Best Domain Registrars
It is best practice to always register your domain names using a “top-level” ICANN-accredited registrar. This means going to the ICANN website and checking that your registrar is accredited before buying (or renewing) domains there. If your web host or registrar is not listed (the place where you paid for your domains) then we recommend immediately moving all your domains to an accredited registrar.
Not only is this for legal, privacy, and political reasons, but also for technical / performance reasons. Anytime you are using a domain “reseller” for example Hostmonster to pay for your domains, then they are using an API to control your various domain settings (which connects hopefully to one of the ICANN accredited registrars). This reselling approach and API means a lot more software and moving parts, which can lead potentially to conflicts, errors, and other delays in your domain’s DNS propagation and settings.
Even if your “reseller” caches their settings, or the settings are cached upstream, we have seen hundreds of cases over the years of various problems with API resellers.
Save yourself the potential headache and get on a registrar that focuses ONLY on domain registration, and not a company that offers a bloated list of services. This will ensure that they aim to impress you with their domaining software (only), and that they are focused entirely on DNS performance.
You should also carefully consider your country’s politics, and look for a registrar that protects your privacy, safety, and free speech. (This also partially depends on the TLD of the domain you are using… for example, .org is well known for defending their users free speech to a very aggressive level, while .us blatantly reveals WHOIS details.)
Currently we recommend these companies:
- Namesilo
- Cloudflare
We specifically do not recommend these companies:
- Google Domains
- GoDaddy
- Amazon
- Network Solutions
- Domain.com
- Ghandi
- Tucows
- eNom
- NameCheap — banned millions of innocent Russian citizens on a whim to virtue-signal
These companies have potential, but are not currently recommended:
- Epik
- Internet.bs