I used to use Gandi, but I've since moved all of my domains over to iwantmyname.com. They're UI is awesome but their support is even better.
(As a meta-comment, whenever VPS comparisons are brought up on HN, it's always Linode vs Digital Ocean. Gut feeling to compare apples to oranges for domains providers, Gandi is Linode while iwantmyname is the Digital Ocean)
Sorry, I don't have a list of others. Australia (.au) stopped showing it to rule out all of those renewal/transfer scams and it has worked really well since.
I use GoDaddy. They have amazing customer support and you can always find 33% off a domain. It ends up being under $50 for 5 years. I wouldn't host with them or provide a primary email as they spam like motherfuckers, but just to register it has been a positive experience.
I have domains registered with Namecheap, Dynadot and Gandi. I'd recommend any of them, although with Gandi be aware they have an "ethics" clause in their ToS which strikes me as being rather subjective and fuzzy. I wouldn't host anything public-facing on the domain I have registered with them for that reason.
Dynadot has been rock solid -- also, as a plus, they have an API (albeit a mediocre one -- but hey, it works). I like being able to register via CURL without dealing with their web site, and we integrated basic domain purchasing into our product as well.
They'd be fine, except that if you use their DNS servers, they by default add a wildcard record pointing to spammy domain parking pages, breaking NXDOMAIN. And don't expose it in the UI, so that it's very easy to miss that they're doing it and not easy to figure out how to disable it. (Answer: by adding a wildcard TXT record).
Interesting, they didn't used to do this before - they also got rid of their affiliate program a few months ago. Maybe it's time to go registrar shopping
I'm a fan of Badger [1] now as they have the lowest price I've seen that also includes whois privacy ($10).
If you want to use my referral link [2] you can register or transfer a domain for $5.
I'm also a big fan of Hover [3] and Namecheap [4] too. I generally want a no nonsense, no annoying upsells, simple domain registrar. You also should think about what TLD you want as different registrars will have different TLDs especially now that the new GTLDs have arrived.
Dreamhost is great for domains, and has a beautiful ecosystem for everything else. Also the referral program is amazing. I get like $10 a month because I referred someone once.
I've used Network Solutions, NameCheap, Gandi, and a handful of specific ccTLD registrars. I never had any problems with any of them and I wouldn't worry about what you chose too much.
That being said, I like using Gandi knowing they support (financially or otherwise) many amazing open source projects and organizations. Those that stand out to me include Debian, EFF, and CC, but I recommend you take a look at the full list[0] on their website. They also take a strong stance against SOPA[1] (and clones) and prominently display their no bullshit stance[2] on their website and merchandise.
There's also a bit of a bonus if you're slightly tech savvy because you can often find their devs on Freenode at #gandi-mail or #gandi-hosting, though it's not advertised and there's no guarantee.
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[ 3.4 ms ] story [ 66.9 ms ] thread(As a meta-comment, whenever VPS comparisons are brought up on HN, it's always Linode vs Digital Ocean. Gut feeling to compare apples to oranges for domains providers, Gandi is Linode while iwantmyname is the Digital Ocean)
I only do 10 year registrations (SEO) and NameCheap has a big discount for those.
They'd be fine, except that if you use their DNS servers, they by default add a wildcard record pointing to spammy domain parking pages, breaking NXDOMAIN. And don't expose it in the UI, so that it's very easy to miss that they're doing it and not easy to figure out how to disable it. (Answer: by adding a wildcard TXT record).
If you want to use my referral link [2] you can register or transfer a domain for $5.
I'm also a big fan of Hover [3] and Namecheap [4] too. I generally want a no nonsense, no annoying upsells, simple domain registrar. You also should think about what TLD you want as different registrars will have different TLDs especially now that the new GTLDs have arrived.
[1]: http://badger.com [2]: http://badger.com/derek [3]: http://hover.com [4]: http://namecheap.com
Referral link: https://www.gossimer.com/aff.php?aff=253
That being said, I like using Gandi knowing they support (financially or otherwise) many amazing open source projects and organizations. Those that stand out to me include Debian, EFF, and CC, but I recommend you take a look at the full list[0] on their website. They also take a strong stance against SOPA[1] (and clones) and prominently display their no bullshit stance[2] on their website and merchandise.
There's also a bit of a bonus if you're slightly tech savvy because you can often find their devs on Freenode at #gandi-mail or #gandi-hosting, though it's not advertised and there's no guarantee.
[0] https://www.gandi.net/supports/
[1] http://www.gandibar.net/post/2011/12/23/Gandi-s-Opposition-t...
[2] https://www.gandi.net/no-bullshit