But their DNS zone update latency is so high considering the slightly higher price :(

Agreed, and not too expensive.

They're cool until they start holding your domains hostage and demanding that you email them a scan of your passport.

They publish a GPG key to use for this purpose, which puts them leaps and bounds ahead of most other hosting/domain providers who do identify verification.

I've had process issues like this with them; their CEO is responsive on email/Twitter and the email alias on this page: http://www.gandi.net/no-bullshit gets things fixed. They're not perfect, but they are quite human.

Without context, anybody could say the same thing about anything. Care to share more?

I personally haven't had this happen to me. I've hosted dozens of domains with gandi, under a variety of different TLDs, and can only recommend them.

Cons: Slow website. Bad UX all over the admin/purchasing interface. Feels like they're not doing anything to improve that.

>Without context, anybody could say the same thing about anything. Care to share more?

Sure! Gandi received an abuse report regarding someone using one of my domains to scan for open dns resolvers. I informed Gandi that there was nothing I could do about this and expected that to be the end of it. Instead, they suspended my domain and started demanding that I send them ID proof.

As I needed the domain back I sent them a redacted photo of my id card, after which they demanded to see the full id. I decided to terminate my relationship with them.

I feel that this was absolutely unacceptable and likely unlawful behaviour from them as they had absolutely no need for that information. This wasn't a whois dispute.

> email them a scan of your passport

What? Why do they do this?

Some country tlds require copies of legal documents.

In my case there was absolutely no legitimate reason for them to request that.

And no, it wasn't related to registry rules or transfers as other users have suggested.

Apparently, OP wanted to transfer the domain from Gandi.

FWIW I painlessly transferred five domains away from Gandi (ironically, to Namecheap), and I was never prompted for anything like a scan of my passport.

Didn't Cloudflare just launch a domain registration service for its high profile clients which can't afford downtime due to a support worker making a mistake like this?