At the moment, I have a couple dozen domains registered across three different registrars: GoDaddy, 1&1 and Name.com. As my domains near expiration, I transfer most of them over to my whatever is my favorite registrar at that time, but I also keep a few domains parked at the other registrars just for comparison’s sake.

Below is some of my reasoning behind my decision making process:

GoDaddy

• Most popular registrar… by far!
• $10.69 for .com registration
• $8.99 additional for whois privacy
• Annoying ads and offers all across the site
• Site navigation can be overwhelming at time, but still pretty simple
• It’s where I tell my friends and family to register their domains

1and1

• One of the five largest registrars.
• $8.99 for .com registration
• Whois privacy is included/free
• Pretty simple and straightforward interface
• Can only register domain for one year at a time – WTF!?
• Domain registration/expiration unnecessarily difficult to find
  

Name.com

• $8.99 for .com registration
• Whois privacy is included/free
• Advanced settings, nameserver configurations, etc. readily available
• Some options/features may scare novice users
• Popular with and recommended by advanced users with lots of domains

My favorite of the moment: Name.com (as of January 2010). I like the $8.99 cost with free whois privacy. Unlike 1and1 I can register domains for more than one year. But as I mentioned, for most people I would still recommend GoDaddy. And as for any horror stories you might hear about GoDaddy, it’s to be expected when they are so large. I personally usually hear stories like that about small registrars.