# Gandi review: strong security and country domains, expensive renewals

**Verdict: good if you need country-code domains or EU-based service; pricey
for a plain .com.** Gandi's security is solid and its TLD list is long. Since
its 2023 merger, renewal prices are well above the first year, and free
mailboxes are gone.

We review registrars from one angle: how well they protect a business's
domains. We have no affiliate relationship with any registrar. Facts were
checked on 30 October 2026.

## At a glance

| | Gandi |
|---|---|
| .com price (US list, before tax) | $11.00 first year, $38.38 a year to renew, $11.00 transfer, $55.00 restore |
| WHOIS privacy | free, on by default |
| Two-factor sign-in | authenticator app (TOTP) or security key (WebAuthn/FIDO2) |
| DNSSEC | included with Gandi LiveDNS |
| DNS | free LiveDNS (anycast) |
| Email | 10,000 forwarding addresses included; mailboxes are paid |
| API | REST API with expiring personal access tokens |
| Registry lock | no published self-service offer |

## Price changes since 2023

Gandi joined Total Webhosting Solutions in early 2023, forming the group now
called Your.Online. New prices took effect on 13 July 2023, and the free
mailboxes that came with every domain stopped working on 30 November 2023.
Forwarding stayed free. For a .com, the renewal is now more than three times
the first-year price, so long-held domains cost noticeably more than at the
registrars above.

## Security

- **Security keys** (WebAuthn, including YubiKey and Touch ID) or an
  authenticator app protect the account.
- **Privacy is on by default**, though Gandi still shows region, country, an
  anonymised email address and, for individuals, sometimes the name.
- **DNSSEC** is included with its LiveDNS service.
- **API tokens expire**, which limits the damage from a leaked one.

## Incident history

- **January 2020:** a storage failure in Gandi's Luxembourg data centre
  permanently lost data for a few hundred hosting customers.
- **March 2025:** a storage incident disrupted email and other services.

Neither affected domain ownership, but both are a reminder to keep backups
and not to run email and domains through a single provider without a plan B.

## Where it's still the right choice

Gandi covers several hundred TLDs, including many country codes that
cheaper registrars don't sell, and it's based in the EU. If you need
a portfolio across many countries in one place, that convenience can be
worth the higher renewals.

## Compared with the others

See [the best domain registrar for security](/guides/best-domain-registrar-for-security).

## Check your domain

The [domain expiry checker](/tools/domain-expiry-checker) shows expiry,
transfer lock and registrar, and the [WHOIS privacy check](/tools/whois-privacy-check)
shows which owner details are public.

## Sources

- [Gandi: .com prices](https://www.gandi.net/en-US/domain/tld/com)
- [Gandi: FAQ on the new mailbox service and prices (2023)](https://news.gandi.net/en/2023/06/faq-new-mailbox-service/)
- [Gandi docs: WHOIS privacy](https://docs.gandi.net/en/domain_names/common_operations/whois_privacy.html)
- [Gandi docs: security keys](https://docs.gandi.net/en/account_management/security/security_key.html)
- [Gandi docs: personal access tokens](https://docs.gandi.net/en/managing_an_organization/organizations/personal_access_token.html)
- [The Register: Gandi loses customer data (2020)](https://www.theregister.com/2020/01/09/gandi_loses_customer_data/)
- [The Register: Gandi outage (2025)](https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/11/gandi_domain_registrar_outage/)

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Source: https://nameward.app/guides/gandi-review (updated 2026-10-30)