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:
- 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
- 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
- $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.
