Ask HN: What registrars are in use with startup and big tech domain holdings?

I buy on Gandi, then set up through Cloudflare. I have scripts making good use of the Cloudflare API’s.

Every medium to large company I have worked for I moved all the domains to MarkMonitor due to their good support and what services they offer. I do not know if they are still good, but all the companies I moved to them are still using them.

One big perk in my eyes is they are specific to businesses and there are counter-signed legal agreements, contracts in place. As such, far less likely to pull a stunt like another registrar recently that put a domain on hold [1] for one abuse complaint. They would instead reach out to the multiple business leaders listed as business contacts and sort things out like professionals. They also have a legal presence in every country where it is required to get the ccTLD of that country. I never had a bad interaction with them and they were always reachable and knowledgeable.

I have had good luck thus far with eNom for my hobby domains and Porkbun for my meme domains.

[1] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40877561

Cloudflare is cheap and reliable. If you use AWS you can also register directly through Route 53. If you use Vercel you can register through them too.

MarkMonitor, but if you don't like renewal prices increasing by a few dollars at other registrars, you won't like their pricing.

$100-$500/yr for a .com is what I've heard, and a minimum spend for other things, such as registry lock.