After following ICANN86 in Seville, I have been thinking about how much the role of a domain registrar has changed. For many years, a lot of people chose a registrar mainly by price, especially the first-year registration price. Price still matters, of course. For domain investors, agencies, resellers, and anyone managing many domains, even a small difference can add up. But I am not sure price should be the only factor anymore. With more TLD options, more brand protection concerns, and more businesses treating domains as long-term digital assets, registrar choice now affects more than just registration cost. It can also affect renewal reliability, DNS management, account security, abuse handling, API access, TLD coverage, and how easy it is to manage domains over time. So I am curious how others see this today. When you choose a domain registrar, what matters most to you? Price, renewal cost, support, DNS stability, API access, TLD coverage, account security, or long-term trust?
I care more about good security, honest renewal rates and how easy it is to manage everything long-term.
This is how I look at it too. Cheap first year is easy to notice, but the annoying stuff usually shows up later