Ask HN: What are some trustworthy Domain Registrars?

2 points by madmaze 12 years ago | 10 comments

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.

subsection1h 12 years ago |

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

tjr 12 years ago |

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 12 years ago | |

I am looking for a reliable provider, which a good interface allowing me to change subdomains quickly and easily.

subsection1h 12 years ago | | |

What do you mean by reliable? Good DNS performance?