Is it one that you just use and works just fine? Or one that has proven to be reliable and responsible if they do a mistake and only want to satisfy you as a customer?
I use Namecheap. They have a URL you can visit to update DNS records if you’re doing it from the server that you need to point DNS at. They’ve been pretty much…non-eventful. I’ve never had to call them, everything online, they’ve been reliable enough to just say my whole experience has been pretty boring. Boring is good. I log into them once every 2 years to renew my domain and that’s generally it.
Then on top of that I use Caddy for SSL Encryption/Reverse Proxy. All I need is the domain registrar, I don’t use any other services.
I’ve been using namecheap for about a decade too. But, be careful with their free email forwarding service. They do not forward all emails. The ones that they consider spam, they proceed to drop silently. There is absolutely no way to access those emails. The service is essentially useless. I have lost several important emails like that.
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Their customer support has been great. I needed help with some certs and they just walked me though everything.
Same pretty much. I use them too and non-eventful is the perfect way to put it. I can even update ddns records using my fritzbox directly and namecheap which is super handy.
I’m using PorkBun and I’m happy with them
I use them and they’re inoffensive, which is really what you’re looking for when you’re using a basic service like this.
They also show you a picture of a piglet when they generate SSL certificates.
I second this. They’re upfront about pricing and don’t have many different products so the interface isn’t overwhelming.
Porkbun’s competitively priced, easy to use, and the name is a great reference for Sleeping Dogs to me. What’s not to like?
Switched over from Google domains. No real complaints other than not supporting wildcards for emails for free. Mild inconvenience.
Cloudflare - largely because they don’t add on extra fees.
Also just switched to Cloudflare (used to be google domains)… since they run half the internet, they probably won’t be going anywhere anytime soon? Feels like every service gets sold/acquired and I have to change everything over every few years and I’m getting tired hahaha… also their DNS changes update basically instantly and are easy to do for this newbie!
Heh I was also on Google domains before they announced they were selling it. I don’t know what the hell possessed me to register domains with Google. They have a very well documented history of killing off great services. https://killedbygoogle.com/
Having recently setup an UnRaid server I used a walkthrough video on setting up SSL certs for them through Cloudflare and Google Domains. Was already using their DNS (1.1.1.1) and had an account so made that it an easy decision, then Google decided Domains would be sold off so I fully migrated to Cloudflare. I find the free tier to have more things included than I even understand and it does everything I need.
You have to use their name servers though, don’t you?
Pork bun
For the frugal sysadmin, Free DNS!
Namecheap has been good to me for a decade now, and I don’t really have complaints at all
Not Gandi. They were very reliable since the beginning of the internet but they sold the company and went downhill since.
Aw man, I had no idea they sold
Looks like consensus is NameCheap or PorkBun
Porkbun, mostly for the cost, transparency, clean UI, and ease of use.
I’ve used GoDaddy, namecheap, and Google Domains in the past. GoDaddy is the only one I had a problem with, but Google sold to Squarespace recently, and I prefer porkbun to namecheap for the reasons listed above.
I’ve been with namecheap.com for over a decade and I have no complaints
I was using Gandi for years, but they’ve started charging for mailboxes now. I have a lot of mailboxes that are hardly used, but I need to keep.
Just moved to namecheap based on reviews and so far they seem fine
gandi.net , didn’t haven’t to pay for any privacy bullshit like whois masking, and all that stuff is enabled by default. I like them as a company.
name.com usually because I’m too dumb to remember any other domain name.
Switched to Cloudflare since they had spots, never been unhappy.
Am I the only one using iWantMyName.com?
Like some of the others described here, I like that their ui is dead simple and easy to navigate, once a year when I have to renew. And their prices seem to be middle tier.
I use them right now, but I’ve been disappointed lately and I’m considering moving away. They’re more expensive than other options and you have to contact customer service for some things, but their response times are pretty slow. E.g., they don’t have an interface to add glue records, so you have to ask them to do it… when I did this it took them a couple days to get back to me, and they forgot to add the IPv6 records too. My other domains are registered elsewhere (for cheaper) and they just had an interface to do this and it happened instantly. I keep running into problems like this with iwantmyname and it’s been kind of frustrating. I had problems with their name servers dying for a bit recently too… I was happy with them for years, but they’ve caused enough problems for me lately that I’m wondering why I’m paying extra for them.
Funny you posting on this older comment of mine today - I am in the midst of a support case with them. We’ll see how it turns out!
They usually get it sorted out pretty well, but their response times can be a little slow. It’s potentially not a huge deal for you, and overall they’ve been okay… this is sort of understandable because they’re in New Zealand and seem to want to make sure their support staff are paid well (though they were bought by a larger company recently, so I’m not sure if this still holds, seems like it did as of 2019, though):
- https://iwantmyname.com/blog/making-customer-support-sustainable-with-a-small-team-based-on-a-tiny-island
- https://iwantmyname.com/blog/the-one-salary-experiment-ten-years-in
This makes them seem like a cool company, and I’d like to support them… But despite that I do feel a little disappointed paying more for a worse service, and I think they really need to invest in providing interfaces for some of the more advanced DNS settings, particularly if their customer support is going to be limited by their own admission.
They also have some blog posts about customer service that give me some weird vibes…
Definitely in support of their customer service team in this example, and don’t want them to be treated poorly or sworn at or anything… But it’s a little weird to put this on blast like this and I think it’d be a better look to just leave it at “these are the things that would help us help you, we need to make sure accounts are secure so we can’t just ignore passwords, etc etc”
And it’s also a little weird that they have this post complaining about some web-hosts poor interface and customer service too:
Neither of these are particularly bad, but I guess it makes me a bit disappointed that I’ve run into similar problems with them, and I’m not sure they’re doing enough to address things on their end.
I don’t think I’d tell anybody not to use them because they have been good for the most part, but they’re not as fully featured as other registrars in my experience, and they’re more expensive.
