Recently moved over to porkbun after dealing with a couple billing issues with namecheap and not getting the best customer service. Been pretty happy so far.
Namecheap for registrar and Cloudflare for the name servers. Always keep those services separated so if one dies, you can still get into the other service to fix it.
Google Domains because I have a Google account and buying a domain on it was easy when I needed it. I'm still on Google Domains but you've reminded me I need to continue the transfer to Cloudflare before I get forced over to Square Space because they don't support Dynamic DNS.
I have mine on Namecheap, but i’ve moved the nameserver to Cloudflare. Been using them for a while, can’t complain at all. Am also paying for their email service on the same domain
Namecheap, cheap, easy to use, easy to setup DDNS, helpful support staff. I have heard horror stories of them selling popular domains out from under their owner but none were recent.
Namecheap because they've lived up to their name. The DNS for my domains is all on Cloudflare though as I can automate my letsencrypt renewal that way that I couldn't on plain old namecheap.
Cloudflare cause they already had my DNS and google domains was on its way to the google graveyard. Not sure how privacy respecting they are but they do offer some kind of partial whois redaction. Surely better than google though?
Porkbun because it was super easy, one of the cheapest, and has rest good guides for noobs for how to connect various hosting sites (like, using Google sites but owning the domain from porkbun)
I've been using nearlyfreespeech.net for a very long time. They're a small, reliable, outfit that's been around forever and definitely respects your privacy.
Namecheap because it’s easy and quick to use. They have good prices on new domains as well. Their prices are less attractive in renewals though, so I’d suggest transferring your domain after buying it to Cloudflare or NameSilo or PorkBun or the like.
Some European ones because the domains have European TLDs. .eu for example is only available by EU registrars IINM. But also, I do my best to keep the money local where I can.
What privacy concerns do you have? I'm all for privacy, but I don't really see where registrars are a delicate topic in that. The most that comes to mind is that some (most?) have a service where they do not give out your name and address for whois requests, but instead the details of the registrar (namecheap has that for example).
I originally used namecheap but moved over to porkbun about 2 years ago now. I've really enjoyed their service since the move. The two instances where I needed to contact support were great. Issues were resolved very quick and responses weren't days apart like namecheap.
I'm using my local registrar. 10 years ago, when I registered my first domain, it was one of few options I was familiar with, and they had offered a discount. I could find something cheaper, but we're talking about 8EUR/year. It doesn't really matter.
Initally some local site, then I transferred to GoDaddy, then to OVH (since GD is shit). One is still at Cloudflare (tried to move there, but they don't support al TLDs that I use, like ".eu").
For DNS I use Cloudflare. They provide a layer of privacy, i.e. your server IPs don't get exposed directly.