I am a huge fan of Gandi. Yes, they are slightly more expensive than other services, but I find their user interface not just good, but really quite amazing.
One simple but obvious feature they have is the ability to create DNS presets and apply those for new domains, it's really useful. (other people probably offer this)
Gandi also has fantastic support; it is slightly sad that they do not have a telephone number, but I get the vibe that Gandi is a real technology company and they believe they can offer premium support with support email. I agree, but I'd still like a telephone number for burning issues.
My only real complaint is that they have an unbelievably stupid login system where you log in not with a username, nor with an email address, but with an entirely random username. Mine is: PC5669-GANDI. It's infuriating if you ever need to use Gandi on a different computer. Why they saw it suitable to put their company name at the end of every login is puzzling.
I also use Gandi. I moved away from godaddy some years ago, and I am happy with the change. Good customer support, clean interface. If only they changed their brain-dead login system, and made their web work with something other than firefox, they'd be awesome.
I've had a great experience with their VPS service as well. I chose it just because it was the cheapest one I found when I briefly looked around, but I've had 100% uptime for the entire 6 months I've had it.
The username thing is indeed very annoying though.
As does NameCheap and pretty much every other registrar.
Here is the relevant text for NameCheap:
Namecheap may also cancel the registration of a domain name, after thirty (30) days, if that name is being used, as determined by Namecheap in its sole discretion, in association with spam or morally objectionable activities.
Morally objectionable activities will include, but not be limited to 1) activities designed to defame, embarrass, harm, abuse, threaten, slander or harass third parties; 2) activities prohibited by the laws of the United States and/or foreign territories in which you conduct business; 3) activities designed to encourage unlawful behavior by others, such as hate crimes, terrorism and child pornography; 4) activities that are tortious, vulgar, obscene, invasive of the privacy of a third party, racially, ethnically, or otherwise objectionable; activities designed to impersonate the identity of a third party; 5) and activities designed to harm or use unethically minors in any way.
Is that for material you host under their hosting services, or does that really include sites that only use their domain registration, and host the content elsewhere?
Don't they have a term whereby they can take your domain if they want to (or rather, decide they could make more money that way)? ISTR that was why I avoided Gandi.net last time I bought a domain.
Revoked SSL based on trademark and Whois information.
Although the article does provide an update which says:
The reason for the certificate being revoked was because of the inaccurate whois data. Certificates really are a seal of trust, but that cannot be based on falsified whois data. It was right to revoke the certificate for this reason, but not without being in contact with the customer. We have reviewed and changed our processes to rectify this.
I've been using gandi for a long time and they've always been good to me. I like their "no bullshit" philosophy and their respect for my rights as a domain owner.
Can anybody tell me how to transfer domains + DNS to Gandi without downtime?
I'm pretty sure the right way to go about it is to move DNS first, but it seems Gandi does not support this (unlike Namecheap).
My DNS is hosted with the current registrar which, shall we say, is not terribly pleased with people leaving. So I would not put it past them to cut off my DNS service.
Me too, been using gandi for many years. It isn't the cheapest, but the service has always been great, and they would never be on the wrong side of something like SOPA.
I've used Gandi for two years now, and my advice can be summed in one word: avoid. Absolutely atrocious, horrible support. No live chat. No phone number. And it took them THREE full days and two "reminder" emails to respond to me on a system critical issue. This is not acceptable - and it quite frankly goes against their "slogan." On the flip side, I've found Namecheap support and value to be far greater. So I support them wholeheartedly.
Few days I tried to move my GoDaddy domain to Gandi.net, and GoDaddy denied my request because apparently the domain is registered privately. Why should I expose my name just to transfer?
You should have asked yourself that question before you registered at Godaddy. If you do not want your name to be associated with your domain, you are now locked in forever. To be honest, I don't even know if other registrars do it any different. (I only know that Nearlyfreespeech.net does not lock you in that way, but not about others like namecheap.)
Gandi.net does not offer full whois privacy by the way, so your name will always be revealed.
Privacy can be expensive. If you are in the US, you could try getting a PO box. Post offices around me have them for as low as $42/year. That is about three years of domain registration, but if you have multiple domains or want to keep your home address off the Internet, the cost can be worth it. Plus, now you have a different address for things and it's a locked box that's difficult to break into.
I used them for a while and performance was better than Linode (I used baltimore datacentre) but what made me stop was the lack of automatic billing.
After that I switched to slicehost who's equivalent VM performs even better however I don't think you can sign up for that anymore now they've been assimilated by Rackspace.
Didn't have any unscheduled downtime over 6 months on Gandi.
I recently asked them why they charge more than competitors for, this was the response:
Thank you for contacting Gandi Customer Care. It is true, Gandi does charge slightly more for
domains than some other registrars. We do feel that we are still affordable, however. The
reason we need to charge a small premium is that we have a different business model than
other, larger companies, and cannot get by on razor-thin margins. We are a commercial
organization, certainly, and we do make money, but we also support the community of
innovators in the hosting and domain name management space, and we do not advertise, but
rely on word of mouth for our marketing. We do not buy market share with ads, and we do
not make empty promises to capture customers.
We also include some services (such as a free year of SSL certificates and the ability to
obfuscate your whois data) that other registrars tend to charge incrementally for. This is
because we believe that your data is yours. We will never sell your private information as
some others do, and so we do not have that revenue stream.
We appreciate your willingness to consider Gandi as an ethical, no-bullshit alternative to
GoDaddy. Right now a lot of domains are available at $8/yr through the end of 2011. We
hope you will join us.
I don't know about transfers but new domains get one year free one domain SSL certificates too. I have most of my domains with Gandi and their management website is a breeze.
Don't put their slogan on a Powerpoint presentation then. Also, your corporate culture could use some lightening up (you may not have the power to do this, just saying.)
pclark|14 years ago
One simple but obvious feature they have is the ability to create DNS presets and apply those for new domains, it's really useful. (other people probably offer this)
Gandi also has fantastic support; it is slightly sad that they do not have a telephone number, but I get the vibe that Gandi is a real technology company and they believe they can offer premium support with support email. I agree, but I'd still like a telephone number for burning issues.
My only real complaint is that they have an unbelievably stupid login system where you log in not with a username, nor with an email address, but with an entirely random username. Mine is: PC5669-GANDI. It's infuriating if you ever need to use Gandi on a different computer. Why they saw it suitable to put their company name at the end of every login is puzzling.
Honestly though, its a minor criticism, and I love their "no bullshit" policy: http://www.gandi.net/no-bullshit
In my experience it is true.
davyjones|14 years ago
I accidentally found out that you can actually cut out everything after and including the hyphen and it will still work.
AdamGibbins|14 years ago
juanre|14 years ago
mike-cardwell|14 years ago
Also, do they support DNSSEC? Ie, can I use their web interface to upload DS records to my domains parent zone?
FaceKicker|14 years ago
The username thing is indeed very annoying though.
dbalatero|14 years ago
zbowling|14 years ago
cyrus_|14 years ago
Here is the relevant text for NameCheap:
Namecheap may also cancel the registration of a domain name, after thirty (30) days, if that name is being used, as determined by Namecheap in its sole discretion, in association with spam or morally objectionable activities.
Morally objectionable activities will include, but not be limited to 1) activities designed to defame, embarrass, harm, abuse, threaten, slander or harass third parties; 2) activities prohibited by the laws of the United States and/or foreign territories in which you conduct business; 3) activities designed to encourage unlawful behavior by others, such as hate crimes, terrorism and child pornography; 4) activities that are tortious, vulgar, obscene, invasive of the privacy of a third party, racially, ethnically, or otherwise objectionable; activities designed to impersonate the identity of a third party; 5) and activities designed to harm or use unethically minors in any way.
jotto|14 years ago
sp332|14 years ago
fletchowns|14 years ago
unknown|14 years ago
[deleted]
Rust|14 years ago
Guess I'll just have to donate directly...
lmm|14 years ago
jyap|14 years ago
Revoked SSL based on trademark and Whois information.
Although the article does provide an update which says:
The reason for the certificate being revoked was because of the inaccurate whois data. Certificates really are a seal of trust, but that cannot be based on falsified whois data. It was right to revoke the certificate for this reason, but not without being in contact with the customer. We have reviewed and changed our processes to rectify this.
nohat|14 years ago
mattraibert|14 years ago
drewcrawford|14 years ago
I'm pretty sure the right way to go about it is to move DNS first, but it seems Gandi does not support this (unlike Namecheap).
My DNS is hosted with the current registrar which, shall we say, is not terribly pleased with people leaving. So I would not put it past them to cut off my DNS service.
duaneb|14 years ago
azakai|14 years ago
ninjastar99|14 years ago
jyap|14 years ago
Same reason I recently switched to NameCheap during the whole 'GoDaddy supports SOPA' affair.
Gandi.net headquarters is based out of Paris, France (although they do have a US office).
One thing to bear in mind.
jc4p|14 years ago
antimora|14 years ago
soult|14 years ago
Gandi.net does not offer full whois privacy by the way, so your name will always be revealed.
techsupporter|14 years ago
fdb|14 years ago
r4vik|14 years ago
After that I switched to slicehost who's equivalent VM performs even better however I don't think you can sign up for that anymore now they've been assimilated by Rackspace.
Didn't have any unscheduled downtime over 6 months on Gandi.
renownedmedia|14 years ago
bmelton|14 years ago
I couldn't find it easily, but are there better prices for transfers?
fletchowns|14 years ago
I recently asked them why they charge more than competitors for, this was the response:
Thank you for contacting Gandi Customer Care. It is true, Gandi does charge slightly more for domains than some other registrars. We do feel that we are still affordable, however. The reason we need to charge a small premium is that we have a different business model than other, larger companies, and cannot get by on razor-thin margins. We are a commercial organization, certainly, and we do make money, but we also support the community of innovators in the hosting and domain name management space, and we do not advertise, but rely on word of mouth for our marketing. We do not buy market share with ads, and we do not make empty promises to capture customers. We also include some services (such as a free year of SSL certificates and the ability to obfuscate your whois data) that other registrars tend to charge incrementally for. This is because we believe that your data is yours. We will never sell your private information as some others do, and so we do not have that revenue stream.
We appreciate your willingness to consider Gandi as an ethical, no-bullshit alternative to GoDaddy. Right now a lot of domains are available at $8/yr through the end of 2011. We hope you will join us.
jc4p|14 years ago
absconditus|14 years ago
federicof|14 years ago
tomx|14 years ago
The third word on their site is an expletive. This made it too difficult to justify in a Powerpoint presentation.
cyrus_|14 years ago