Edit, Solved in comments 👌
I want to buy a domain name for personal usage (reverse proxy, selfhosting serivces). I’ll probably go with a general purpose .net
or my country specifc one. I am based in Northern Europe.
- Does it matter based on where I am located where the domain is registered?
- Any recommendations for domain registrars in that regard?
Thanks
Porkbun! There are many to pick from but from my experience Porkbun includes everything you need out of the box at no additional cost. Namecheap has very good first year deals, but after that it almost doubles in price.
Which registrar you pick initially doesn’t matter too much. I started with Namecheap then moved to Porkbun after a year with them (Completely free to move, but you’ll have to buy an extra year if you move tho)
Don’t use GoDaddy though. I was searching for a domain on that site and after a few minutes it was taken.
If you’re not particularly set on getting a .net consider getting an EU domain name. They tend to have much better registry privacy included out of the box. With .net/.com/.org you will have to also purchase whois privacy service on top of the domain cost to keep your personal details private.
I can recommend netim.com (France) and inwx.de (Germany) as reliable providers. You can also look for a registrar in your country is you get your country’s domain.
This list may also help. Shop around, see who has better prices and more features. Pay attention to the renewal price too not just the initial registration price.
Hey again, following up on what you said, i finally got around to findind a domain name i like, registering with Porkbun. However when I went to but the domain Porkbun warned me with this message. Wonder why? Edit: this message appeared because i chose the .eu tld.
.eu allows partial WHOIS privacy, and what can be hidden is different for individuals vs companies. If you go to this page and click on “PARTIAL WHOIS PRIVACY” you’ll see exactly what. Unfortunately it looks like the email address is exposed for individuals, which is dumb.
You can look into getting a domain from a member of the European Union, they typically have better protection, but make sure to verify on Netim. For example .nl domains have full protection built-in.
For domains that don’t have it you can use a privacy service if the registrar offers it, they will put their own data in the fields that must be disclosed. I’m guessing Porkbun doesn’t.
Thanks for that! :) I actually ended up going with Netim for my purchase, and added only an email alias. But even when I checked the WHOIS it didnt list the email, at least not yet…
You can look into the Netim settings, I don’t remember exactly but they might offer protection service for free.