Who do we like as a domain registrar these days?

wsuffa

wsuffa

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My domains are coming up for renewal. Time to look at alternatives.

I have an aversion to Godaddy.

I'll probably want to do SSL certificates too, but those need not be with the same organizations.

Thoughts?
 
I've been a godaddy guy, always served me well :dunno:
 
Network Solutions/Web.com is who I've always used. They've been very good.
 
GoDaddy fixed the one big negative they used to have not so long ago...they now permit wildcard CNAME records.

Used to be a PITA to set up Google Apps domains without the wildcard CNAMES.
 
I have sites hosted with Arvixe so I moved my domains there. Keeps it simple for me.
 
I'm using Hover based on input from Jesse when I asked last year.
 
dynadot, internet.bs, namecheap, 1&1.

If you have any idea what you're doing technically, save your money and avoid the "big name" companies who prey on the technopeasants.
 
Another place that I've had good luck with is domainsatcost.com
 
JeffDG said:
GoDaddy fixed the one big negative they used to have not so long ago...
Click to expand...

That they were SOPA-supporting ash-hats and their CEO is a big-game murdering vaginal flush-nozzle?
 
We currently use a mix of legacy GoDaddy stuff and name.com at work.

I use someplace I can't remember now in the UK for personal stuff. Not particularly happy or unhappy with them, just ended up at them after some business buyouts. I should probably move them but haven't bothered to figure out their security release process.
 
ollopa said:
That they were SOPA-supporting ash-hats and their CEO is a big-game murdering vaginal flush-nozzle?
Click to expand...

Yeah, I wasn't going to touch that one, but it is hard to say GoDaddy fixed their one issue when that one issue was their philosophy toward their customers...
 
I use namecheap for my personal stuff. I've enjoyed them so far. If your registrar doesn't support MFA/2FA they're doing it wrong.
 
Mine has been with a local provider (sitelutions.com) since I got it over a decade ago. No problems.

I've got my corporate one with networksolutions because they were the only game in town back when I got it and never switched.

The rest are indeed with godaddy.
 
Lots of stuff to look at. Thanks.

Some of them (NetworkSolutions, for example) charge more than others and I can't quite tell why... yet the regularly hawk other services that they sell. Godaddy also pushes their other services (and based on my prior experience with them) has poor customer service and makes it hard to move away.

I've been thinking RapidSSL for certificates. Don't need all the bells and whistles on that.
 
wsuffa said:
Lots of stuff to look at. Thanks.

Some of them (NetworkSolutions, for example) charge more than others and I can't quite tell why... yet the regularly hawk other services that they sell. Godaddy also pushes their other services (and based on my prior experience with them) has poor customer service and makes it hard to move away.

I've been thinking RapidSSL for certificates. Don't need all the bells and whistles on that.
Click to expand...

About the only thing about GoDaddy that I do like is their customer service. My reason for contacting them is usually because an idiot client forgets to renew their domain; doesn't know which registrar they used; and most certainly doesn't know what email address, user name, or password they used.

When WHOIS reveals that they used GoDaddy, I giggle with glee because I know I can call someone who speaks English, persuade them to let me pay the renewal even though I don't own the domain just to get their site back up, and have them contact the client with information about how to re-establish ownership. Then I don't have to worry about it for at least a year.

Other than that, there's not much I like about GoDaddy. I don't like them hawking their other products, I don't like their stand on SOPA, and I don't like that literally every time I log in to their site they've moved **** around again. That alone was enough to get me to start moving domains out. I don't like having to figure out an entirely new layout every time I need to change a nameserver or update a contact address.

As for SSL certs, I usually use SSLs.com. They're no better or worse than the rest of them. Math is math.

Rich
 
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I would like a domain registrar that doesn't bug me, except when it's time to renew.

Network Solutions sends me several per week, like "Account Notice" or "Status of your Website" or "Final Day to Claim Your Website" or "Don't Let Your Website Get Lost". It turns out they're just trying to sell me some service I don't want, for example to improve my standing in a Google search.

I'd pay a little extra if they just left me alone.
 
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Hover is the anti-godaddy. Free registration privacy, no upsells, simple modern website, American customer service.

Highly recommended.
 
Network Solutions is part of the Web.Com family. The advantage for my skill level is that with both I can have Web.Com host my website for a very reasonable fee and I can use their website building tools or have them build my site for free. Will they try to sell me additional services? Of course they will, they're a for-profit enterprise. If I don't want to see their emails I can elect to block them. Simple stuff.
 
I've heard amazing things for hosting and domain services with Hostgator. I'm pretty sure (no guarantee) that you can get free SSL certificates from Cloudflare which is a CDN.
 
I've been using GoDaddy for about 10 years. I get a call from them every three months asking about some product they're peddling, and their website really, REALLY sucks. To me it represents everything wrong with the web.

That said, they're cheap, their hosting has *never* gone offline in the 10 years I've used them, and their customer service has always been fantastic. Short or no hold times, knowledgable tech guys, and no questions asked refunds or changes to my account when I decide I want something different. So I put up with the occasional call and crappy website because reliable service and english speaking humans is a bit more important to me. There are probably better hosting solutions out there, but GoDaddy does well enough that I don't bother with the PITA of switching.
 
ollopa said:
That they were SOPA-supporting ash-hats and their CEO is a big-game murdering vaginal flush-nozzle?
Click to expand...


Oh gawd... you're one of those poor misinformed anti hunting folks, I'm not a big fan of a Chinese style internet ether, but when you invoke a poorly understood concept of hunters you loose any points you had.

One the plus with godaddy, they are not too expensive, never been down, good tech support and maybe it's a option somewhere but the only time I hear from them is a renew reminder.
 
I asked them to stop calling me and they did. All you have to do is ask.
I've got several domains hosted elsewhere and maybe a dozen with two different organizations (I have my personal sites, my business sites, and another board similar to this one there). I use some of their email services (for my non-profits) which is marginally adequate (I like tuffmail.com which I use for my personal stuff better). Godaddy's webhosting is really kind of archaic. You'll get more up to date stuff and better performance elsewhere, especially if you're running a forum like this one with high data demands.
 
kayoh190 said:
I've been using GoDaddy for about 10 years. I get a call from them every three months asking about some product they're peddling, and their website really, REALLY sucks. To me it represents everything wrong with the web.

That said, they're cheap, their hosting has *never* gone offline in the 10 years I've used them, and their customer service has always been fantastic. Short or no hold times, knowledgable tech guys, and no questions asked refunds or changes to my account when I decide I want something different. So I put up with the occasional call and crappy website because reliable service and english speaking humans is a bit more important to me. There are probably better hosting solutions out there, but GoDaddy does well enough that I don't bother with the PITA of switching.
Click to expand...

The biggest problem I have with GoDaddy's site is that every time I log in, it's been changed, so I have to waste time finding what I'm looking for. I find that even more annoying than the three pages of useless stuff they try to sell me every time I check out.

On the other hand, they do accept PayPal, which is important because I don't allow merchants to store my credit card numbers any more. And on the few occasions when I've needed it (usually when clients forgot to pay their domain renewals AND forgot their login information), their support has been quite good. They've even allowed me to pay the renewals on my clients' domains while on the phone with them so at least the sites worked while the clients went through the rigmarole to re-establish ownership.

Rich
 
SkyHog said:
I use either namesilo or 1 and 1 because they're cheap.
Click to expand...

I'm moving over almost all of my domains to NameSilo. In addition to being cheap, they're efficient -- the transfers take effect within an hour most times -- and they offer free WHOIS privacy. With WHOIS spamming on the rise, that's a nice feature.

NameSilo also doesn't waste my time by forcing me to click through three pages of upselling crap every time I want to register, renew, or transfer a domain; and although their UI isn't the prettiest I've seen, it's functional, and they don't change it every other week like a certain registrar started by a guy named Bob seems to do. That alone has become enough of an annoyance to inspire my departure from Bob's outfit. Every time I log in, they've moved ****, and I have to go looking for it.

Rich
 
And Let's Encrypt for free SSL. Got that running on three domains on the same Ubuntu box and it was a surprisingly easy, even pointing me to a screw up in my DNS setup. Throw the renew on CRON and forget about it.
 
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