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Five Best Domain Name Registrars


We’ve discussed the best web hosting companies, but if you have a brilliant idea for a web site, you’ll also need a domain name to go with it. So when it’s time to register that domain name, which domain name registrar do you choose? Who has the best mix of price, features, customer service, and reliability? We asked you which domain name registrars you thought were the best and stood above the others, and now we’re going to take a look at the top five.

Earlier in the week, we asked you which domain name registrar you thought was the best, especially in the wake of GoDaddy’s day-long outage earlier this week. You responded with dozens of nominees, but we only have room for the top five.

The poll is closed and the votes are counted! To see which of these domain name registrars your voted as the best, head to out Hive Five followup post to read and discuss the winner!

Hover

Hover may not have the cheapest registration prices on the market, but they make up for it with abundant discount codes around the web, stellar customer support—support that when you call them up, a real person answers when it rings, and hands-off domain migration from other hosts. If you’re switching to Hover, they offer a transfer “valet” service, where they’ll do all of the work for you and let you know when everything’s done. Their control panel and management tools also earned your praise for being clean and easy to use. You can see all of Hover’s plans and pricing here.


Namecheap

Namecheap took the top spot the last time we asked, and for good reason. As their name implies, they’re some of the most affordable in the business, but domain names are the only thing cheap about them: Namecheap offers stellar customer support, free services like URL forwarding and email, and if you do have more money to burn, you can get advanced services like Dynamic DNS and SSL certificates at bargain prices. You can see all of Namecheap’s features here, and their plans and pricing here.


Gandi

Gandi has been registering domain names perhaps the longest of the five here, and is famous for their no bullshit approach to domain name registration and renewal. They’re not going to sell you a bunch of services you don’t need or want, and they’re committed to being honest, open, and up front with their customers, not to mention doing what they say. That reputation—and their history—has earned them a huge following. Well, that and the fact that every domain registration gets 2 free hosted pages for your site, a free Gandiblog, a 1-year SSL cert for free, email services, and more. You can see all of Gandi’s features and pricing here.


Dreamhost

Dreamhost was your narrow pick for best hosting company, but many of you pointed out that they’re also great domain registrars (it helps that most of their hosting plans come with a free registration) as well. Those of you who nominated Dreamhost pointed out that it’s helpful to have your hosting and your registrations in one place, and praised Dreamhost’s speedy customer service, and comprehensive dashboard and management tools. You can read more about Dreamhost’s domain registration services here, with more details at their wiki here and here.


Name.com

Name.com isn’t the cheapest, but they do have aggressive pricing plans, ansd fast and personable customer support. Name.com also offers “Domain Nabber” services to snag expired domains that may be relevant to your business or site, so if you want the .net to go with your .com, Name.com will give you the opportunity to snag it before anyone else does. They also offer domain suggestions to you when you register, in case the one you want is taken or unavailable. You can read more about Name.com’s pricing and available TLDs here.


Now that you’ve seen the top five, it’s time to put them to a vote to determine the all-out winner.

Honorable mentions this week go out to 1&1 Internet, which many of you praised for its great prices, fantastic customer support, and easy sign-up, especially if you want your domain name hosted with them as well. It’s worth noting that 1&1 missed the top five by one nomination, which underscores the importance of nominating your favorites so they get included!

Have something to say about one of the contenders? Want to make the case for your personal favorite, even if it wasn’t included in the list? Remember, the top five are based on your most popular nominations from the call for contenders thread from earlier in the week. Make your case for your favorite—or alternative—in the discussions below.

The Hive Five is based on reader nominations. As with most Hive Five posts, if your favorite was left out, it’s not because we hate it—it’s because it didn’t get the nominations required in the call for contenders post to make the top five. We understand it’s a bit of a popularity contest, but if you have a favorite, we want to hear about it. Have a suggestion for the Hive Five? Send us an email at [email protected]!