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Ask HN: What are some trustworthy Domain Registrars?

2 points by madmaze ↗ HN
I have been looking around for a trustworthy Domain Registrar that provides Whois anonymization. After a few hours of research I have come to the conclusion that the majority of reviews available on <popular search engine> are very biased either for or against. It's hard to distil the truth out of these.

So does HN have any recommendations?

Edit: I am looking for a provider that has a powerful/clean interface, provides whois protection and has high reliability.

10 comments

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tjr
What are your criteria for trust?

I've been using Namecheap for several years after seeing it recommended repeatedly on HN. No problems that I have identified.

madmaze
I am looking for a reliable provider, which a good interface allowing me to change subdomains quickly and easily.
subsection1h
What do you mean by reliable? Good DNS performance?
wikiwatchme
Anyone except GoDaddy
talles
There are (perhaps literally) hundreds of reasons to not use godaddy. But why exactly aren't they trustworthy?
talles
Have you had any experience with another provider or are you a first timer?
madmaze
I've dealt with Godaddy and Dreamhost. I am trying to consolidate away from both.
subsection1h
I've used Name.com for years. Their interface is clean and they offer domain privacy for free when using their coupon.[1] Unfortunately, I wouldn't describe the company as trustworthy for two reasons.

First, Name.com was hacked[2] in May of 2013 and they weren't transparent about it. I learned more about the hack from the attackers[3] than Name.com.

Second, Name.com displays advertisements on parked domains for which the domain registrant may be held criminally liable.[4][5] None of my domains are parked at Name.com, so this isn't an issue for me, but I still hold it against them.

[1] http://www.retailmenot.com/view/name.com

[2] http://www.name.com/blog/general/2013/05/we-got-hacked/

[3] https://www.google.com/search?q=HTP+Zine+5

[4] http://nathanhammond.com/namedotcom-another-unscrupulous-reg...

[5] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2443710