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  1. #1

    Best Registrar for user domain ownership when using Whois

    Hello, newbee here. I am looking to transfer my domain and looking to signup a couple of new ones. I have searched the website and many seem to recommend namecheap or resellerclub.

    I almost signed up with namecheap but read that it is a reseller of enom and that it states that the domain is their property when using whois privacy settings.

    However, I'm concerned that many registrar claiming that the domain is theirs,and not your property when using the whois privacy settings.

    How do the top registrars compare in this aspect i.e
    gandi
    internet.bs
    namecheap
    1and1

    How much of a concern is this? Like will the registrar actually take your domain name away from you if something comes when using whois privacy setting.

    Thanks for your inputs

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Nov 2002
    Posts
    4,667
    I don't know of any registrar that clams "the domain is their property when using whois privacy settings.

    Namecheap is good. I don't see being a reseller as a downside - it's double protection - Enom backend with Namecheap support.
    I believe about 40% of Enom domains are controlled by Namecheap- making them one of the world's largest "registrars".

  3. #3
    Quote Originally Posted by Techno View Post
    I don't know of any registrar that clams "the domain is their property when using whois privacy settings.

    Namecheap is good. I don't see being a reseller as a downside - it's double protection - Enom backend with Namecheap support.
    I believe about 40% of Enom domains are controlled by Namecheap- making them one of the world's largest "registrars".
    I was reading the other thread "where I should register.." and came across this post #22 (sorry, unable to post urls )

    Quote Originally Posted by MarkXS View Post
    Gandi.net if you want free basic email and excellent authoritative DNS management with your name (form-based or full zone-file edit based for maximum flexibility), permantly free whois privacy for contact info (not for contact/registrant name, but this actually further protects your domain ownership rights). At a slightly higher price but if you use and value the use of at least two of those elsewhere-addons, they're as cheap or cheaper. Highly ethical, with an explicit "you own your domain name" policy.

    First-year-only perks: You can get a GANDI SSL/TLS certificate (they are the issuer, but it's validated through Comodo) for free. You do not have to activate it at time of registration, you can do it any time during the registration year for one year validity of the cert from that point.

    What else they sell (Upsell risk/benefit): SSL/TLS certs, NON-traditional hosting (Simplified VPS in Platform as a Service "Simple Hosting"), VPS hosting. Nothing that looks like "shared hosting", nothing that looks like "reseller hosting", nothing that comes with a "hosting panel or cPanel". Zero "upsell" during purchase.

    Internet.BS for slightly better pricing than Gandi, good authoritative DNS management (form-based only, no zone file edit option like Gandi has), excellent web and email redirection, permanently free partial (like Gandi) or full whois privacy. Written "you own your domain" policy but not quite as straightforward about it as Gandi, and has some "we might redirect it to our ads" language for what they might do during the "grace period" if you miss renewal.

    First-year-only perks: None
    What else they sell (Upsell risk/benefit): Nothing. Upsells thus impossible, for good or bad depending on your perspective.

    Uniregistry.com for excellent pricing, excellent domain portfolio tools, very good authoritative DNS management (form-based only, no zone-file edit), very good web redirection. No email redirection. Excellent choice for "domainers" since it was founded by a noted "domainer" and its tools for managing a portfolio of names including watching those at other registrars and pre-scheduling transfers is unparalleled. Permanently free whois privacy, of the "full" type only, so you cannot protect your domain ownership by keeping your Registrant name visible while protecting your content information. Does not have an explicit "you own your domain" language in their agreement but does not have an explicit "you have no property rights" language that some registrars have. And the term "owner" shows up in some places in their legal agreement. So it's reasonable about property rights. Does have some language about how upon expiration, during the renewal grace period, they might redirect to ads or do other things in their favor, but has reasonable domain recovery options.

    First-year-only perks: None.
    What else they sell (Upsell risk/benefit): Nothing. Related to Domaining.com if you are reselling or auctioning names, but not done under their Uniregistry branding.

    Namecheap Strictly for first-year or coupon-based price and features, but only if you don't care about having any property rights to your domain during your term of registration, because they have explicit language in their agreement saying "no property rights". Also if you don't care that they might be acting only as the reseller of another unrelated company, Demand Media-spinoff company Rightside's Enom Registrar. Which can lead to support "fingerpointing" between who you think is the registrar, Namecheap, and who really is the registrar, Enom. On some of the newer TLDs Namecheap has finally started acting as the real registrar, for which I commend them. Namecheap does have excellent DNS management, form-based only but probably the best and most flexible one I've used, along with excellent web and email redirection options free with registration. (Actually free with anything registered anywhere, because you can use it as FreeDNS with domains registered elsewhere.) Namecheap has excellent public positions about internet freedom, privacy, and other "rights" issues overall, but not necessarily when it comes to your actual "ownership rights" of your name because their position is it's impossible to "own" a domain name. (Look it up.) By far the favorite of posters on WHT who ignore all that.

    First-year-only perks: $1.99 Comodo Positive SSL certificate per domain. You have to buy that at the time of the domain purchase or inbound transfer, though you do not have to activate it right away, and in fact can activate it for a different domain. Free Whois privacy the first year, "full" type only, so you cannot protect your "ownership" by having your actual Registrant name shown with protected contact info. About $3 for future years, though coupons exist and they sometimes offer deals.

    What else they sell (Upsell risk/benefit): Darn near everything, with a slightly-obnoxious level of "upsell" compared to the three registrars above, but far less than the obnoxious GoDaddy or 1&1. Shared hosting, reseller hosting, semi-dedicated high-resources shared "business hosting", VPS hosting, SSL/TLS certs, "Private Email" using Open-Xchange, longer terms on their Whoisguard paid whois privacy, and now a bunch of "Apps" which are paid online services of various types.

    I consider all the above to be good registrars with which to register a name. Yes, even Namecheap, though I bluntly mention what I don't like about them, and they are at the absolute bottom of my list, and I've recently moved entirely out of them (had about 10-15% of my domain portfolio there). I use them now only for some SSL/TLS certs and one small shared hosting plan. But fundamentally Namecheap does a good job with registration, regardless of what I don't like about the company. Anybody I haven't mentioned, out of the reasonably well-known brands, I have no experience with nor any particular need to try. I have heard good things from many people here and elsewhere about Dynadot, Hover (Tucows' retail registrar), and EuroDNS. Stay away from Name.com (a retail brand of Demand/Rightside's Enom), Network Solutions, and any others that seem to really hype.

    And of course, "Never register from your webhost, never host at your registrar!" Consider that a general rule. Rules are sometimes made to be broken, but only by people who both know what they are doing and why they are choosing to do it. Otherwise, even if your registrar is also good at hosting (I'd put Namecheap and in their own non-standard way, Gandi, in the "good at hosting" category), or your primarily-a-host company is good with registrations, there are far too many risks by having things at the same place. That doesn't mean that a dual host-registrar (or registrar-host, depending on their company history and business priority) is bad at either thing, it just means you don't want "all your eggs in one basket".

    The absolute worst thing you can do is sign up for a hosting plan and get your "free name" as part of it. No matter how good the host.



    where it says that Namecheap claims to say that in their Terms & Conditions.

    Thoughts?

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Nov 2002
    Posts
    4,667
    I see nothing in their TOS that says that. Namecheap will not steal your domain.

    whoisguard-agreement.aspx
    https://www.namecheap.com/legal.aspx

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jul 2010
    Location
    Online
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    4,883
    Quote Originally Posted by dosfunk View Post
    Hello, newbee here. I am looking to transfer my domain and looking to signup a couple of new ones. I have searched the website and many seem to recommend namecheap or resellerclub.

    I almost signed up with namecheap but read that it is a reseller of enom and that it states that the domain is their property when using whois privacy settings.

    However, I'm concerned that many registrar claiming that the domain is theirs,and not your property when using the whois privacy settings.

    How do the top registrars compare in this aspect i.e
    gandi
    internet.bs
    namecheap
    1and1

    How much of a concern is this? Like will the registrar actually take your domain name away from you if something comes when using whois privacy setting.

    Thanks for your inputs
    I've been using Namecheap since 2010 and I assure you they don't steal your domains; 1&1 on the contrary does.
    Gandi and Internet.bs are fairly nice as well, but among your choices Namecheap is surely the best.
    My "ranking" is kidding.
    I'm just a humble client, here to seek help and guidance from the true experts.

  6. #6
    Ok thanks guys, I have done a lot of searing on the forum and google and learnt a little bit:

    Namecheap is recommended by a lot here. Internet bs, namebright and another one offer cheaper prices though and also renewals. I might try out these cheaper options for the time being.

    One question I do have is should I wait for black friday sales? Are there usually big discounts at this time? And can we use coupons for renewing as well i.e using Namecheap's coupon for free whoisguard or can coupons only be used for first year.

    ps: i think i may have figured out why my post wasn't going through after doing a few searches.sorry i didn't know

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Jul 2010
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    Online
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    F
    Quote Originally Posted by dosfunk View Post
    Ok thanks guys, I have done a lot of searing on the forum and google and learnt a little bit:

    Namecheap is recommended by a lot here. Internet bs, namebright and another one offer cheaper prices though and also renewals. I might try out these cheaper options for the time being.

    One question I do have is should I wait for black friday sales? Are there usually big discounts at this time? And can we use coupons for renewing as well i.e using Namecheap's coupon for free whoisguard or can coupons only be used for first year.

    ps: i think i may have figured out why my post wasn't going through after doing a few searches.sorry i didn't know
    If you prefer to wait until Black Friday that's up to you, but Namecheap does have monthly coupons for domain registrations and transfers (mostly valid for .COM, .NET and .BIZ); another excellent registrar with monthly coupon - my second place choice - is Name.com, thought they've started applying VAT to european customers' orders.
    My "ranking" is kidding.
    I'm just a humble client, here to seek help and guidance from the true experts.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Apr 2009
    Location
    New York City
    Posts
    5,169
    namecheap is a very good domain register. I have used then personally with whois protection and have never had any issues what so ever.

    On another note they have very good deals all around just about all the time. But as for black Friday / cyber Monday week they do throw some intensive deals like domains for $0.99 etc.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Location
    St. John's, NL
    Posts
    2,201
    NameCheap, eNom, ResellerClub and NetEarthOne are just a few of many good registrars out there. The only one I'd definitely stay away from is OnlineNIC, mostly due to past experience and a terrible API.
    Cpanel/WHM • PHP • Perl • Ruby • Full Time Support
    LCWSoft - Canada web hosting (based in Newfoundland) since 2007
    Servers based in the US and Canada (Uptime Report)

  10. #10
    Most ICANN accredited domain name registrars have whois privacy option and when you register domain name with them you and only you is domain name owner. I think that is clear.
    I think in your case that should be more related to the price of particular domain name registration services and (or) deposit amount in case you are for reseller account as well as set of management options (control panel etc)

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