[hackount]

Many of the reasons presented for not using your web host as your registrar, such as they may get bought by a shady company, or try and lock your domain in if you try and move it, could happen just the same with an independent registrar. I don't using a separate registrar mitigates risk, and the benefits of having your domains at your host can be numerous: consolidated billing, automated DNS setup, and in some cases cheaper prices because the hosting company treats domain registration as a value-add to its primary product offering (hosting), not as a source of revenue generation itself.

The process of transferring domains these days is automated and nearly the same between every registrar I've used in recent years, regardless of whether or not they offer hosting. I have never had one that tried to lock me/prevent me from moving a domain, period, as long as you have direct access to the account at the registrar which the domain is registered under.

This does bring up one scenario that I do warn people against when registering a domain however. Always make sure you personally setup and hold access to the account at the registrar that holds your domain. Don't just let your web designer do it for you because it's easier, or you don't understand the technical stuff. Get them to walk you through it, but make sure it's your account. I have seen disgruntled web designers make life difficult for clients trying to migrate away from them on more than one occasion because the domain was registered under the web designers account.