Good Domain Registrar

[mark at buttery.org (Mark J. Dulcey)]

Kent Borg wrote:
> What is a good domain registrar these days?
> 
> I want:
> 
>  1. To retain clear ownership of the domain.
>  2. Reliable service, and aregistrar that doesn't vanish one day.
>  3. No spam or other slime from registrar.
>  4. DNS and MX service I can manage myself.
>  5. Decent price.
>  6. Transfer that will happen smoothly.
> 
> Suggestions?

I've been happy with Domain Direct (http://www.domaindirect.com), which 
is a division of Tucows. Not quite the cheapest out there, but their 
prices are reasonable. They've been around as long as independent 
registrars have existed, and the parent company has been around quite a 
bit longer than that, so I don't think they're going to vanish. (Tucows 
also runs OpenSRS, the wholesale division that is the backbone of a lot 
of registration services, so if they go, so will a lot of registrars.)

You manage everything from web forms, including setup of your DNS 
records. The user interface isn't perfect, but it all works well enough, 
and (unlike Network Solutions) your changes happen reliably and 
promptly. I get perhaps one email every three months from them; if I 
hadn't opted to let them send me news about new services, a checkbox 
that is clearly presented on the signup form, I wouldn't get even that. 
When buttery.org was due for renewal, they sent me a reminder email 
about a month and a half before it was due to expire. I renewed right 
away, so I can't say whether they would have sent more reminders.

The basic service ($20/year, or $15/year if you sign up for two years) 
is just registration and root name service (you have to provide your own 
name servers), but you can pay extra for packages that include mail and 
web forwarding (another $15/year), or all of the above plus web hosting 
($55/year and up, depending on disk space and transfer allowance).

Transferring a domain is $20, and includes a year of service added onto 
whatever is left of your existing term with another registrar. They have 
  a special web form for handling transfers, and mine went without any 
snags. It did take a couple of weeks, but I attribute that to Network 
Solutions dragging its heels.

No, I don't have any connection with them. I'm just a satisfied customer.