Going beyond shady sales practices and bad customer service, I've actually had several registrars (and/or individual registrar employees) try to steal domains from me in the past, In some cases, I had to resort to lawsuits to get my domains back. I own a few thousand domains (no, I'm not a domain squatter), and all of the domains I've had trouble with were very valuable. The worst instance was over a two-letter .com domain. It took almost two years to get it back.
I will not use Register.com, Network Solutions, or InterCosmos Media/DirectNIC ever again. I occasionally use GoDaddy as part of a multi-pronged backorder strategy, but I get my domains out of there as quickly as possible. I will never do straightforward new registrations there again. They did some of the most egregious stuff.
I use several registrars that have been mentioned, but I still haven't found one that I consider both really good and cheap.
It's the "really good" part of the equation that is missing, unfortunately...I have only found cheap ones, mediocre ones, and bad ones. There isn't a single one that I have been thrilled with as far as price, customer service, and business practices. Shadiness tends to be contagious in certain industries, and I think some of the ones that pride themselves on their business practices just haven't realized how they can improve yet.
1. I define a domain squatter as someone that buys domains and sits on them in the hopes of achieving a (usually inflated) payday, without actively using them except for maybe a scammy AdSense page. In contrast, I think about 90% of my domains are in active use, and the rest have been reserved for projects that are in the pipeline. [And by 'in the pipeline', I mean funding has been set aside and other work is being done on the project.] I own quite a few companies, and once you get into lead generation for those companies (and clients in turn), localization efforts, landing pages, educational materials, etc. - it is very easy to start racking up the domains. I've also been buying domains for many years.
I HAVE sold several domains, but usually only ones that I find a better domain for, or ones where I have abandoned a project. A tiny number of the 'empty' domains were reserved for my existing companies that are not accepting new clients...just to hold onto IP. I would develop them if we started accepting new clients. I have also bought a few domains with the sole intention of reselling them quickly, but only when I had a buyer in mind for a brandable name that had not been registered yet or for a very unique/rare domain that I had gotten indirectly via corporate acquisition.
2. In the simplest case, a registrar employee turned off my transfer block and then moved my domain directly into his account. He also disabled my email alerts.
I've used a number of different registrars, and the one I keep coming back to again and again is DreamHost. I don't know whether you need to host with them to use them to register domains, but ... here's what I love about them: DreamHost makes it really really easy to move your domains away from DreamHost. That sounds counter-intuitive (if they're so good, why would I want to move them away?), but it isn't. When you set up an account with GoDaddy (or other registration services), if you later decide that you want to change your registrar, they have a CRAZY process that you have to go through where you have to get an e-mailed code, that you then have to enter back into a random form at GoDaddy's site, and then you have to do something else, and only THEN do you get the authorization codes to actually move your registration. At DreamHost, those auth codes are one click away. And that's the kind of thing they do: They make it easy to work with them. And if you ever decide you need to move on, they make it easy to stop working with them.
So, yeah. I don't get any kickback or referral for referencing them. But you should absolutely check out http://dreamhost.com.
I recently moved a domain from Godaddy and did not have this experience, so perhaps things have changed. I just unlocked the domain and requested the authorisation code be emailed to me by clicking the relevant link in the control panel. My transfer to namecheap was complete within 3 hours.
you can get a domain name from yahoo for $1.99 for a year. After 60 days you can transfer you domain to the host of your choice which saves a lot of money if you have to register multiple domain names.
As mentioned already, the domain industry is known to pretty shady. Be careful.
I am working on a web service and iOS App that enables completely private domain name searching. That is, you can search for available domain names without even us knowing what you are searching for (this will all be verifiable and 100% transparent).
To be clear, we are not a registrar. We allow people to search available domain names without fear their domain idea will be stolen (by front running, etc). When ready to register, you can go to the registrar of your choice.
I use Dynadot, I consider them both really good and cheap. ;)
Dynadot is also an actual registrar rather than a reseller. I don't know if they allow this anymore, but last time I ordered an incorrect domain name I was able to delete it for a refund through the control panel of the site. I don't know of any other registrars that allow that.
Otherwise they have the same features of most other sites. Their interface is simple and maybe a little ugly but at least it's not plastered with ads.
+1 for Dynadot, I've been using them for a few years and been happy. Simple but full-featured site, no in-your-face marketing, great pricing. And yes, they do give you direct access to the domain grace period feature (though now restricted like everyone else by the domain-tasting prevention quotas).
Only downside I've experienced is that they have business hours -- if you have an issue on Sunday night they won't see it until Monday morning. They've been increasing the hours as they go, though.
Back maybe 2 years ago, I got a C&D for copyright infringement on a website for a college student organization. Basically what happened was that we used the school name in the domain and the school was trying to bully us into giving them the domain.
The school called moniker and when they refused to give them my contact information or take the site down because their request was illegitimate. Moniker + DMCA loopholes are awesome.
I highly recommend BlueHost if you plan on buying multiple domains. Its $10/domain, and for ~$60/year you can host unlimited domains there. It comes with SimpleScripts, which makes it a cinch to install wordpress, which is fine for putting up placeholder pages (or hosting a blog, of course).
A few other sites offer unlimited domain hosting, but the other thing that separates BlueHost in my mind is their support. There's 24/7 live chat support; I can't tell you how many times its gotten me out of a jam.
I use Name. I love their costumer service. + I get a special discount code every month because I'm on their "Investors club" for people with 25+ domains. You will also get a direct line to name and a bunch of other cool features.
Been moving all domains gradually from GoDaddy to Namecheap over the last year. Much faster to login, navigate around and get things done in Namecheap.
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[ 3.3 ms ] story [ 102 ms ] threadName.com and NameCheap are great registrars. Their clean user interface, tools and customer service make it worth the little higher price point.
Do NOT register at Register.com, Network Solutions, 1&1 as you will get price gouged and have a generally poorer experience.
My recommendation would be www.brandstack.com. It's awesome and they make the process so simple (as it should be).
Easy to manage domains, and with one exception from a tech guy who insisted on just making shit up, pleasant helpful customer service.
I will not use Register.com, Network Solutions, or InterCosmos Media/DirectNIC ever again. I occasionally use GoDaddy as part of a multi-pronged backorder strategy, but I get my domains out of there as quickly as possible. I will never do straightforward new registrations there again. They did some of the most egregious stuff.
I use several registrars that have been mentioned, but I still haven't found one that I consider both really good and cheap.
Do you mind sharing which registrar you've found really good without necessarily being cheap?
Also interested to hear any details about how they tried to steal domain names from you.
I HAVE sold several domains, but usually only ones that I find a better domain for, or ones where I have abandoned a project. A tiny number of the 'empty' domains were reserved for my existing companies that are not accepting new clients...just to hold onto IP. I would develop them if we started accepting new clients. I have also bought a few domains with the sole intention of reselling them quickly, but only when I had a buyer in mind for a brandable name that had not been registered yet or for a very unique/rare domain that I had gotten indirectly via corporate acquisition.
2. In the simplest case, a registrar employee turned off my transfer block and then moved my domain directly into his account. He also disabled my email alerts.
So, yeah. I don't get any kickback or referral for referencing them. But you should absolutely check out http://dreamhost.com.
One good bonus is free proxy registration; valuable if you don't want spam, but will still allow you to forward emails or whatnot received.
I am working on a web service and iOS App that enables completely private domain name searching. That is, you can search for available domain names without even us knowing what you are searching for (this will all be verifiable and 100% transparent).
To be clear, we are not a registrar. We allow people to search available domain names without fear their domain idea will be stolen (by front running, etc). When ready to register, you can go to the registrar of your choice.
Any interested testers can contact me.
Dynadot is also an actual registrar rather than a reseller. I don't know if they allow this anymore, but last time I ordered an incorrect domain name I was able to delete it for a refund through the control panel of the site. I don't know of any other registrars that allow that.
Otherwise they have the same features of most other sites. Their interface is simple and maybe a little ugly but at least it's not plastered with ads.
Only downside I've experienced is that they have business hours -- if you have an issue on Sunday night they won't see it until Monday morning. They've been increasing the hours as they go, though.
The school called moniker and when they refused to give them my contact information or take the site down because their request was illegitimate. Moniker + DMCA loopholes are awesome.
A few other sites offer unlimited domain hosting, but the other thing that separates BlueHost in my mind is their support. There's 24/7 live chat support; I can't tell you how many times its gotten me out of a jam.
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=150565
"I use EasyDNS. They're expensive, but reliable and never do anything evil."
Figured I'd post it here, since EasyDNS has not been mentioned yet. Also, it looks like Y Combinator is still registered there.