I guess .eu would be easier, but we want country TLDs too.

May 6, 2006 11:56 AM

Any word on what the some of the most credible, competent, and friendly domain name registrars are for European TLDs? Looking at registering some stuff for Spain, Portugal, France, and Italy, possibly Germany and others later.
posted by namespan to computers & internet (4 comments total)

I've heard good things about Gandi over the years (but never used them), but out of your list it looks like they only offer .fr registrations.
posted by neckro23 at 12:17 PM on May 6, 2006

Regsitration bodies for your desired extensions are as follows. Each should have a listing of accredited registrars (assuming there are any) somewhere on their sites. Additionally you'll want to note any regsitration requirements (such as residency or business in a particular locale).

.de
.it
.fr
.pt
.es

Note that working with many of these registries (not registrars) is difficult and frustrating for stateside providers because of the various requirements. That's why you don't find them among many of the major registrar's offerings.

Further, keep in mind that the use of these ccTLDs are still pretty insignificant with the noted exception of .de. I haven't rolled out any of these extensions except for .de.

In summary, go with .eu.
posted by FlamingBore at 12:25 PM on May 6, 2006

Back when Belgium was giving away .be domains, I signed up for a few with euroDNS. I cannot vouch for much since I didn't actually have to pay for the domains, but I was pleased with the process and almost signed up for .ch and .de domains while I was there until I discovered distant relatives in the old country had already snapped it up.

Unlike domains I've had with Godaddy in the US, they don't bother me constantly with email and add-ons. The only email I received from them was when .eu was being made available.
posted by birdherder at 1:04 PM on May 6, 2006

neckro23, Gandi is actually an example of the positive I'm looking for across domains. Especially several years ago, they were famous for having evil-free terms of service which, unlike many other registrars years ago, specified that *you* owned the rights to the domain name, and they just executed for you. I'd like to find registrars for European TLDs that work the same way, essentially.
posted by namespan at 1:08 PM on May 6, 2006