Hey guys, I am quite new to the whole self-hosting world so I haven't done too much. Before I dive in deeper though, I'd like to know how I should choose my domain name vendor. Specifically, I only want a domain, no VPS or other hosting capability as I got some old laptops running at home I want to use for testing the waters.
I used to use Google Domains, but lately I've been switching to Cloudflare. They don't have every TLD, but they have all the ones I need, and their prices are lower than Google's is.
The major issue with Cloudflare is that you're forced to use their DNS servers. I'd rather pay a little bit extra to have more freedom in how I use my domain.
Ovh is a good option as their domains come with a free 5gb email and also IPv4 dyndns that's easy to set up. Certbot also has an Ovh api extension for easily making SSL certificates via the dns-01 challenge.
While I am technically hosting in my own network to start, I would like to possibly make host my own email-server for me, my family and possibly friends and host my own discord bot and potentially a private lemmy instance to have more control about my things
Great pricing, and very responsive support. Unlike GoDaddy and others I've used, namecheap has never tried to fuck me over with hidden fees or sneaky auto price hikes.
I've been dealing with webhosting for 20+ years, and these guys are my go-to.