Alternative Registrars to GoDaddy?

Futurepower(R) wrote in to ask for your suggestions about reliable domain name registrars. With GoDaddy, the one-time favorite registrar, suspending domains based on the wishes of the Irish High Court, and 'requests' from MySpace, is it any wonder that people are starting to lose faith in it? A word of warning from the last article linked in the last sentence: "(GoDaddy) reserves the right to terminate your access to the services at any time, without notice, for any reason whatsoever." Chilling words from a domain name registrar. So what registrars would you recommend for people looking to replace GoDaddy, and how would you suggest they go about transferring their domains in a hassle-free manner?

Just look for controversial websites

[lorcha]

Just use whois to see where controversial websites are registered. For instance:

• godhatesfags.com is registered through Network Solutions
• nambla.org is registered through Tucows

You get the idea.

Re:WoW! That's some marketing!

[Mike1024]

You REALLY have to ask alternatives for GoDaddy? That's some hell of a marketing.

The poster could probably have found other registrars easily - google would have happily given him thousands. I think what he really wanted is "alternative registrars to GoDaddy, which don't suck".

Clearly, if you're moving away from one company because of bad service, you don't want to move to a company that's worse. And the domain name business is full of dodgy "free domain parking", companies who register domains if you check their availability, companies who will refuse to let you move your domain to another supplier, and so on. Resultantly, the results google would give wouldn't be that useful - because you don't just want to find a company, you want to find a company that doesn't suck.

And that's an ideal use for 'ask slashdot' - learning from others' experiences.

Just my $0.02

Re:GoDaddy has become rich.

[bill_mcgonigle]

Most of those services are done by a computer. Most of the services done by a person are done once, but the domain registration fee is paid every year.

True.

Notice that GoDaddy has become so rich that it can buy a Superbowl commercial.

And, man, was that the worst commercial of the night, or what? Apparently successful recipe: "talk about domain names, pretend they cost $2, show boobs, profit". They did this a couple years ago, and it seems to be what brought them out of obscurity. It would appear "show boobs" is the elusive Phase 2.

It seems that most of that money comes from tricking first-time buyers into buying things they don't need, but why should a mostly online clerical company become fabulously wealthy?

See above. There's an old saying, "any successful business plan will involve taking money from dumb people."

Maybe the domain registration business should be re-organized. Was it ever intended to help the registrars build vast fortunes?

If they can do it for less money, the market should correct for that. IIRC, the .TLD registry is taking on the order of $6-8 for the registration, so if they're selling it for $2, they're taking a loss to get customers in for the other high-profit services they offer.

With a company like DynDNS then, if they keep $9 a year, figure it costs them $1 to handle the transaction maybe, so they have $8 a year to play with. If I call them once and an American answers the phone, they've lost the $8 a year for that domain. So, it's a gamble on their part that their service is good enough you never need to call. What I like about them is I never wind up talking to a guy in Mumbai in an effort to keep $2 of that $8.