On the pending sale of Google Domains to Squarespace: Any thoughts/opinions on domain registrars?
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Vincent A. Cicirello

Vincent A. Cicirello @cicirello

About: Researcher and educator in A.I., algorithms, evolutionary computation, machine learning, and swarm intelligence

Location:
NJ
Joined:
Sep 14, 2020

On the pending sale of Google Domains to Squarespace: Any thoughts/opinions on domain registrars?

Publish Date: Jun 22 '23
11 31

Google Domains is in the process of being sold to Squarespace. See Squarespace for more info on the pending sale.

What are your thoughts on alternative domain registrars to Google Domains? Do nothing and just go with Squarespace after the transition? They indicate they will keep Google's renewal pricing for at least 12 months, but I'm guessing they will increase significantly after that (e.g., domains that currently cost $12 at Google would cost $20 at Squarespace's current rates).

Alternatives to Squarespace that I'm considering are Porkbun and Cloudflare. What are your opinions on those? Pros and cons? What others should I consider? Some things that are important to me include no game playing on pricing (e.g. same renewal price as registration price), no added costs for things that should be included (e.g. DNSSEC, Whois privacy, etc). Squarespace appears to meet those requirements.

Which registrars do you use or have used? What do you like about them? What don't you like? Have you had any problems?

Comments 31 total

  • Jean-Michel 🕵🏻‍♂️ Fayard
    Jean-Michel 🕵🏻‍♂️ FayardJun 22, 2023

    I didn't know that, but LOL, killed by Google is already up-to-date with the now defunct 288 Google projects.

    Experimenting is fine but I continue to not understand why Google hates his brand like that.

    • Vincent A. Cicirello
      Vincent A. CicirelloJun 22, 2023

      It is especially ironic that they are killing it only about a year or so after taking it out of beta. It was in beta for most of its 9 or so years of life.

  • Ben Halpern
    Ben HalpernJun 22, 2023

    I've used Namecheap and have never had trouble with that service.

  • Paweł Świątkowski
    Paweł ŚwiątkowskiJun 23, 2023

    I'm actually surprised that people were using Google Domains.

    Personally, I only use OVH.

    • Vincent A. Cicirello
      Vincent A. CicirelloJun 23, 2023

      Thanks. I'll check out OVH. I hadn't heard of them.

      I started using Google Domains because it was convenient.

  • Vincent A. Cicirello
    Vincent A. CicirelloJun 23, 2023

    They had the same prices for at least 7 years. I think their domain registrar business is too small relative to rest of their company for pricing to really matter to them.

  • Tyler K
    Tyler KJun 23, 2023

    Pretty sure I'll be taking mine to Cloudflare. Wholesale pricing and a great interface for editing DNS, plus all the other fun Cloudflare security benefits.

    • Vincent A. Cicirello
      Vincent A. CicirelloJun 23, 2023

      Thanks. Cloudflare is one of the ones I'm leaning toward.

      • Tyler K
        Tyler KJun 23, 2023

        For sure. AFAIK it's the closest thing to what Google Domains offered, but with a fair amount more features.

  • Elton H.Y. Chou
    Elton H.Y. ChouJun 23, 2023

    Just a buy a .app domain, but it cannot be transfered.
    Hope they can be transferable after acquisition.
    I prefer Cloudflare.

    • Vincent A. Cicirello
      Vincent A. CicirelloJun 23, 2023

      Thanks. I might go with Cloudflare. Most of my domains can be transferred anywhere (.com, .org, .net). I have a .dev that might limit my options, but I have to wait on that one anyway (registered it too recently to transfer).

  • Vincent A. Cicirello
    Vincent A. CicirelloJun 23, 2023

    Beyond search, YouTube, and ads, not much with Google lasts long. And YouTube probably lasts mainly for the ad revenue.

  • jwr1
    jwr1Jun 24, 2023

    I've been looking into alternatives myself. I'm leaning towards cloudflare, porkbun, and namesilo (in that order). Cloudflare is the cheapest but seems to be missing a huge majority of the newer TLDs, so I'll use porkbun for the domains incompatible with cloudflare.

    • Vincent A. Cicirello
      Vincent A. CicirelloJun 24, 2023

      My current top 2 are the same as yours. Except at the moment I'm not sure which is my top 1. I haven't taken a look at namesilo yet though.

  • Joshua Amaju
    Joshua AmajuJun 24, 2023

    You think people are complaining because potential of price change? Seems you're out of touch with what people are actually saying

  • Vincent A. Cicirello
    Vincent A. CicirelloJun 24, 2023

    I haven't actually ruled out just doing nothing now, and going with Squarespace after the transition. But I don't know anyone who has experience with them, positive or negative, and so far nobody has commented on Squarespace. I'm guessing based on the focus of their website that most of their current domain business is tied to their hosting services, which I have no intention of using.

    I actually have anywhere from 3 to 8 years left on each of my domains (I tend to add multiple years at a time) so any pricing changes won't really impact me for a while.

    But knowing myself, if I don't use this as an opportunity to deliberately decide which registrar to use, then I'll likely just end up continuing to use the one that Google has chosen for me.

  • Javel Rowe
    Javel RoweJun 24, 2023

    Porkbun has been really great so far! Super easy to purchase domains and add DNS records. They also recently added a tool that can generate domain name suggestions for you 🐷

    • Vincent A. Cicirello
      Vincent A. CicirelloJun 24, 2023

      Thanks. DNS management is actually one of the things I'm looking at before deciding where to transfer. I might just configure dns for one of my domains on porkbun first to try out their interface (it looks like they have free dns management even if domain isn't registered with them). And then do the same with Cloudflare, etc. I realize you don't need to manage dns with the registrar, but I prefer to do so.

  • Jean-Michel 🕵🏻‍♂️ Fayard
    Jean-Michel 🕵🏻‍♂️ FayardJun 25, 2023

    People like to complain about something that has zero impact on them :)

    The author was asking what the alternatives were
    Most people were offering them
    Some like me were making fun of Google killing its own product every week.

    Where is the complaining that you imagine to be everywhere and for no reason?

  • Jean-Michel 🕵🏻‍♂️ Fayard
    Jean-Michel 🕵🏻‍♂️ FayardJun 25, 2023

    Your first comment was condescending, this one also.

  • Jean-Michel 🕵🏻‍♂️ Fayard
    Jean-Michel 🕵🏻‍♂️ FayardJun 25, 2023

    Apparently you just deleted a comment where you said at the same time

    • "No it was not condescending!"
    • "Nothing to see here, find a real problem to discuss."

    Your comment was self-contradictory so I'm glad you deleted it.

    killedbygoogle.com/ <-- 288 products

    I do think it's a real problem that Google hates its brand so much that it puts it on hundreds or services that it kills not long after. When you trust a company for a product you depend on, you are not happy to see that trust being destroyed carelessly.

    Image description

  • daniol
    daniolJun 26, 2023

    I am using porkbun.com and internet.bs for years

    • Vincent A. Cicirello
      Vincent A. CicirelloJun 27, 2023

      Thanks for the recommendations. I switched my nameservers today for one of my domains to porkbun's to try out their dns management interface before actually transferring anything anywhere. I think I like their interface better than Google's.

  • George Johnson
    George JohnsonAug 14, 2023

    Had my domains parked with Gandi for about 16 years now! They may not be perfect and probably don't have a ton of features others do, you get simple mail and standard DNS editing, but never had any probs in all that time even when transferring in and out on some occasions. They deliberately K.I.S.S. which suits me fine!

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