When you register a domain name, there’s one commandment to follow: Do not use GoDaddy.com. And if you are already are, follow our simple guide to pull your domain name from the site. GoDaddy’s interface may be user-friendly, but that’s where the friendliness ends. In addition to the company’s sexist advertising and CEO Bob Parsons’ penchant for murdering wild elephants in Zimbabwe, the company has also taken heat for some shady business practices.
Doug Sellers, GOOD’s director of technology, recommends two sites that are easy to use and aren’t looking to screw you over:
1. Iwantmyname.com: “This site tries to make the front end as simple as possible,” Sellers says. “They make it easy to buy, and the interface is really user-friendly.” Domain names begin at $10 for simple names such as jilliananthony.net, and get more expensive the more exclusive your preferred URL ending becomes, such as jilliananthony.io. The site’s clean design features an abundance of white space and a straightforward directory to help get what you want quickly.
2. Gandi.net: The tagline, “no bullshit,” says it all. The site’s interface isn’t as simple as Iwantmyname.com, but you can be sure your domain’s name is safe and sound. “[Gandi.net] goes out of its way to do privacy protection,” Sellers says. “It shows you own the site, and are not just renting it from them, very clearly.” You can search directly from the home page for domain names in certain areas of the world or hot URL endings, and you can count on Gandi’s promise to be an “ethical alternative in the domain registrar industry.”
Whatever site you decide to go with, you should scoop up your desired name as soon as possible. “Finding a new domain name is really hard,” Sellers says. “All three letter ones are sold out and people have gone through the entire dictionary and bought every word. There’s holding companies out there that just buy names, and when you search for it, it’s unavailable. But they’re willing to sell it for $1,000.”
