Other than that, go by price and reputation. The DNS service can be replaced pretty quickly for free if their DNS service is a problem. I usually register on DreamHist.com. Then use the free DNS service on CloudFlare.com
That would be like if the USPS was like "oh you thought you're at 123 fake street? No, it's 897 false Ave now lol sucks for anyone who might not know!"
You can pay with crypto on porkbun too, so in the anonymity regard it should be high up on the list. Other than that, they've never caused me any trouble over multiple registrations, always fast, always zero fuss. Much recommended.
I like that they show the team on the About Us page, always makes me trust companies more. I also like that they have fun with the branding and mascot.
They steal people's domain names, there have been many reports over the past couple of years. If anyone has a domain with them it's recommended to transfer away. They used to be good, but I assume anyone still recommending them isn't up to date on their behavior.
Cloudflare provides at-cost domain name registration. It won’t be as private as njal.la, but if you end up using them for your site, then it would be one less entity to trust if you have your registration and DNS with them.
Njal.la is where I have all of my domains. You don't have to give any info, you can access it through tor through a .onion domain, and you can pay with monero.
I use Namecheap and like their services. They have domain privacy aka it’s registered with their information instead of yours. If you just want to hide your name from people Googling or using a domain whois lookup, that’ll do the trick. If you’re trying to hide from people, you might need something more specific.
I switched from Google Domains to Namecheap and found that they have a non-standard requirement for A records (they require an "@" A record) that messed up the transfer. Godaddy, dyndns, and Google Domains use regular zone transfer tables and I thought those entries were all I needed. Nope. I finally emailed support and they told me what was wrong within 24 hours. But meanwhile, my site was down for that time.
I suppose if you worked with one of the companies they partner with and use the automated templates to generate a new entry, it would work out fine. But I was transferring an existing domain. I know better now. But I put this out to warn others.
That's pretty weird, there's no reason to require any DNS record beyond those they have to provide (SOA and NS). You shouldn't have to add an A record if you don't need one.
Was this just a snafu during transfer or is the A record a permanent requirement?
Namecheap is cheap and has low cost (free?) Privacyguard. Nearlyfreespeech.net is a principles-first web hosting company that is committed to free speech and also offers domain hosting and registration.
I use both, NFS for domain and hosting for my personal website and namecheap for everything else. NFS has no BS and I've had zero problems with them. Namecheap's interface and tools are more sophisticated.
I have used namesilo, it's pretty good. I got a very cheap domain for $1. Can't say much about anonymity, but they haven't annoyed me with emails and whatnot. You could also check out porkbun
I used Dreamhost for years but their prices keep creeping upward. I am now slowly migrating to Porkbun and am happy with the much better pricing and transparency.