So I keep hearing about not using Godaddy for registering domains and my current registrar (123-reg) is terrible but I thought it would be interesting to hear what people on HN use/recommend and why?
I use <a href="https://dnsimple.com" rel="nofollow">https://dnsimple.com</a>. They offer only DNS services (no web hosting). It's a bit more expensive than other registrar, but it's sooooo easy to use. The additional price is definitely worth the extra convenience. There are pre-defined templates for popular services (Heroku, Google Apps, Wordress, Blogger, etc) which will create the dns records for you. I love it and won't go back. Plus the user interface is not bloated at all, compared to what I've seen elsewhere.
I have been using Badger. The UI is pretty clean without upsells, they have an API, and they let you easily link the domain with other services.<p>They also have an affiliate program where you get your first domain for $5 and the referer gets essentially a tenth of a free domain. (My URL for this is <a href="http://www.badger.com/fivebucks/" rel="nofollow">http://www.badger.com/fivebucks/</a> if you want to take advantage of it.)
I recommend using <a href="http://Hover.com" rel="nofollow">http://Hover.com</a>.<p>UI is simple and elegant. They don't charge for a private whois database or try and up-sell on you with emails every other day. Transferring domains over is simple. Check them out! @hover on twitter.
<a href="http://internetbs.net" rel="nofollow">http://internetbs.net</a>. Cheap, generally intuitive user interface, and no problems in the 3 odd years I've been using them.