As I was registering and renewing a couple of domains on Godaddy.com today, I realized that Godaddy has got to go. I’ve had my domains registered through them for several years now, but trying to slog through their interface today has made me rethink my decision. It’s amazing how many things they’re trying to sell you between the time you put the domain in your cart to the time you actually pay! I’m all for the free market, but there eventually comes a limit!
Worse yet was trying to redirect the MX record for the domain I just registered. Even the domain management interface is so cluttered with ads and unnecessary menus that you can hardly find anything anymore. It took me a good five to ten minutes to find the right place to change the information. At this point I thought, “There’s got to be a better way”, so the quest for a new registrar began. The main points I was looking for were reliability, a cleaner interface, and a comparable pricing structure.
After poking around the internet for a bit, I came across www.name.com. I set up a quick account with them and purchased a test domain name. The process was fast and easy without the blitz of “extras” being offered to me for my wallet-emptying pleasure. When I went to change the MX record, it took all of about 10 seconds to figure out where to do it. See for yourself:
Compare that to the clutter and confusion of the Godaddy interface:
This is even a cleaner version of what it was in the past. They’ve removed some of the clutter, but unfortunately it’s still difficult to find all but the most basic things easily.
Price-wise, both sites are comparable with name.com being slightly lower. One thing I really do like, though, is the inclusion of a private who-is service for free with the domain purchase. Anything that keeps my personal information from free-floating around the internet is fine by me.
Granted, I’ve only had a name.com account for less than a day now, but I already like what I see. If I continue to like it, you can bet those other domains are going to be finding their way over to name.com eventually. If I don’t continue to like it, I’ll be back here with an updated review 
