Domain Renewal — Which registrar to use?

Hi AWers. ***in Post 12, I updated with my choice, plus two others AWers suggested, that looked great and that I'd use in the future if I needed to move my domain registrar. So you can skip to #12 unless you want a refresher on domains I believe a few explained domain registrars vs hosting vs email in these posts plus some other companies named. Thanks for all your help AW!!!
*******************************

AWers,
ETAon't be scared!!! You don't have to read through the long post- I was going to delete it but I know we don't delete our words here (but now you can get the point in this ETA and only read to the line). So I'm just adding to the top here all you need, as I've learned a better way to describe it, and you can be done reading faster- and then reply or not (or read on if you really want to hear about my host hacked and why I have an expensive host and a few other things).

I am needing a new domain registrar for the 2 domains I now own through godaddy, that both expire July 25. Hosting is separate and I have that. It's just the domains- godaddy wants $60 for the two domains for only one year. If I were to pay that, I'd hope it would cover multiple years. So you can ignore this long post below (wow I'm working on brevity but failed here). The bottom line is I want to know a good company for domains-to transfer registrar, and I know then how to unlock and change dns and lock again to point to my host. So any more domain suggestions please and thanks! Thanks again for any help!


-----------------end of short version above ---------

Original post begins here, just for fun -or skip:

I'm hoping you can help me with recommendations for a different company for my domain. I currently have godaddy for my domain.

My hosting is separate- I do use Wordpress, but my site hosting is through Websynthesis from copyblogger, and using Genesis framework with a child theme-in case that makes a difference in domain selection that I don't know about).

So Godaddy for domains I saw had been getting poor reviews,
and I did plan to switch, but forgot when it was due and hope I'm still early enough. they want $29 per domain and I have 2 domains,
and that's for one year!!! Each! So $60!!! Otherwise I think it was $50 for 2 years, expensive!, not sure 2 year price but still high, but I know I won't stay with them 2 years unless there's a reason I have to, like only godaddy works for holding domains with websynthesis (I sure hope not, it doesn't say that on their site).

I believe I recall what to do when I select a place for my domain- purchase it of course, then with the new company I unlock my dns, change the address to point to the host from the new domain (hoping the numbers are the same and I can just look now to get the numbers before I ask godaddy to release the domain), and finally go back and lock the site.

I'm hoping $10 at most- for each .com -is that possible? Or a little more if multiple years and they don't jump to 5 times what you pay the first year.

I did pay Godaddy for a few years I think three, at maybe $15 for 3 years I don't recall, but now this wow. I've seen 99 cents offered but elsewhere (forget where at the moment) but was thinking that's not too smart, unless anyone knows them and it's a special promo. And if anyone has a godaddy coupon, great- I see only for new items.

And yes Websynthesis is expensive but I kept getting hacked from what I thought was a good cheap host and always was for a while (hostgator) but I finally gave up on them, I kept having to rebuild my sites myself from backups and lost comments and this was when I got 70 comments per post and 10,000 views per month. I gave up the site shut it down years ago to finish my PH.D. If only I knew then how valuable those natural links and comments were, and how big the site could be today, but oh well. That site was in the zeros before '10 but when I tried these new domains and say it again that was it. I admit I haven't used hostgator for my domain (only hosting- great cheap price). Would anoyone recommend it? Or could a domain itself be hacked as
well? That's a scary thought.

So, Cheap cost is great to me. And you can argue if hostgator has improved these past few years or is great for domains then tell me your experience. I've seen a name 1&1 and bluehost- I think on hosting but I need a domain. Are they great for this? Or others?

Appreciate any help. I put it off and have limited screen time with double vision comes and goes (some good days though) and also for speaker voice is usually unrecognizable, and often thumbs can't type right.

So, if you made it through the long post, or skimmed to this ending- can you help me find a good place for my .com domains? (2 domains). $29 Renewal fees each are too high at godaddy- unless you have a coupon? Appreciate any help.

Thanks all.

Yes to clarify, I wasn't sure of the terms, but I need to switch registrars for my two domain names I already own. They expire July 25 and as I understand it I am just in time I believe to get it released in time if I choose where soon. I need direct access to things such as switching dns (hope that's correct way to put it- unlock, put in new address, lock again).

They are with godaddy right now, and I agree with keeping hosting and domain registrars separate, so i already have hosting for one (through websynthesis) and the other one I haven't done much but may just point it to the first, not sure.

So yes I want advice on where to switch my domain registrar to, which company. I previously had hostgator as hosting and won't do that again but I don't know how they do for domains.

I would probably stay with godaddy but they want almost $30 for each site for a year.

i would also be happy to pay for 5 years if it's a good company and has cheap prices.

But if there is a reason why godaddy is best, I sure would like a coupon before I pay $60 for one year. I'd rather pay that for 5 years if that expensive.

Hope that clarifies. Thanks for suggestions so far, and I would love more as well.

Thanks AW for all your help!
So to review, I currently have 2 domains with the domain registrar through godaddy. They expire this next week, and thanks for all the recommendations.

I narrowed down my two favorites based on comments here plus some PM and other reviews, and contact with the companies.

My favorites based on all that for domain registrar, were namecheap.com and name.com.

However for me, when I went back to prepare to switch, I discovered in godaddy I was looking at a different country currency when it said $30 a domain for renewal (and I logged in several times and saw it at $60 for two, $30 each-grrr).

But, was only $15 per domain (for one year). Plus, I have email grandfathered in, when usually you need to buy that separate -though all of these companies had good prices for email, like $10 a year I think.

So, I stayed with godaddy for one year, to think about it for next year, and they even pointed my one domain to the other one I use (seems I recall that's not good for some reason for search engines, but right now I'm not too worried about that).

That second domain is drlastname.com instead of my main website which is firstnamelastname.com, because students would think of dr but others might not think of dr for my non-scholarly works.

Well, thanks again for all the help AW!