HACKER Q&A
📣 buggy6257

Recommendations for a New Domain Registrar?


With the announcement of Google Domains shutting down and being sold off to Squarespace, I find myself losing the one registrar I had any trust in. In retrospect it was REALLY dumb of me to trust that a Google product that wasn't Ads/Youtube/Search to not shut down, but here I am.

I dunno much about Squarespace -- haven't used them at all, since I prefer making my own websites/apps -- so I'm leery about using a registrar that's so focused on products and addons and other stuff.

I'm looking for recommendations for a registrar that:

  - Has a reasonably modern interface
  - Has easy to use DNS settings etc
  - Has modern features (WHOIS protection etc), preferably built-in without needing to pay out the ass
  - Doesn't have scummy practices (*cough* GODADDY *cough* GANDI *cough*)
Thanks ahead of time!

  👤 zhte415 Accepted Answer ✓
porkbun.com does what you want.

I noted several in the recent Gandi thread https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36321783 I was noting principally European-based registrars:

inwx.de (DE)

BookMyName.com (FR - LOL modern interface, but part of Scaleway)

netim.com (FR)

freethought.uk (UK)

https://www.nic.ch/registrars (CH, a list of Swiss registrars)

👤 rogerkirkness
Public service announcement after doing my own research: if you use Google Cloud, you can move to GCP Cloud Domains, which seems like it will still exist.
👤 menshiki
Cloudflare Registrar has the best prices since they literally don't make any money on selling domains. They also fulfill all your requirements. I recently transferred my domain from Hover to Cloudflare. No issues and I can save some money. Hover is fine but their prices have been getting more and more expensive.
👤 codegeek
No matter which one u choose, don't go with Godaddy. Thank me later. My suggestion is Namecheap or Cloudflare.
👤 VoodooJuJu
I have experience with porkbun and namecheap. I recommend porkbun. Mostly because they have the best prices and they work. Namecheap works, but the renewal prices get jacked up and I don't appreciate it.

In addition to that, I remember reading here on HN about namecheap screwing with someone's DNS records and blocking/banning someone because a twitter user complained about the registrant being "problematic" or something.

👤 JoeMayoBot
I've been using https://www.namecheap.com for a while and am pleased with the service.
👤 newoldhead
https://njal.la

privacy-oriented domains for 15€ a year.

👤 pfooti
i like hover.
👤 ehPReth
Thoughts on Cloudflare?
👤 tortilla
Dynadot (been using them for ages)