The context #
I had been paying for my domain on Squarespace for 3 years. It was 360 pesos a year, not an amount that hurts. But recently I started asking myself: who am I giving this money to?
Squarespace is a large, established company with plenty of customers. They don’t need my 360 pesos. That made me wonder if there were smaller alternatives, or ones that simply did things differently.
What I found #
I researched what domain and hosting providers exist beyond the usual ones: Squarespace, GoDaddy, Hostinger. I found several:
- Hosting 1984 (Norway)
- GreenGeeks (clean energy)
- Infomaniak (who I ended up with)
The four reasons for choosing Infomaniak #
It wasn’t for the price. I now pay 350 pesos a year. That’s 10 pesos less. That doesn’t justify moving.
1. They operate in Switzerland, under Swiss data protection laws
Currently the most robust in terms of user protection. For anyone who cares about where their data lives, that matters.
2. They use OpenStack, open-source technology
They aren’t locked into closed infrastructure from a single provider. It’s also a way to support projects that don’t depend on a monopoly.
3. Sustainable energy
Their services are powered by clean energy. It should be the standard and it still isn’t; supporting it with what you consume makes sense.
4. Employees own 80% of the company
This was the reason that resonated the most. It’s not a company where a small group of shareholders captures all the value generated by everyone else. The ownership model matters.
The transfer process #
You unlock the domain on Squarespace, request the transfer code, paste it into Infomaniak, and pay for the renewal. It takes between 5 and 7 days.
One thing to keep in mind: when transferring, you pay as if it were a renewal, and your domain’s expiration date is extended for one year from the current date.
Bonus: email with your domain included #
Something Squarespace didn’t give me and Infomaniak does: an email account with my domain at no extra cost. They also have office tools and their own email client.
If you want to check out Infomaniak, you can use my referral link. It doesn’t cost you more than the regular price, and it gives me a small commission that helps support the channel and this blog (which has no ads):
More videos from this series: View the Logs playlist →