Best Domain Registrar?

[AmbulanceBlues]

Hello. I've been reading this blog for about a week now and am infinitely greatful for the knowledge I have gained from your posts. I read Chris Beasley's blog posts at SitePoint and decided I had to glean as much information from this man as possible. Thusly I am here.

But I digress. I am ready to register for my first domain name. Some of the posts I have read did not speak well of GoDaddy. My own cursory research reveals that godaddy has the best offers (superficially at least). I was wondering if anyone could recommend the best registration service (and hosting as well for that matter) as I don't want my very first move into the world of web publishing to be a screw-up. Why exactly is GoDaddy such a pain to deal with?

[deronsizemore]

I've used Enom and NameCheap. Personally I love NameCheap. It's very user friendly and I've had no problems with them at all. http://www.namecheap.com

[OnlineDAD]

My guess is that because GoDaddy is one of the largest in the biz they have more chances for people to speak bad about them. Remember the bad stuff always comes through louder than good.

I've personally been using GoDaddy for about 3 years and have never had a single issue with them. I've also used a few others but GoDaddy has always beat them on price or offered something the others didn't.

Just my .02

[etech-martin]

We use eNom and Namecheap and never had any problems with them.

[Johnny Gulag]

I second Godaddy, not that they are the best, but in the 4 years I have been using them, I have never had a single issue.

[chromate]

namecheap

[James]

I like namecheap. They've always got coupon codes to make them cheaper, and I love being able to use PayPal.

[Johnny Gulag]

I like namecheap. They've always got coupon codes to make them cheaper, and I love being able to use PayPal. You can use Paypal at GoDaddy also. :)

[James]

Yeah, but GoDaddy's interface sucks and their prices are higher.

[ozgression]

I like namecheap. They've always got coupon codes to make them cheaper, and I love being able to use PayPal.

Where do you get the coupons from? :)

[bbolte]

i've been using GoDaddy for around 4-5 years and haven't had any problems with their service. I find their prices very reasonable compared to many others. i haven't used their hosting, so i can't comment on that...

[James]

Where do you get the coupons from? :)
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=namecheap+coupon&btnG=Google+Search

[Masetek]

Where do you get the coupons from? :)

Digitalpoint is also a good source. But the common ones only take about about a buck off, but a bucks a buck right?

Namecheap wins the best domain hands down for all the reasons mentioned above.

[James]

Hey, if I can get 1 free domain name when buying 8 or 9, I'm in.

[dLimbo]

My guess is that because GoDaddy is one of the largest in the biz they have more chances for people to speak bad about them. Remember the bad stuff always comes through louder than good.

I've personally been using GoDaddy for about 3 years and have never had a single issue with them. I've also used a few others but GoDaddy has always beat them on price or offered something the others didn't.

Just my .02

I agree that the bad stuff comes through louder than the good. Several years ago I switched from NetworkSolutions to GoDaddy mainly because GoDaddy's prices were better. I have been generally happy and have had no problems with GoDaddy until recently, however my most recent bad experience is unfortunately a deal-breaker for me.

Three times in the last six months my account has been locked by GoDaddy due to too many failed login attempts. The problem is that I am not the one who is failing at logging in. Apparently someone else is attempting to hack my account resulting in the lock.

Of all the online web sites where I am a member and am required to log in, GoDaddy is the ONLY site where I have ever encountered this problem.

Each time this has happened, I have had to contact GoDaddy support and supply verification information to have my account unlocked.

I understand that this is actually a security protection, but nevertheless that doesn't make it any less annoying to me as a user.

The last straw was when one of my domains was in jeopardy of expiring and I tried logging in to renew the domain registration and could not log in because once again, my account was locked.

My domain expired before I was able to have the lock removed.

When domains expire at GoDaddy, you have a 30-day window to renew before the registration enters a final state of cancelled. If you renew during the 30-day "redemption" period, your renewal is subject to an $80 reactivation fee.

I consider the $80 reactivation fee to be excessive and unwarranted and I will not pay it. I could probably ask to have the fee waived, however, at this point, my opinion of GoDaddy's services has dropped several notches and has unfortunately reached such a low point that I have no desire to continue doing business with them.

As soon as I can find a registrar that is more to my liking, I will be moving all of my registrations and hosting elsewhere.

[danky]

namecheap , yeah!