Can You Recommend a Good *Best Value* Domain Registrar?

Posted: Wed Nov 09, 2005 8:26 am

Raven,

Been considering a new domain for a non-profit application but unfortunately are on a very tight budget (my personal cost!). Do you already have a domain registrar that you recommend to clients?

Also, of course, I'll be using RavenWebHosting because You are THE BEST!

montego

Site Admin/Owner Joined: Aug 27, 2002 Posts: 17088

I use [ Only registered users can see links on this board! Get registered or login! ] for all of my own domains and they are the only one that I recommend. There are more than likely other ones as good out there, but I have always had great service from them.

Posted: Wed Nov 09, 2005 3:46 pm

Hrm... Well, this is an interesting topic!

Just *before* I got into this Internet gig, registration was free. Of course, when I decided to register a domain, all of a sudden 'they' were charging for them, and it wasn't cheap. If I remember correctly, Network Solutions charged me $75.00/yr. at first, then it was 'reduced' to $75.00 for 2 years. When Dotster was formed, they only charged $15.00/yr. and I felt like I had hit the lottery... And, I've been with them ever since.

I have been very happy with Dotster, until this year, but still recommend them. The thing that kinda p!ssed me off was when they gave me a *free* .INFO domain, at the beginning of this year, without telling me. Allow me to explain...

Ppl on another website, that I frequent, were outraged recently when they found out eNom had initiated a 'promotion' or 'giveaway' or whatever and registered .INFO domains in their client's behalf without asking them. Ppl figured this had to be illegal on some level, yada, yada, yada...

I thought to myself, "What a bunch of schmucks! That's what you get for going with a cut-rate registrar!" Then, I started thinking, "Hey, wait a minute! I'm with a cut-rate registrar too." So, I logged into my account at Dotster, and sure as sh!t, Dotster had done the same thing. Evil or Very Mad

You guys might want to check YOUR accounts and see if your registrar has signed you up for any domain names you didn't ask for...

Why does this bother me (and them)?

For one thing, according to Dotster, "Spam-Shield and Whois Privacy are not available with .ORG, .INFO, .BIZ or .US domains." Beautiful!

For another, a LOT of ppl are on "auto renew" plans, and will be billed for .INFO domains they didn't even register.

And, let's say you decide NOT to renew this *free* domain. Have you ever clicked on an expired domain, only to find out that it was now a 'scraper site', loaded with nothing but ads, e.g. no content except for ads? That's what your registrar will do with YOUR domain name if you don't renew. They will park your expired domain and turn it into a scraper site to generate advertising revenue for themselves -- making money off your name.

Here's an example of a scraper site: [ Only registered users can see links on this board! Get registered or login! ]

And, check this out -- Google is in bed with 'them': [ Only registered users can see links on this board! Get registered or login! ]

Bottom line is: this is fraud, pure and simple!

Anyway, whomever you choose to be your registrar, keep an eye out for this kind of BS...

I'll probably renew my .INFO domain, because I don't want to be accused of running a scraper site, but I sure as hell am NOT going to renew it with Dotster! Maybe I'll try the place Raven recommended. Wink

Posted: Wed Nov 09, 2005 8:12 pm

Very interesting indeed guys. Definitely appreciate the insight! I have been using APlus.net recently, but thought I'd ask the more experienced folks who they have had good luck with.

Again, Thanks!

Posted: Thu Nov 10, 2005 12:24 am

I'm using 1and1.com - since I already have an account with them.
It was around $7 for the domain registration, plus you can have it set to make your personal information private. I could set it to use their nameserver or set it to my own nameserver

Posted: Thu Nov 10, 2005 11:04 am

I still use several of those "cut-rate" folks. I have 6 different registrars in all.

I hate to admit it, but my favorite is still GoDaddy.com. I get a decent deal on the cost of registrations, everything can be done online, they have extensive services and tools, and the support has been excellent.

As mentioned about others, GoDaddy also has a "domains-by-proxy" relationship to hide your physical registration information which is great because none of the spammers can get to it.

Quote:

For one thing, according to Dotster, "Spam-Shield and Whois Privacy are not available with .ORG, .INFO, .BIZ or .US domains." Beautiful!

. All of my .us, .info., and .org domains are protected by this service at GoDaddy. You can also use them (at a higher price) by signing up ANY domain directly with them at: [ Only registered users can see links on this board! Get registered or login! ]

If you sign up to have that service, (or any other add-on) then domain name registration for the first year drops from $8.00 to $2.00. If you want this service, don't buy it seperately from the address above, simply choose it as an option at purchase of your domain name at GoDaddy, not only will save money on this service, but your domain name purchase price will be discounted as well! You don't have to do anything in terms of setting this up either, it is completely automated.

You can get everything you would want for a domain including SSL Certificates from $30.00 which is a pretty good deal.

I have also been happy with the speed of domain NS propagation after signing up domains with GoDaddy.

If you transfer any domain, you also get 1 year of free service... so if you buy one year at $6.95 (cost to transfer) you actually get two years for that price.

If you don't have hosting yet, they'll also give you (free) a basic setup including email, domain parking, a temporary "Under Development" or "starter web page" setup and more. Kind of nice if you need a couple of days or more to work things out with a host.

Finally, unlike many registrars, I should mention that GoDaddy has 24/7 sales and technical support by telephone as well. It may not seem like much, but MANY (if not most) "cut-rate" companies don't even offer business hour telephone support (9-5) so having this is a major benefit and yes, GoDaddy is a Better Business Bureau certified company and in the "BBB Online Reliable" program as well as voted the best Registrar by many.

As I said, I use several registrars including 123cheapdomains (bare-bones services, known to have name server issues frequently, not all that great email only support @ 2-3 days response time, $15.00 a year), NetworkSolutions (Some customers just "have to have them" at 5 times the price and don't mind being double or triple billed every year on top of getting lousy services and support).... Yahoo (OMG, what a huge mistake that was.. talk about a "cut-rate" provider and HORRIBLE support, west coast business hours only), BulkRegistrar (Great if you have a large number of domains to manage) but for everyday use, I still recommend GoDaddy for ease of use, performance, features, the time it takes to buy, setup and manage information, support and of course price.

Hope this helps.
Steph

Site Admin Joined: Jun 04, 2004 Posts: 6432

Like Steph, I've been using and recommending GoDaddy for registration for years and have quite a few domains there. They occasionally run registration and renewal specials that make it an even better deal. Like most registrars, GoDaddy has expanded into and heavily pushes other "value-added" (debatable) services, which I completely ignore. But for basic registration services, speed and support, I've been very pleased, and have switched my own and many other domains from numerous other registrars.

Posted: Thu Nov 10, 2005 8:16 pm

Thanks everyone!! What an excellent list to choose from. I am sure this will help others as well.

Regards,
montego

Posted: Fri Nov 11, 2005 3:28 pm

64bitguy wrote:

All of my .us, .info., and .org domains are protected by this service at GoDaddy. You can also use them (at a higher price) by signing up ANY domain directly with them at:
[ Only registered users can see links on this board! Get registered or login! ]

If you sign up to have that service, (or any other add-on) then domain name registration for the first year drops from $8.00 to $2.00. If you want this service, don't buy it seperately from the address above, simply choose it as an option at purchase of your domain name at GoDaddy...

I'm in a time bind right now, Steph, but this idea interests me. Can you spell out the process in a little more detail?

Where do you go to sign up? And, at what point do you specify you want this cloaking feature added, et cetera?

Posted: Fri Nov 11, 2005 6:26 pm

Evaders99 wrote:

I'm using 1and1.com - since I already have an account with them...

Indeed!

1&1 Internet of Germany, which offers .com domains at $5.99, has the lowest non-promotional price of any registrar in the world!
[ Only registered users can see links on this board! Get registered or login! ]

Posted: Sat Nov 12, 2005 12:12 am

VinDSL wrote:

64bitguy wrote:

All of my .us, .info., and .org domains are protected by this service at GoDaddy. You can also use them (at a higher price) by signing up ANY domain directly with them at:
[ Only registered users can see links on this board! Get registered or login! ]

If you sign up to have that service, (or any other add-on) then domain name registration for the first year drops from $8.00 to $2.00. If you want this service, don't buy it seperately from the address above, simply choose it as an option at purchase of your domain name at GoDaddy...

I'm in a time bind right now, Steph, but this idea interests me. Can you spell out the process in a little more detail?

Where do you go to sign up? And, at what point do you specify you want this cloaking feature added, et cetera?

The process is quite simple. If you register a domain through GoDaddy, it is done automatically, you simply purchase it as an option. You must be affiliated with one of their registrar partners including GoDaddy, Maddog, or a couple of others. You can find out details about how the service works at the [ Only registered users can see links on this board! Get registered or login! ] address.

Posted: Sat Nov 12, 2005 2:10 am

64bitguy wrote:

The process is quite simple. If you register a domain through GoDaddy, it is done automatically, you simply purchase it as an option. You must be affiliated with...

Hrm... okay, thanks!

I don't have a lot of spare time, for the next few months. Some days I work 24 hours or more (guess you gotta be there to understand how a day can have more than 24 hours), and my BS quotient is used up rather quickly.

I went over to GoDaddy and started to fill out the forms to register a domain, but I felt like I was getting 'circle jerked', so I stopped. Then, for the hell of it, I Google'd "godaddy coupon", thinking it might be one of those kinda places, and found all sorts of 10% off stuff, $1.99 domains when you order non-domain products, et cetera.

I don't have the time or patience to figure out all this get-something-for-nothing+10% crap, but that's my problem, not yours or theirs. I went to domainsbyproxy.com and started clicking around, but ran into the same 'problem'. I was looking for a 'fast path' to the best deal that these places offer, but that ain't gonna happen...

Heh! I think I need a secretary... ROTFL

Posted: Sat Nov 12, 2005 11:51 am

I hear ya....

My experience is that this can all be done from start to finish in 5 minutes.

GoDaddy is a big company now, so they love advertising. To be honest, in the time that it took to type this message, you could have transferred your domain, set your name servers and enabled domainsbyproxy protection (known at GoDaddy as "Make Private")

The trick is knowing how to navigate through it all. You simply need to also click next at all of the "Add-on" screens, I think there are 3 or 4 of them. (This is where GoDaddy tries to sell add-ons for basic purchases) and just look for the "Make Private" add-on option. That's the only one you want.

There are two different processes depending on what you want to do.

1) Purchase a new domain name versus
2) Transfer an existing domain name.

With #1, the cost of the domain will appear to be 8 bucks PLUS the cost of the concealing your registration record (the domainsbyproxy) function. It will actually appear that way UNTIL you get to the actual final page which will show the reduced cost total (which is $2.00 for the first year of registration plus the $9.00 per year for the domains by proxy)..

With #2, the cost is $6.95 for 2-years plus domain plus $9.00 for each year of domains by proxy ("Make Private") services.

Once you have decided what you want and ignore (click through) all of the junk, you get to the purchase page where you enter your credit card info. That's the standard online processing and keep in mind, the whole process is in a secure session.

Now, if this is your FIRST GoDaddy purchase, they'll set you up with an account. This is done in a very similar manner to signing up on a Nuke site. You'll then get TWO sets of login IDs from GoDaddy. 1 to set domainsbyproxy information, and 1 to set GoDaddy information.

If you are transferring a domain, the process is a tad of a more pain in the tail. You need to actually make sure that your old registrar handles the transfer. This process can take up to 5 days depending on who your old registrar is. GoDaddy has no control over this process, it is completely managed by your old registrar.

I suggest that the first thing you do is go ahead and set the name servers (at GoDaddy) to point to your host and simply wait 5 days.

You should also login in to domainsbyproxy (using the account info emailed to you) and setup your private DNS information.

Anyway... Like I said, the only thing you need to look for during the new customer process is "Make Private".... The price reductions will happen automatically on the last page, so you don't need to worry about "Special Offers".... it is all automatic.

Steph

Involved Joined: Oct 09, 2004 Posts: 293

If on a dynamic ip no-ip domain regisration is clean simple and cheap
I dont know if they do it if one is on static ips or site is hosted at another host.
Maybe worth checking out [ Only registered users can see links on this board! Get registered or login! ]

Posted: Sat Nov 12, 2005 12:53 pm

That's actually more expensive for private registrations and on top of that, it is really intended for a different type of audience (dynamic IP hosting services).

I use dyndns.org for those functions and since I'm a founding member, I don't have to pay any fees at all, even for special add-ons.

As Basic redirection, DNS and Proxy services are FREE to anyone at dyndns.org, it kind of makes using someone like [ Only registered users can see links on this board! Get registered or login! ] (where you would have to pay for those functions) needless.

I don't recommend either as a registrar due to pricing and services, but if you use Dynamic IP then DynDNS is definately the way to go. I love the free aspect of remote login. Takes a minute to setup, is free and you can then get into your home or office PC/Network remotely with no hassles.

Just a heads-up.
Steph

Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2005 2:26 pm

I just had a huge problem with one of GoDaddy's extra services. The response from GoDaddy was less than satisfactory, to put it nicely. And since they wouldn't let me register a specific domain name (don't ask, I cannot explain), I tried 1and1.com - which, for $6 INCLUDES private registration...NICE. The process was painless and it did not include the hard sell that GoDaddy has...

Regular Joined: Feb 18, 2006 Posts: 87

I use 1and1.co.uk. A global company........ just noticed my site is hosted on one of their german servers........

At the moment I have no complaints

akky

Regular Joined: Nov 27, 2005 Posts: 58

I've used namecheap.com for years. Cost is about $8 and never had a single problem with them.