Domain Name Providers that are reliable

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petesmithiesmedia

2 posts

Wannabe Geek

#281141 1-Feb-2021 19:30

I have over 100 Domain names that I manage for clients and up until today have been using Webdrive - who, at best were average. Since they merged or sold to OpenHost the service and support is appalling.

I dont host my websites with them, but I do have some mailboxes and mail forwarding and web forwarding.

Can anyone recommend a reliable alternative?

Thanks

Pete

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1410 posts

Uber Geek

#2645561 1-Feb-2021 19:39

I've been using 1stdomains - you can give clients access to their domains for certain things as well if you want to with their own username. I hear metaname is good as well

petesmithiesmedia

2 posts

Wannabe Geek

#2645564 1-Feb-2021 19:43

Many thanks for your swift response.

Did you move to them from another provider?

How long have you been using them and what are their costs, support and response times like?

Warm regards

Pete

xpd

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#2645568 1-Feb-2021 19:55

Im with 1st domains as well, was managing about 6 domains with them - never had any issues, so never contacted support. Ive been with them for a few years now. Theyre owned by Voyager.

Gavin / xpd / FastRaccoon / Geek of Coastguard New Zealand

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freitasm

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Geekzone

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#2645569 1-Feb-2021 20:09

Metaname. Domain only, no mail service though.

dt

1152 posts

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#2645570 1-Feb-2021 20:34

another +1 for 1st domains, been using them for years.

Their support desk is local, very responsive and the guys there really know their stuff.

Only problem I could see for you in particular with 100 domains is that they don't support zone file imports, so can make migrating to them an absolute PIA if you've got a bunch of records to migrate with the domains.

We acquired a company roughly 24 months ago which came with a dozen odd domains so turned a 15 min job into a few hours with lots of double and triple checking :(

networkn

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#2645571 1-Feb-2021 20:35

1stdomains, we have hundreds of domains under management with.

richms

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#2645581 1-Feb-2021 21:31

1st domains for most of mine, have others with 101domain because 1st domains dont do all TLDs. And I have the matching ones for those TLDs with 101domain.

Both are fine, both support google authenticator for 2 factor, both seem to update pretty quickly when I make changes.

Richard rich.ms

Equinox IT

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snnet

1410 posts

Uber Geek

#2645593 1-Feb-2021 22:12

petesmithiesmedia:

Many thanks for your swift response.

Did you move to them from another provider?

How long have you been using them and what are their costs, support and response times like?

Warm regards

Pete

I shifted from domains4less probably about 3 years ago (I had been with them previously and the ONLY reason I shifted was price at the time) when they had their millionth price rise and were running a promotion where you could get a free .kiwi.nz domain name version of one you had with them - the problem I had with them with this "promotion" was they did not make one phone call to offer this, they went domain by domain and I must have had at least 10 calls from them in a week (I declined every time) until I had a bit of a yell at the poor guy on the other end of the phone who I am sure is the same person who rang me every time (not particularly proud of it, but there it is) and blocked their numbers

Since moving 1stdomains have been excellent in terms of support, not that I have needed it much at all, and their price is sharp enough (the more domains you have the less you pay per domain)

bigalow

566 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2645608 2-Feb-2021 00:34

namecheap.com

been using them for years

they have every thing you need and they are not some reseller etc like some others

the prices are the standard price for a domain and they don't over charge

also if you have over 100 domain they might give you a discount if you ask

mattwnz

20141 posts

Uber Geek

#2645609 2-Feb-2021 00:46

Depends if they are .nz or international, or a mix. If there is a mix, it could be more difficult as not all providers support all extensions.
Also look for hidden costs such as costs for renewing expired domains, and costs for changing domain ownership etc

jjnz1

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#2645616 2-Feb-2021 06:39

I just moved 2x .co.nz and 1x org domain to google domains. Two use cloudflare and one uses Google DNS. Seem fine.

Very cheap - 1 NZ domain just renewed at NZD$27 pa last week, and one about 3 weeks ago.

NPCtom

430 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2645825 2-Feb-2021 14:32

I use Name.com for my .com/.net etc. domains and CrazyDomains for my .co.nz/.nz domains.

Name.com has good customer service for their web hosting which I used to use for personal projetcs. Now we have servers with OVH.

I don't really see the need for customer service for domain registrars. I just point all of our domains directly to Cloudflare's nameservers and manage from there.

MaxineN

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#2645828 2-Feb-2021 14:44

NPCtom:

I use Name.com for my .com/.net etc. domains and CrazyDomains for my .co.nz/.nz domains.

Name.com has good customer service for their web hosting which I used to use for personal projetcs. Now we have servers with OVH.

I don't really see the need for customer service for domain registrars. I just point all of our domains directly to Cloudflare's nameservers and manage from there.

+1 for Name.com

Been with them for years and never had 1 issue.

Ramblings from a mysterious lady who's into tech. Warning I may often create zingers.

maffey

41 posts

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#2646708 4-Feb-2021 00:00

I was with Webdrive with 300 domains for a long time. The Webdrive platform use to be great. The new Openhost platform is the worst domain name platform I have encountered. It is slow, very hard to use and most of the time does not work without doing some kind of work around.

Openhosts service is shocking.

Like you, I used DNS, Domain Name registration, some email forwarding and redirecting. My hosting is else where.

I have just finished moving all my domains to sitehost.co.nz. Sitehost offer some of the wholesaler features that Webdrive use to offer, including DNS templates, re-usable contacts and an API. DNS is nicely de coupled from domain name registration.

I looked at 1st domains, they seamed excellent however they lack the wholesaler features.

Drelly

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#2659543 19-Feb-2021 11:58

In the same boat but with hundreds of domain names and email accounts.

I've already posted on here about this. We've been hosting sites with SiteHost for years and they've generally been good for that.

We still have domains and email on WebDrive and have been planning for months to move to SiteHost. I recently found out that not only were they going to charge us over $12k to move the mailboxes (didn't think to mention that before) but that the email quotas and notifications they advertise don't actually exist as a feature, so we have no way of knowing how much storage our email clients are using without manually checking every mailbox.

I've looked all over the place and low-cost email services for resellers seem to be almost non-existent! Would be grateful for any tips on other options!

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