I was looking into hover, namecheap, and google domains.
This is the first time I’m looking into this so ELI5.

Is any one better than the others?
Would I find issues with different DNS set in my pi-hole?

  • pineapple@lemmy.pineapplemachine.comEnglish
    14·
    2 years ago

    I’ve been using namecheap for more than ten years now, and I have no complaints. Everything just works, at least as far as my usage goes, and the pricing feels very reasonable.

    • Tangentism@lemmy.mlEnglish
      2·
      2 years ago

      I use NameCheap and WebSiteSpot as the price of certain TLDs can vary between them.

  • kimli@lemmy.mlEnglish
    11·
    2 years ago

    I’ve been using Namecheap for personal domains for around 10 years now. Since a few years back, privacy guard is included in the domain price (at least for .com domains) so your name, address, … won’t appear directly on whois queries.

    As it’s just one domain, (longterm) pricewise I don’t think there’ll be a big difference with any of them. 1 or 2 € per year, maybe. It’ll be more important to check longterm price of the domain (.com / .io / …), as you’ll probably find some offer for the first year.

    FWIW, namecheap publishes a recurrent offer around 10th October (apart from some random offers every once in a while) If you go with them, you can register for one year and renew the domain for a longer period when you find an offer.

  • JollyRoberts@lemmy.mlEnglish
    101·
    2 years ago

    I’ve used namecheap for years for my personal domain. It was the one I liked best back when I brought the domain.

    That was like ten years ago now and cloudflair wasn’t a thing then iirc.

    • Rogers@lemmy.mlEnglish
      4·
      2 years ago

      Namecheap is okay but namecheap support has gotten worse as they have grown into the Goliath they are today.

  • HallaWorld@lemmy.mlEnglish
    8·
    2 years ago

    I’ve been using gandi.net since forever, it’s alright. The main selling point these days is the availability of pretty much all TLDs I guess. They have a strong privacy and consumer rights legacy, but that’s been kind of fading as they’ve grown over the years.

    I don’t think one is necessarily better than another, though there are some sketchy actors out there with some real shady business practises.

    If you go with any of the ones you mention in your OP you’ll be fine though.

  • Rogers@lemmy.mlEnglish
    5·
    2 years ago

    If you want good support and free whois privacy porkbun.com is the best I’ve used. Another option ive used is namecheap they’ve gotten big enough their quality has dropped imo.

    • Rogers@lemmy.mlEnglish
      2·
      2 years ago

      It’s important to remember with a lot of places like that you don’t own the domain. Ive heard stories where valuable domains are taken over by the owners as well.

      • GrishAix@feddit.deEnglish
        2·
        2 years ago

        Freenom. Gives you a free domain until you have somting valuable running behind it. Then they will charge you.

  • Packopus@kbin.social
    5·
    2 years ago

    I’ve found Cloudflare is cheaper than Google Domains, and allows for more flexibility of setups. A $12 domain on google can be $9 or less on Cloudflare. (this is a per-year price. So the cheaper you get the domain, will exponentially be cheaper over 10+ years)

    Cloudflare is also a layer of protection to your pihole. You shouldn’t run in to that many issues by buying a domain but I’m not sure what you’re trying to do. Just buying a domain is like buying a username, it doesn’t do much until you point it somewhere. So if you’re pointing it to your pi-hole to host something then I’d look in to hosting services to save yourself a bit of a security issue.

    What is it you’re trying to do?

    • pe1uca@lemmy.oneOP
      1·
      2 years ago

      I know, I’ll deploy some stuff in the VPS I have (including a lemmy instance), that’s why I’m looking to buy a domain.

      • Packopus@kbin.social
        0·
        2 years ago

        Ah okay, then yeah for sure I’d say there is really no difference between them besides price and convenience of redirecting your DNS. You can always transfer where it’s registered later as well depending on if they charge fees or not.

        • png@kbin.social
          1·
          2 years ago

          at least when using Porkbun, you can use cloudflare dns while having porkbun as your registrar, which Ive found to be really convenient.

    • png@kbin.social
      3·
      2 years ago

      I also use Porkbun, definitely recommend & they are the cheapest for quite a few tlds.

    • kethali@lemmy.ca
      2·
      2 years ago

      I’ve been happy with Porkbun as well, I just need to finish moving the rest of my domains over there to keep them all in one place so I don’t forget any.

  • threemux@lemmy.ko4abp.comEnglish
    1·
    2 years ago

    I’ve used namecheap for years with 0 problems. They have a good selection and good support. I’ve heard good things about Porkbun too.