Ask HN: Which domain name registrar do you use?

#1

Post by not-so-darkstar » Mon, Dec 08, 2025, 11:39 AM UTC

is it still a smart move to choose cloudfare considering the recent accidents? the prices are low and you have the guarantee they will not disappear in 10 years or sold to an ad agency (see Gandi).

P.S. i'm interested in users with their own website for personal use

Re: Ask HN: Which domain name registrar do you use?

#2

Post by NoahZuniga » Mon, Dec 08, 2025, 11:42 AM UTC

I use cloudflare and it's great. It feels like the only registrar that has a business case for at cost domains. Also if you're worried about cloudflare downtime, you can only use them for dns resolution (which hasn't been impacted) and not for proxying.

Re: Ask HN: Which domain name registrar do you use?

#3

Post by A_D_E_P_T » Mon, Dec 08, 2025, 11:49 AM UTC

I've used a bunch, but Namecheap is the easy go-to for me today. Their support is extremely good. In over ten years, we've never had an issue that we couldn't solve over chat in 15 minutes.

Re: Ask HN: Which domain name registrar do you use?

#4

Post by not-so-darkstar » Mon, Dec 08, 2025, 12:59 PM UTC

A_D_E_P_T wrote: post #3

I've used a bunch, but Namecheap is the easy go-to for me today. Their support is extremely good. In over ten years, we've never had an issue that we couldn't solve over chat in 15 minutes.

i see they provide WHOIS privacy for free, great! i'm worried about exposing my personal information on the internet.

do people really put their personal address there?

Re: Ask HN: Which domain name registrar do you use?

#5

Post by Bender » Mon, Dec 08, 2025, 5:19 PM UTC

Some of my domains were on eNom and they were decent despite a clunky old web interface, but then they moved those domains to a VM reseller without even telling me why. Some are on Porkbun and they are decent. I have some spread across many other registrars. They are all getting worse every 5 to 10 years.

I suspect they will soon all be gone, replaced by investment companies that retain next to zero technical people. The nutter in me suspects there may be some goal to move everyone to big centralized platforms like Cloudflare and Amazon and at some point non-business accounts may lose the ability to update root DNS glue records. I think the goal is to centralize all DNS management and visibility. No idea what the actual long term goal is.

Re: Ask HN: Which domain name registrar do you use?

#6

Post by steventruong » Mon, Dec 08, 2025, 6:19 PM UTC

Porkbun. Been using them for years and I'm fairly happy with them.

Re: Ask HN: Which domain name registrar do you use?

#7

Post by epc » Mon, Dec 08, 2025, 8:45 PM UTC

Most of my domains are at PairDomains (no nonsense UI, but also limited TLDs). Have become a recent convert to Porkbun after Godaddy blew a renewal (on a TLD Pair doesn’t support).

Re: Ask HN: Which domain name registrar do you use?

#8

Post by thiht » Tue, Dec 09, 2025, 2:02 AM UTC

One thing to consider is that the way registrars work is fundamentally different of other businesses (since you mention Cloudflare incidents), because of their obligations to registries and the ICANN. A registrar cannot simply disappear, and your domains with it, that’s not possible. Domains are actually registered to a registry, and registrars have an obligation to submit their domain portfolio to a data escrow[1] to allow for handover to another registrar in case of bankruptcy.

Domain names can also be transferred to another registrar at any time[2] for the cost of a renewal. I’m not sure what your beef is with Gandi but you can transfer at any time if you’re not satisfied with their service.

My advice: rent reputable gTLDs (com, net, org, info, dev for instance), avoid ccTLDs from countries you’re not a resident of (ccTLDs are the 2 characters TLDs), use a big name registrar (I would recommend Namecheap), and keep your domain registrations separate from your hosting (you don’t want to mix up domain name disputes with anything else if it happens)

[1]: for gTLDs since it’s part of ICANN rules, which ccTLDs are not a part of, but reliable ccTLDs offer the same guarantees

[2]: unless you maxed out the renewal period (usually 10 years). A transfer triggers a renewal, so if your domain name is already registered for 10 years, you must wait a year before transferring. That’s why I always recommend to not renew for the max period and to always keep 2 years as buffer (ie. renew for 8 years at most)

Re: Ask HN: Which domain name registrar do you use?

#9

Post by thiht » Tue, Dec 09, 2025, 2:05 AM UTC

not-so-darkstar wrote: post #4

A_D_E_P_T wrote: post #3

I've used a bunch, but Namecheap is the easy go-to for me today. Their support is extremely good. In over ten years, we've never had an issue that we couldn't solve over chat in 15 minutes.

i see they provide WHOIS privacy for free, great! i'm worried about exposing my personal information on the internet. do people really put their personal address there?

WHOIS privacy is actually mandatory and has been for years, it should be free on any registrar, otherwise you’re being scammed.

You have to provide real data when registering your domain name for KYC purposes (if you lie your domain could get suspended) but it won’t be exposed anywhere anymore unless you opt in to make it public.

Re: Ask HN: Which domain name registrar do you use?

#10

Post by not-so-darkstar » Wed, Dec 10, 2025, 5:07 PM UTC

thiht wrote: post #8

One thing to consider is that the way registrars work is fundamentally different of other businesses (since you mention Cloudflare incidents), because of their obligations to registries and the ICANN. A registrar cannot simply disappear, and your domains with it, that’s not possible. Domains are actually registered to a registry, and registrars have an obligation to submit their domain portfolio to a data escrow[1] t…

very thoughtful response, thank you.