Gandi vs OVHcloud
Both are French registrars with a European base — the reason many people chose Gandi in the first place. The difference is what you get in 2026: OVHcloud still shows every fee up front and bundles a free mailbox, while Gandi raised renewals and made email a paid add-on.
OVHcloud is the natural European swap. You keep an EU-based registrar and a free bundled mailbox (15 GB), and a .com renews for ~$14.69 instead of Gandi's ~$38.38. Stay on Gandi only if you're grandfathered into old pricing or rely on a specific Gandi feature you can't replace.
Side by side
Gandi vs OVHcloud, compared
Same country, same EU footprint — the fork is price and what's bundled.
| Gandi | OVHcloud | |
|---|---|---|
| .com renewal | ~$38.38 (A rate) | ~$14.69 |
| Pricing transparency | Low first year, steep renewal | VAT, ICANN & renewal shown up front |
| Bundled email | ✗ removed Nov 2023 | ✓ free 15 GB mailbox |
| European / French base | ✓ (now TWS-owned) | ✓ French-owned |
| Free WHOIS privacy | ✓ | ✓ |
| Free SSL | ✓ | ✓ Let's Encrypt |
| DNSSEC / API | ✓ / REST API | ✓ / REST API |
| Point NS anywhere | ✓ | ✓ |
| Best for | Legacy / grandfathered users | Stay-European swap with email |
Prices compiled July 2026 from each vendor's pricing pages; Gandi renewal from its 2024 A-rate price list. Figures change often — check before buying.
The verdict
Which one should you pick?
Choose OVHcloud if…
- You want to stay with a European, French-owned registrar.
- You miss the bundled mailbox Gandi used to include — OVHcloud gives you 15 GB free.
- You want every fee (VAT, ICANN, renewal) shown before you commit.
- You want to cut the .com renewal from ~$38 to ~$15.
Stay on Gandi if…
- You're locked into older, cheaper pricing that hasn't been repriced yet.
- You depend on a specific Gandi feature, TLD or integration OVHcloud lacks.
- You don't use a bundled mailbox, so losing free email doesn't matter to you.
- Moving a handful of domains isn't worth the transfer friction right now.
A third option: manage the domain where you deploy
If part of the frustration is juggling a registrar, a DNS host, a CI tool and hosting separately, there's a different shape: Buddy manages domains + DNS as code (YAML, API, CLI, Terraform) inside the same platform that builds, tests and deploys your app — and it doesn't lock you to its own nameservers. It's not a rock-bottom consumer registrar, so for a bare cheap domain with a mailbox, OVHcloud is the simpler pick.
Try Buddy freeCommon questions
Gandi vs OVHcloud — common questions
Is OVHcloud a good replacement for Gandi?
For most former Gandi users, yes. OVHcloud is a French, EU-based registrar with transparent pricing that still bundles a free 15 GB mailbox with a domain — the feature Gandi removed in 2023. A .com renews for around $14.69, well below Gandi's ~$38.38, so you keep the European base and bundled email while cutting the renewal cost.
Does OVHcloud include free email like old Gandi did?
Yes. OVHcloud includes a free professional email box (15 GB) on your own domain with a registration. This is the closest like-for-like to Gandi's old two-free-mailboxes offer, which was discontinued for everyone on November 30, 2023.
Is OVHcloud cheaper than Gandi?
For a .com, clearly. OVHcloud renews around $14.69/yr versus Gandi's ~$38.38 on the standard rate — roughly 60% less per year, before counting the mailbox OVHcloud includes for free and Gandi now charges for.