewal periods on my domains. The early renewal attempt allows me to get an email that my payment is expired or revoked (due to a stolen card number or something) and I have a month to go correct it.
I wouldn’t buy domains from Cloudflare from a risk mitigation perspective. At work I direct six figures of budget their way annually, but as a free-tier customer in my personal life I don’t trust them not to fuck up at some point and lock my account. If I register my domain elsewhere I can bring myself back online by moving the nameservers. If it’s registered at Cloudflare I’m fucked.
I have one of my domains on Cloudflare and was thinking of moving the rest of them there. What makes it harder to move name servers away from Cloudflare than other places?
Your registrar (the place you buy your domains) is where you update your nameservers. If Cloudflare have locked you out then you won’t be able to change them. Other standard registrars will have far less cause, legitimate or not, to lock or disable your account, since they don’t host/proxy your content.
This is the way. Never use the NS of your registrar.
Another +1 for name cheap, been using em for a decade now. Their deals are stellar and renewal prices are on par with any other competitors usually
Transferred all my domains from nanecheap to CloudFlare and I’m saving like 1/3 of price on renewals.
Moved to Porkbun, saving about the same. The price creep pisses me off.
I’ll throw in for namecheap. Been with them for a while with no complaints.
Gandi massively increased their prices 2 years ago.
For email hosting only. But yes, they are not as trustworthy as they once were
I like pair domains.
Porkbun has been great
Seconded. I switched from namecheap when they raised the price of my domain. I never had a problem with name cheap but porkbin is cheaper.
Agreed.
I’ve always used NameCheap. Can’t speak to their ethics, but customer support has been excellent the few times I’ve needed it.
Also been using namecheap for years with no complaints. Boring and dependable.
Boring and dependable.
Just like I wish politics were.
In case anyone was wondering:
- namecheap: US
- porkbun: US
- INWX: Germany
- OVH: French
- onlydomains: NZ
I personally have been with onlydomains for a decade or so. No complaints.
I’ve domains from both DomainMonger and NameCheap. If it were trivial, I’d probably move my domains to NameCheap. The web UX is a little better; aside from that, I’ve never had issues with either, not heard anything particularly bad about either.
But, yeah: +1 on the NameCheap suggestion.
Does UX really matter?
I’d rather decouple DNS and domain.
Feels like (no proof, just gut feeling) services like Cloudflare have better security and integration than the respective registrars.What do you mean, decouple DNS and domain? The registrar is the authoritative source for DNS - how do you bypass that?
While yes, that’s true, you can point the domain to have 3rd party DNS servers.
For example Cloudflare.
You could register VMs with them or with another registrar. Same with DNS. Do it with your choice of registrar or use whatever else you maybe actually want.
I’ve been with Porkbun since Gandi got acquired. No complaints.
Acquired by whom?
Total Webhosting Solutions
Namecheap
This. NameCheap actually responds to abuse reports, as well. Turns out they actually think it’s bad for business to allow grifters and con artists to use their services, unlike other major registrars.
I’m using Cloudflare, because it’s quite convenient since I always end up using them as DNS server.
They’re also slightly cheaper since they don’t take any profit from their registrar side, hoping to make it back with other services.
Also use Cloudflare as new domain registrar because I use them as DNS as well. I can’t say that I’ve had any problems with them at all.
Same, I also use Cloudflare dns, tunnels, and pages. Having these all in the same place makes it easy to deploy/keep track of everything
I switched to Porkbun from Namecheap recently because Porkbun is somewhat local.
Porkbun is decent but cheaper if you have a dozen domains too
I have had a lot good experience with Porkbun.
Have you tried…GoDaddy???
giggles as the downvotes pour in
Unfortunately yes, and I hate them with everything I’ve got.
Every time I think GoDaddy has hit bottom they find a way to dig deeper.
I have a domain with godaddy that renews very soon. Is it posible to migrate it to another registrar?
If anyone else is on the same situation what helped me find a new one is this site
There you can check pricing of several registrars for your domain and choose the one that you want and then you can see how to transfer to the chosen one.
I’ve been happy with Hover for several years. They don’t bug me and they’re owned by Tucows so they’ve got decades-old staying power.
I can’t believe they’re still around
I moved all my domains from Google to OVH, OVH have an API so you can get certs with certbot. You could also use the API to update records for a dynamic home broadband
I have a server with OVH. I hadn’t realised they’re a registrar also.
Yeah, OVH do website hosting as well
I’ve been with 1984.is for a couple of years now. I think my domains cost around 12 Euros a year each. Their web GUI works fine and I’ve never needed to contact their customer service, so I cannot comment on that.
I’ve been with 1984.is for some time as well. They’re international domain is 1984.hosting. I’ve also had contact with their support and they’re friendly, knowledgeable and straight on point.
I had to transfer my domain and they wanted the domain key. Not wanting to send that over insecure email asked if they have a GPG key and told me they do, sent me a link to their site to get it and a specific mail to send it to which I then was able to send over. The process of contacting them and getting everything set was very speedy and I felt in good hands.
Namesilo is quite good - cheap & been using it for 5 years now (coming from namecheap)
I use namesilo for everything but my .au domains.
