NameSilo is my go-to registrar - consistent pricing, free forwarding, free WHOIS privacy, instant security alerts on account access, simple and functional interface, great customer service, basically everything you could ask for from a registrar. I have yet to see any negative reviews about them.<p>I use NameSilo's default DNS service for simple things, Route 53 for anything more complex.
I use Namecheap for names and the Linode nameservers for DNS. I have a few nanodes (Linode's lowest VPS tier), so it makes sense to use their servers.
I buy domains with Gandi.net and use ClouDNS.net for DNS hosting. Their anycast network is fast enough for me, and they offer DDoS protection, which is nice. I also like that they are a European company like ours, instead of a North American one.<p>For customers, we buy domains at ClouDNS.net as well, instead of Gandi.net — I wanted to have that separated. But after the way Gandi handled the complete loss of customer data issue last month[1], I am inclined to transfer our domains to ClouDNS.net as well. Not sure when though, as moving the number of domains I own would be a massive pain in the rear.<p>[1] <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22001822" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22001822</a>
Google Domains<p>I know....google. But it's pretty slick to use. Easy to buy and setup a free catchall email address on the new domain redirecting to my existing email.
I'm in the UK and mostly work with UK domains, so I became a Nominet registrar a couple of years ago, so now I manage my own domains and DNS servers.
I've moved most of my domains over to Cloudflare. I had been with GoDaddy for something near 20 years. I got tired of paying their steep markup on renewals, watching the price go up year after year (once upon a time GoDaddy was considered a relatively inexpensive registrar). I also like the free information redaction offered with Cloudflare.
Mostly I host DNS via Amazon Route53, because it is simple, reliable and cheap. I wrap a layer of magic around it so that I can store my record-data in plain-text files, under revision control. That way I can track changes. <a href="https://dns-api.com/" rel="nofollow">https://dns-api.com/</a>
Namecheap never had a problem with them. In fact one time they helped me get my domain back after I had forgotten to renew. If you’re searching for a domain instantdomainsearch.com is pretty neat.
Purchase on Namecheap and then transfer over to Cloudflare. Hoping Cloudflare allows domain purchases this year - having domains be fully bought, transferred, and renewed via an API would be great.
I buy on Namecheap and transfer to Cloudflare (except for the still unsupported .me domains, those have stayed at Namecheap). I also use Cloudflare DNS, but I disable the CDN.