Where to Host My Domain? 🤯

Coffee Lounge
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Some of the details of running an app are pretty tedious. For me, the whole domain name management is one of them, and it seems I need to dive into the details this week.

So my app’s domain name is currently “hosted” with siteground. With A or C name records, it sends app users to my app hosting at AWS, and web site and community forum users to two different DO droplets. Emails get routed off to a gmail account.

Siteground will only perform this service for me if I buy their web hosting which I don’t want to use. It costs £14 (€16, $18) per month.

Moving is a hassle.

I could move the domain to AWS or to Digital Ocean to avoid the siteground fee. AWS pricing is so complex, I’ve no idea if that is a good idea or not.

I’d love your views on the pros and cons of what to do! :exploding_head:

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Store your domain with any registrar - Google Domains, 123-reg, GoDaddy, Namecheap etc. and pay the nominal yearly fee.

Don’t use their DNS services. Use an external service like Route53 or DNS Made Easy for better reliability.

Just set your nameservers at the registrar with your chosen DNS provider and that’s it.

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I use cloudflare as DNS provider. And just register domain names with domain provider.

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We use porkbun.com to manage domains. It’s Cute. And works well with setting with custom DNS stuff - we have used this a lot.

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Pretty much every domain registration service provides DNS so I would go for that. Stick to one of the better known providers like 123-Reg.co.uk or UKReg.com. You then edit the DNS within their control panel so you can set all the A, CNAME, MX records up there and just pay a nominal price for the domain renewal.

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Personally I use Namecheap for my domains and emails, it’s pretty cheap and their interface is very simple. They also have a good support.

There are so many registrars out there… this blog post should give you good insights: How to Select the Best Domain Registrar (Our Recommendations) (kinsta.com)

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+1 for cloudflare for DNS but also for their domain registrar service.

https://www.cloudflare.com/es-es/learning/dns/what-is-cloudflare-registrar/

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Hi Antony

I host my domains with AWS on R53 and makes sense for me because I have apps running in VPCs and makes life easier without having to manage multiple hosting accounts or dealing with unknowns.

I haven’t had an issues with R53 and cost wise its pretty comparable. I also get better support in my local region and I pay for dev support so its pretty snappy.

So it depends on where you are hosting your app if its all in AWS then it makes sense.

Its pretty easy to transfer to AWS too.

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Cloudflare is extending their domain registrar service:

https://blog.cloudflare.com/registrar-for-everyone/

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Thanks for all your replies folks… most useful!

I’ve been with siteground, and renewing with them seemed quite expensive… but after considering the hassle of moving, a cheaper option they had, and the other fiddly things I’d need like email boxes, I decided to stay with them.