Which Is The Best Website To Buy A Domain Name

Explore The Best Options For Domain Name Registration

When you want to get started on the internet, one of the first things youll need is a domain name. If your website is your house, then your domain name is like an address for example, ours is websitebuilderexpert.com.

But how does one go about getting a domain name? The answer is through a domain name registrar, which you guessed it is a company that manages the purchase and registration of domain names. A registrar is your gateway to the domain name you want, but there are a lot of registrars to choose from.

Thats where we come in. Weve been helping people build their dream websites for over ten years, and have encountered our fair share of domain registrars in the process. With that in mind, weve surveyed the good, the bad, and the ugly, and narrowed down this list of the five best domain name registrars:

Best Places To Buy A Domain Name

Getting the perfect domain name for your website is as essential as creating a content-rich, user-friendly site.

The domain name is the first thing your visitors see about your site. Therefore, it should capture what your blog or website is all about.

There are hundreds of domain registrars from where you can buy a domain name. They all offer different features and prices, and it makes the process of settling on one a little tricky.

Read on to better grasp what domain names are, how they work, and the best places to buy them.

What Do Domain Registrars Do

Domain registrars essentially give consumers the tools to purchase and manage domain names. These changes can be made easily and through their easy to use dashboard.

All domain names records sit in a centralized database called a registry. For a domain name to be valid and recognized, it has to be added into that database with all information related to that domain name. The domain registrar is given permissions by ICANN to edit and make changes to your domain names data and information on the centralized database registry.

Don’t Miss: Cost To Buy A Domain

Verify Ownership Of Your New Domain

Paying for your domain might seem like the last step in the process, but you also need to verify your ownership. This step lets you send email using the domain and keeps other people from using it without your permission.

If you purchase your domain through Mailchimp, this process is simple. Youll receive a verification email after you complete your purchase. Simply click on the Verify Domain button in the email and follow the instructions on the next page, and you can start using your domain to build your brand. Youll only ever have to complete this step once.

Embrace Your Inner Customer

You don’t need us to tell you that successful companies put their customers first. The same is true for domain names. Customer appreciation tactics are essential to ensure that your chosen business domain name appeals to your customers and is relevant to your products or services.

Domain names that don’t make sense or appear spammy will disappoint your customers quickly. The best domain name for your business is the one that is appropriate to your business and helps your website visitors understand instantly what your business offers them.

Pro Tip: Try a domain name generator to come up with some unique ideas you might not have thought of.

Recommended Reading: Transfer Wix Domain To Shopify

Picking The Best Place To Register Your Domain

Once youve picked out a domain name, you need to choose a domain registrar, which is the company where youll purchase it. When shopping around for a registrar, here are a few things to keep an eye on:

• Domain transfers. Check out the registrars transfer policy. If its complicated or expensive, keep looking.
• Pricing. Some companies offer lower prices for the first year and then increase them when its time for renewal. You may even be locked into a multi-year contract.
• Expiration policy. You dont buy a domain so much as rent it. If you forget to renew the lease, someone else can take it from you. Look for a registrar that offers automatic renewals and a grace period.
• Domain privacy protection. As a website owner, youre required to add your personal information to a public database. Domain privacy protection hides your primary contact information to help keep your identity secure.
• Subdomains. You dont have to register subdomains separately. However, youll want to ensure that your registrar makes it easy to add subdomains to your site.

There are plenty of registrars you can use. However, sometimes it makes sense to register your domain through your hosting provider.

Related: Why You Should Consider Keeping Domain Registration and Web Hosting Under One Roof

When It Makes Sense To Invest In A Domain Name

It makes sense to invest in domain registration as soon as you have a name you know you want. If you wait too long, the name might not be available so its a good idea to snag it as soon as you know.

If the name you want isnt available or is selling for thousands of dollars, you can either choose a different business name or make do with the fact that your domain name doesnt match your business. Neither of which is ideal.

At the end of the day, youll need a domain name to create a website and theres no way around that. So, its never too early to buy one but it could be too late if youre names already taken or being held hostage by a domain squatter looking to flip it for profit.

Because of that, we highly recommend snagging the name you want as soon as possible.

Recommended Reading: How To Point My Domain To My Website

You May Like: Transfer Godaddy Domain To Wix

Domain Name Registrar Comparison

The most important factors when it comes to domain name registration are affordability, security, and support. So, before we discuss each of our top five registrars in detail, well give you a quick snapshot of how they all perform in the areas that count:

WHOIS protection included? No

24/7 support? Yes: phone and live chat

Domain.com is one of the best-known domain name registrars out there, and it currently powers over 1.2 million websites around the world. Domain.com offers a thorough amount of features that give customers comprehensive control over their domain names.

How To Buy A Domain Name For Your Website

CEO, VPN.com: The $1M Domain Name – We help brands, entrepreneurs, politicians and athletes acquire premium domain names for their vision.

Getty

You’ve settled on the perfect idea for your website. Everything is ready, and there’s just one last thing to consider: how to buy a domain name.

This is a position that many people find themselves in because it’s common to underestimate how difficult it may actually be to buy a domain name. Before someone buys a domain name for the first time, they’re likely to assume that picking it is the hard part after that, they simply find it on Bluehost or another registrar. Sometimes it is that easy, but buying a good domain name is the first step.

Choose A Good Domain Name

Your first step in how to buy a domain name is, of course, choosing the one you want to buy. While there’s a great deal that goes into a name, you can choose a reasonably good domain name by keeping a few principles in mind.

First, it should be as concise or memorable as possible two or three words or a catchy acronym are good. It’s incredibly beneficial to use a respected domain extension such as .com or .co. This is universally better than paying the price for using a cheap .biz extension, which entails willingly associating with spammers and fraudulent websites.

Once you’ve picked out a domain name, it’s time to begin your search.

Search For Your Domain Name

How To Buy A Domain Name That Is Taken

How Much To Buy A Domain Name?

Also Check: Googlemail.com Domain

How To Register A Domain Name With Siteground

Your adventure starts at SiteGround.com. More specifically, in the WordPress hosting section. Why the WordPress hosting section? Long story short, WordPress is our number one recommended platform to build your website with. Its versatile, free, and theres virtually no limit as to the extent you can customize it. To learn more about the ins and outs of WordPress, feel free to check out our beginner guides to WordPress.

As I mentioned earlier in this post, getting your domain name and hosting account from the same company saves you a lot of hassle and lets you launch a website much more quickly and with less effort than when working with two separate companies .

Therefore, while at SiteGround.com, start by picking your desired hosting plan. If youre just getting started with a small website project, you can begin with the cheapest option $3.95 a month.

If the domain is available, you will be able to proceed. If not, SiteGround will present you with some alternatives.

The next step is about providing your contact and payment info. SiteGround have a nice, single form for all that, so you dont need to jump from screen to screen.

The first three sections are pretty self-explanatory: Account Information, Client Information, Payment Information .

The last one Purchase Information is where you need to be a little more careful:

If youve deselected the extras, your total bill should be around $62. You can click on Pay Now.

You should see the confirmation screen :

Domain Name Registrars To Avoid

Because were honest and transparent, we like to tell people which registrars are good and also which registrars we believe arent any good and should be avoided. We dont care what kind of commissions they pay and will never promote something based on commissionsif its not something we use and can recommend, well tell you not to buy it!

With that said, we highly recommend avoiding Network Solutions, Web.com, and Register.com . They have some of the worst customer service we have ever experienced, and try to make you pay for all sorts of things that other registrars provide for free . Yes, thats rightNetwork Solutions will not even provide technical support without making you pay an upgrade support fee. In fact, we spent 30 minutes on the phone with them and they refused to tell us how to make a change to a DNS record without paying for it. Needless to say, we just figured it out on our own and promptly transferred the domain awal.

Aside from having terrible customer service, their interface is extremely cumbersome, outdated, and tries to upsell you at every turn or keep you from transferring domains out of the company by putting buttons in strange places or making you jump through multiple pages to confirm the transfer.

Read Also: How To Find Email Domain And Server

Connecting Your Domain Name To Mailchimp

Whether youve bought your domain through Mailchimp or a third party, you can transfer your domain name and connect it to your Mailchimp account. Once connected, you can use that domain with a custom landing page or Mailchimp-hosted website. If you dont already have a website, Mailchimp offers a free website builder that you can use to make your brand stand out with no coding skills required.

Pick A Domain Name Thats Flexible

Your domain name is one area where you dont want to paint yourself into a box. While you should be specific enough to attract an audience, you dont want to be so precise that theres no room for your website to grow.

For example, shutter.photography might be perfect for a photography blog. However, if you decide to write about other art forms as well, youll be stuck with an inaccurate domain name. So its smart to consider upfront how your site or business may expand over time.

You May Like: How To Unlock Godaddy Domain For Wix

Namecom Domains Support Review

It lacks live chat and phone support, which are taken as the most effective means for instant support. However, it has a rich knowledge base with several questions answered. You need to create either support ticket or contact the support team via social media accounts.

Domain Restoration Fee: Varies by TLD. Please visit their site support for further pricing details.

Link:

Recommended Reading: How To Transfer Squarespace Domain To Godaddy

What Is A Domain Registrar

A domain name is a unique internet address that allows people to easily find your website online. As you go through the process of choosing your domain name, youll also need to pick a place to register it. Thats where domain registrars come in. A domain registrar is the entity through which you purchase and set up your domain it also assigns your URL to a unique IP address.

Youll want to vet the different domain registrars before you make a final decision. Heres what to look for:

You May Like: Should I Buy My Domain Through Shopify

How To Register To A Domain

Step 1) Go to Domain Registrar.

Go to NameCheap.com and enter the domain name you want to register.

Tip: Use this Domain Name Generator tools to come up with a create a name for your site.

Step 2) Check Domain availability

Next page will show you the availability for of your selected name for various TLD. It is recommended you choose between .com, .net, .org, .io as they are more trusted and popular TLD. If you desired TLD is not available , go back to Step 1 and search again.

Step 3) Select the domain

In this example, we will use .com. Select Add to cart and then click View Cart

Step 4) Review your order.

Step 5) Payment

Create an account or login into an existing account. Make the payment, and the domain is yours!

Free Vs Paid Domain Protection

When you sign up for a domain, you need to provide information for WHOISa public database filled with information about users online who have purchased a domain name or created an IP address.

Think of it as a phone book for the Internet. Like a phonebook, you can use it to find the personal information of anyone with a domain name.

Spammers love the WHOIS directory. It gives them easy access to different people they can attempt to contactas well as their contact information.

Luckily, you can keep the information out of their hands with domain privacy and protection.

Most domain registrars, like Namecheap, include WHOIS protection for free. Those who dont charge about $12/year, like Bluehost.

That might determine your ultimate decision on what domain registrar you go with. Youll definitely want to research the domain registrars WHOIS privacy policy and whether or not youll have to purchase it at checkout.

You can also use your business info, since its already publicly available. Definitely dont use your personal info, though.

Also Check: What To Do After Buying Domain