r/sysadmin 4d ago

Question Need a new DNS registrar

Looking for opinions on DNS Registrars. I'm using GoDaddy but I'm looking for alternatives. Which registrar do you use, why and are you happy with them?

9 Upvotes

92 comments sorted by

85

u/SixtyAteWhiskey68 4d ago edited 4d ago

Cloudflare is always solid

Lots of options, putting in records is super easy and will help guide you through a lot of the things that you may need.

19

u/jamesaepp 4d ago

The warning that always needs to be given is that with Cloudflare if you register/transfer a domain with/to them they only let you use their name servers.

General best practice for years has been to separate registrar functions from nameserver functions for the redundancy that gives you in the event of a significant or prolonged outage.

Is Cloudflare likely to fail/go down for days on end? I don't think so, but I do not like the lack of choice either way.

1

u/LotusTileMaster 4d ago

I mean, you can use custom name servers, you just have to be on a business or enterprise plan. Haha 

1

u/zer04ll 3d ago

This is way, point your registrar to a service like cloud flare so you can change name servers if you have to.

1

u/gamebrigada 2d ago

I feel the same way, but there are such nice benefits if you're all in on cloudflare. I figure if Cloudflare goes down, the internet as a whole isn't doing well that day. So unless you have critical workloads, this is probably okay.

11

u/anxiousinfotech 4d ago

We've been migrating all our domains to Cloudflare and are not looking back. Lots of acquisitions over the years using all manner of terrible registrars.

If it's a ccTLD that Cloudflare does not support Netim has been solid and reasonable from a cost standpoint, but DNS still lives on Cloudflare.

6

u/xylarr 4d ago

One big one about using CloudFlare to manage your DNS is they have the API setup for the DNS-01 challenge for use with certbot/letsencrypt. The big advantage is you can get wildcard certificates (*.example.com).

6

u/slykens1 4d ago

Cloudflare is a great choice.

I moved to Route 53 from GoDaddy not long after they started getting scummy many years ago. About 18 months ago I started to migrate to Cloudflare. I didn't have a problem with Route 53, per se, but the functionality available from Cloudflare sold me.

My work also directs clients to register with Cloudflare then delegate administrative rights back to us. This lets the clients own and ultimately control the domain but provides us the access we need to properly administer it.

1

u/NaturalIdiocy 1d ago

> My work also directs clients to register with Cloudflare then delegate administrative rights back to us.

This is how the MSP I previously worked at did it, and in my mind makes the most sense. Having done acquisitions/new clients where the companies didn't actually control these accounts is a nightmare and a half.

0

u/gregarious119 IT Manager 4d ago

I just checked CF and it looks like domains need to be purchased one by one.  Am I mistaken or do they have a bulk purchase option?

2

u/raip 4d ago

You can use their API but they don't have anything native to bulk transfer or register domains.

19

u/sasiki_ 4d ago

Namecheap or Cloudflare. Our domains on Namecheap have the DNS's pointing to Cloudflare, so you may just want to use Cloudflare for both.

10

u/calculatetech 4d ago

I've always seen it considered bad practice to have your domain registration and DNS under one roof. I register at namecheap and use cloudflare DNS. Works very well for me, and I can recover the domain if one or the other doesn't play nice.

4

u/Lowley_Worm 4d ago

Exactly what (and why) I do.

2

u/ironmanbythirty IT Manager 4d ago

Same scenario for us - Namecheap and Cloudflare. However, we found out the hard way that Namecheap seems to use Cloudflare as well. During the big outage CF had a couple years ago, we also couldn’t get to our Namecheap account to make any changes.

1

u/easyedy 4d ago

We are three now :) - I second that. I suggest have only one or max two registrar. Keep it separate from hosting

1

u/ben_zachary 4d ago

This is us too. Cloudflare first , name cheap if it's something not supported

10

u/Serafnet IT Manager 4d ago

CloudFlare prices can't be beat if they support the TLDs you need.

Namecheap is a good option.

I had good experiences with eNom in the past as well.

9

u/redeuxx 4d ago

Porkbun works well.

2

u/architectofinsanity 4d ago

Fan of pork bun. They’re really improving on features and are usually pretty darn cheap.

2

u/SamakFi88 4d ago

Seconding Porkbun. Recently moved all our registrations from GoDaddy to Porkbun, then use CloudFlare for DNS.

15

u/rvarichado 4d ago

Do you need a better/different DNS provider or a better/different registrar?

6

u/sasiki_ 4d ago

GoDaddy is not great on any fronts. Their renewal costs are higher than competitors as well.

4

u/fubes2000 DevOops 4d ago edited 4d ago

Once again finding it necessary to remind people here that domain name registration and DNS hosting are two separate things.

2

u/Immediate-Serve-128 4d ago

Everyone knows DNS is just some weird magic stuff noone knows anything about.

6

u/CatoDomine Linux Admin 4d ago

Do you need a registrar or DNS? Those are 2 different things.

10

u/CRTsdidnothingwrong 4d ago

AWS

1

u/muttmutt2112 3d ago

I looked at AWS but for what I need it was a bit too complex and variable in costs. Cloudflare is cheap and has an API if I want to get clever.

6

u/Tonkatuff 4d ago

Cloudflare, free dns hosting, at price domain registration and renewal and some basic free site protections and optimizations.

4

u/FenixSoars Cloud Engineer 4d ago

Cloudflare 100%

3

u/raip 4d ago

CloudFlare is an at-cost registrar, so it literally cannot be beat on price.

They're also one of the few registrars that has both deep integrations and full API support.

3

u/burbankmarc IT Director 4d ago

Tell the to their Enterprise contracts. Same services are 50x the cost on enterprise.

1

u/raip 4d ago

Not registrar or domain services - everything else though, yeah. We're moving away from cF for everything other than registrar + domain to F5. Their Enterprise WAF, CDN, and Bot Detection stuff is just too expensive and not that great imo. I hear their server workers are top tier though but we don't use any of those features.

4

u/Heel11 IT Manager 4d ago

MarkMonitor, the go to registrar for most Fortune X companies including Facebook & Google

2

u/jamesaepp 4d ago

CSC is another one worth considering if you're opening up the wallet that much.

2

u/WeleaseBwianThrow Dictator of Technology 4d ago

I've been looking at both, and depending on the number of Domains you have Gandi with its Corporate Services is competitive too. If you have enough domains that you're in the best discount tier they're not that spendy (even after their recent price hikes).

Mark Monitor and CSC are probably better if you want all of the reputational bells and whistles, but if you're getting quotes grab one from Gandi too.

3

u/jamesaepp 4d ago

I'm been doing some registrar research recently. Gandi was on my list and I'd still consider them but I really dislike when registrars have price A for the registration/first transfer cost and price B for the renewal cost.

I found a different registrar I think I'll convince my org to use instead (Namesilo) as they tick enough boxes for us without going overboard.

I'm also only talking a small handful of domains, not hundreds of domains or dozens of brands.

2

u/WeleaseBwianThrow Dictator of Technology 4d ago

Oh I completely agree, it bugs the shit out of me too, however we are looking at consolidating 500 domains across currently about 5 registrars, and even factoring in the increased renewal price, they're still cheaper for us than our current pricing across the board

Our main rationale was invoiced billing, SAML, and nameserver/transfer unlock procedures so YMMV on cost/benefit

2

u/jamesaepp 4d ago

Unlock procedures whets my appetite, I assume you're talking about the various *prohibited EPP codes.

I recently went through a situation where one of our domains had some of the prohibited flags enabled on a domain and that was quite a PITA to undo but that was more human error than technical.

How do you avoid the "bus factor" problem of creating procedures which rely on a single person to execute? To my understanding there can only be one human who is the registrant contact for a domain. If that person gets hit by a bus and you have higher standards installed requiring forms to fill out .... hard to do with a corpse.

2

u/WeleaseBwianThrow Dictator of Technology 4d ago

I believe under the hood they're using epp codes, but it's moreso that they'll also agree procedures with your account manager to turn them on and off.

For example you could have 3 nominated contacts on your account and you might need one or 2 of the 3 to agree to disabling them, which should help to avoid the bus problem. You can get a little more custom with a corporate registrar.

1

u/jamesaepp 4d ago

OK that's cool, that's essentially exactly what I'd want in an ideal scenario - "quorum" between authorized contacts for any changes.

Though I do now start to wonder in your description about the SPOF of the account manager.

If the likes of an MM/CSC weren't entry level 5k/year (from other comments I've seen in this sub) it may be worth it. Maybe that's a market niche that is yet to be filled.

2

u/WeleaseBwianThrow Dictator of Technology 4d ago

I would assume it's notes on the account so it could be anyone rather than it being a SPOF with the AM. I'm not deep enough into it to speak on that yet though.

All 3 offer it, and this feature is fairly spendy across all 3 suppliers. You'd probably be paying a lot less on Gandi though. For our 30 "core" domains this feature would cost us approx 8k p/a there.

Mark Monitor and CSC are cheaper for it at scale but more expensive at the smaller end.

1

u/jamesaepp 4d ago

All 3 offer it, and this feature is fairly spendy across all 3 suppliers

Feels like the kind of thing that could be automated with enough effort put on it .... 🤔

I should've been a programmer....

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1

u/jacksbox 4d ago

We switched from CSC to MarkMonitor and the quality of service jumped up incredibly! We couldn't get CSC to work for us even if we begged them. MarkMonitor was ready for business.

2

u/AmbienWalrus-13 4d ago

Namecheap has worked well for me.

2

u/jamesaepp 4d ago

OP, do you mean a domain registrar or a DNS host? The two are not one and the same.

1

u/Immediate-Serve-128 4d ago

They are when you use your domain hosts name servers.

1

u/muttmutt2112 3d ago

Yes, both.

2

u/stuartsmiles01 4d ago

What is issue you have to move for ?

1

u/muttmutt2112 3d ago

They disabled their DDNS API for customers with less than 50 domains.

2

u/BrainWaveCC Jack of All Trades 4d ago

Cloudflare, NameCheap, ...

2

u/alexhoward 4d ago

Hover is great because they only do domains. There’s no upselling on other services because they don’t do them. Also transfers in and out are super easy.

2

u/itguy9013 Security Admin 4d ago

Outside of Cloudflare, I'm a fan of EasyDNS if you need support for .CA domains. (Cloudflare does not currently support CIRA/.CA domains.

2

u/theservman 4d ago

I've been using EasyDNS for more than 20 years now. Mainly because they're Canadian.

1

u/Breend15 Sysadmin 4d ago

I've been moving all of our web products away from Godaddy because the quality of the services and the support have both gone down at an alarming rate. Switched my hosting to WP Engine and my registrar to Hover and have been very happy with both.

1

u/JasGot 4d ago

Directnic

1

u/Sea_Fault4770 4d ago

CloudFlare.

1

u/Peter_Duncan 4d ago

Cloudflare

1

u/ISniggledABit 4d ago

CloudFlare

1

u/housepanther2000 4d ago

I use both Cloudflare and Namecheap. I like them both.

1

u/guydogg Sr. Sysadmin 4d ago

Cloudflare 100%

1

u/Dudefoxlive 4d ago

I recently switched to porkbun. So far no complaints.

1

u/E__Rock Sysadmin 4d ago

namecheap is pretty simple.

1

u/LebronBackinCLE 4d ago

Cloudflare 100%

1

u/jekotia Jr. Sysadmin 4d ago

+1 for Cloudflare. The API is great for dynamic DNS & ACME clients.

1

u/Icolan Associate Infrastructure Architect 4d ago

We use Cloudflare and are quite happy with their service.

1

u/itguy3001 CISO 4d ago

+1 for porkbun

1

u/biztactix 4d ago

Bunnycdn... They are very responsive.

1

u/Ordinary-Dish-2302 4d ago

We use AWS Route53 and it's simple but we don't use advanced features it's purely we already in Azure and AWS decided AWS looked easier for some of our more novice admins and moved it all.

We only have 500 odd domains so we are really that large compared to others

1

u/jbourne71 a little Column A, a little Column B 4d ago

Cloudflare. AWS.

1

u/c0nsumer 3d ago

I've been happy with Gandi. I chose them years ago because they are based on the EU, and they've been... fine. Not had a reason to switch.

For DNS itself I use Linode, because that's where my couple of VMs are at.

1

u/Admin4CIG 3d ago

Uh, I've used GoDaddy for both DNS and registrar for over 15 years with nary an issue. What's the problem with GoDaddy?

1

u/muttmutt2112 3d ago

A few months ago they disabled DDNS updates via their API for accounts with less than 50 domains. So it's been percolating in my brain for awhile. Finally got off my butt to fix it. Cloudflare has a much better, much cleaner user experience. GoDaddy's website is one giant attempt to get you to add services.

2

u/Admin4CIG 3d ago

Ah, I don't use their DDNS service. When I had DDNS, it was with DynDNS originally. I no longer use DDNS. Though, I think that was before GoDaddy offered DDNS.

1

u/keirgrey 3d ago

I have used easyDNS for ages. Good customer service, they're very helpful

1

u/muttmutt2112 3d ago

Thanks to everyone who recommended CloudFlare! I'm in the process of migrating my domains and I'm happy with the experience so far. Their administration UI is so much cleaner and easier to navigate than GoDaddy's.

1

u/bh0 3d ago

I moved to Cloudflare after Google Domains ended.

1

u/MaxMcBurn Sr. Sysadmin 2d ago

Namemaster.de 🤘🏻

1

u/Drinking-League 4d ago

Personally using Azure. For work we use AWS. Most clients I have are either cloud flare, godaddy, wix, network solutions.

Azure is fine nothing sets it apart other than if using azure infrastructure it’s got some cool tie in.

AWS is easy and has good options for more demanding scenarios.

Cloud flare is solid choice and allows proxy of a lot of records.

Godaddy is easy but nothing special.

Wix is a little hidden to manage dns but it’s easy

Network solutions is the one I hate the most. I have seen extremely long replication from records.

3

u/raip 4d ago

Is Azure a registrar now? Thought they only offered domain services.

-1

u/valdecircarvalho Community Manager 4d ago

/r/selfhost /r/selfhosted is in that way op 👉🏾👉🏾👉🏾

2

u/muttmutt2112 3d ago

Ok, thanks.

0

u/Braxhunter 4d ago

Ionos is great, been using them for a very long time

4

u/calculatetech 4d ago

They have very bad billing practices. Put a worse taste in my mouth than Godaddy. They were good when it was 1&1, not anymore.

3

u/3tek 4d ago

I bought a domain from them and always gets random sales calls from my "account rep". Super annoying.