Ask HN: How to bulk transfer ~50 domains? (+ Registrar suggestions?)

[catone]

So, I've been using GoDaddy without incident for about 6 or 7 years. About 2 months ago, my credit card was compromised, so I got a new CC number. I immediately updated all of domains at GoDaddy to use the new number (about 50 of them).

Today, I get an email from them saying that three of my domains have been canceled and I have to pay a redemption fee to get them back. I email support with a, "Uh, wtf guys?" and they say my CC was declined when they tried to auto-renew (wtf? their crappy backend told me that change that gone through!) and that I had a grace period but didn't renew -- I save all my emails and never got one from them about these domains (I get a ton of email from these guys, but often have noticed that it's sort of random -- some domains will generate an email when they auto-renew, some won't ... but whatever, it had never been a problem before).

So now I can't afford to stay with GoDaddy and risk losing a more important domain (like, railsforum.com), so I need to transfer to a more reliable registrar.

Two questions: 1. Any suggestions for registrars with competitive pricing, good support, and that don't suck? and 2. Bonus points if it is easy to transfer ~50 domains. It'll be a pain in the butt do have to do these each individually.

I have considered just opening a reseller account via Tucows OpenSRS and selling domains to myself. Seems like that is what Facebook does... anyone have any experience doing that?

Thanks!

[Gibbon]

I'm pretty happy with namecheap.com. The only problem I've ever had was a domain transfer that didn't go through. One quick email and they fixed it within minutes.

They also do bulk transfers and have free WHOISguard. A quick google for the monthly promo code will get you a discount.

[johns]

I believe the free WHOISguard is only for the first year of the transfer/registration. Still nice though.

[bensummers]

Gandi are very good, and was started by people who want to do the Right Thing. Pricing is competitive. Support is answered by real people who actually sort out the problem.

http://www.gandi.net/

They have a very good web UI, and a bulk transfer in of up to 20 domains in one go.

Moving stuff in is easy. The only problems I've had is with the losing registrar being rubbish, but Gandi helped out. (The main problem registrar was GoDaddy.)

[there]

i'm an opensrs reseller, but it's mostly to sell domain registration services to my customers, not for my own portfolio. it's pretty easy to become a reseller and there are no minimums on how many domains you have to sell each month.

the built-in control panels are a bit clumsy, but if you don't have to interact with them that often it's no big deal. they do have an api that you can use to automate registrations, renewals, and transfers, though.

[jwecker]

domaindiscover.com has a very good track record (when we selected it 6+ years ago it was because it had the highest user ratings- I haven't looked lately but I can say they go way out of their way to let you easily renew domains despite CC issues etc. even well after actual expiration). Dunno about bulk transfer though.

[quizbiz]

I haven't had any issues with 1and1.

[Brushfire]

I dont know if they have improved, but 1and1's interface was quite annoying when I used them a few years back. And trying to contact them? Forget about it.

I'm very happy with dynadot. Good pricing, Great Services, Clean Interface. Sold.

[noodle]

i've heard good things about 1and1 as well, although i admittedly use godaddy because i only own a few names.

[xsc]

Moniker works well for me

http://moniker.com

[Oompa]

Never had an issue with nearlyfreepseech.net, no idea about transferring though.

[fno]

I moved a domain to them and I really really like them.

[duarte]

I like pairnic.com

They're expensive ($19 to $13 per domain/year), but the interface and support are great.

[DXL]

DynaDot.com supports bulk transfer. Pricing is not highly competitive ($9.25 a year for .com) but I have had no problems so far with 5 domains hosted. It has all the usual stuff (DNS, own name servers, etc.)

[vaksel]

why not just get another godaddy account and transfer the domains between them?

[catone]

Well, the reason is I just no longer trust their software. Only getting email updates about auto-renewals for some, but not all of my domains was never a big deal, but another apparent mistake (their software not updating my CC across all my domains -- some have auto-renewed without incident on the new card since I made the change, but it appears not all were updated when I used their bulk account info change tool) has sort of made it a big deal.

So I just don't trust their software anymore, and want to find a new registrar.

[Retric]

His complaint is with the company and he wishes to move to a new one.