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Ask HN: Why are domain registrars so bad?

by guthriej on 10/24/23, 4:46 PM with 8 comments

Domain registrars have a general sense of being bad: sleazy, upselling, cross-selling, poaching domains based on searches.

The ones that look like they could be good get sold off (google domains, gandi), and presumably will also become bad.

Why is this? Are the margins so thin? Is there no way to make money as a good domain registrar?

Why hasn’t a publicly-funded entity been established to bring some goodness (like letsencrypt did for certs)? Is there something fundamentally different about domains?

Edit: Having thought about it a bit more, there is something fundamentally different about domains vs. certs: scarcity.

Domains are a scarce resource, so there must be some mechanism to prevent bad actors from claiming them all in a land grab. Charging for rental of the domain serves this purpose (for better or worse).

Certificates are not a scarce resource. Nobody really loses by issuing them for free.

The best that a non-profit domain registrar could do would be to charge no additional fees on top of those mandated by the tld. As mentioned elsewhere in the thread, other actors (like cloudflare) are already doing this. So there’s not much room for “true disruption” (like there was with let’s encrypt).

  • by 4ensic on 10/24/23, 4:49 PM

    Cloudflare.com doesn't charge more than what the top level registrar charges them.

    NameSilo.com includes quite a few features (Privacy and email forwarding) that the sleazy registrars try to upsell.

  • by hitpointdrew on 10/24/23, 4:56 PM

    I have had good luck with Hover. I don’t think it’s a problem of no good ones. It’s just a problem of the community hasn’t rallied around a de-facto “good” registrar, like they have with SSL certs.

    So there it’s a bit more nebulous which leaves room for bad actors.

    Not that I am arguing for a de-facto one, there are two sides to the coin, putting all our eggs in let’s encrypt might not be the wisest choice in the long run, although so far it seems ok, but does have its drawbacks.

  • by h2odragon on 10/24/23, 4:58 PM

    i gotta speak highly of nearlyfreespeech.net here.

    i don't need much registrar service; and they provide all i need. no fuss, no trouble, for 16 years and running.

    I first registered domains before they cost money. I think the sleaze began to accumulate at NetSol about a year before they were allowed to charge

    The dream of charging everybody on earth, periodically, for a database entry. the ultimate rent seeker's money printing machine. AT&T ever realizes they're now in the same business I expect them to jump in too.

  • by red-iron-pine on 10/24/23, 4:48 PM

    Unless you're a big player, then yes, you are a reseller.

    The margins are thin, and you're often competing with the whole world for some of the higher level, non-country domains.

  • by kup0 on 10/24/23, 6:56 PM

    I've had good experience with Porkbun. I like it more than Hover, which I had previously. But both of these have been far better than most of the "big" alternatives.

  • by dswilkerson on 10/25/23, 1:51 AM

    I rather like namecheap.