How to Choose Your Domain Provider

Whether it’s a business venture or a personal blog, your domain name lets people know how to find you on the web, and it sets their first impression of your website. Lots of companies these days are domain registrars, the official name of businesses that charge a fee to register a domain name for you. Some, like GoDaddy.com and Web.com, also offer hosting and website building all in one place, while others like BuyDomains.com focuses on selling premium domain names.

It might seem easy to just pick the first domain registrar you find online, but there are actually a lot of factors that go into a good (and bad) domain provider. Our domain provider reviews are here to help guide your decision and help you find the domain registrar that meets your needs.

How Easy is it to Select a Domain?

Don’t get too attached to your website name before you check to see if it’s available. There are about 300 million registered domain names on the web, so there’s a good chance someone has already thought of your brilliant domain name.

Don’t despair, though! Some providers like GoDaddy.com will suggest alternatives if the domain you want is already taken, or you can even find domain name generators like BuyDomains.com that provide suggestions based on a couple of keywords you want included in the name.

In the past couple of years, hundreds of new domain name extensions have come to the market, so you have a lot more options than the traditional .com, .org or .net extensions. However, humans are creatures of habit, so it may be hard to get people to remember your website name if it has a more obscure extension like .photos, .expert or .social, and sometimes you actually have to pay more to register your domain under one of the newer extensions.

What do I Look for in a Domain Provider?

Think carefully about what your website needs are as you read our domain provider reviews. If you go with an all-in-one package, you can often get discounted prices on domain registration. Sometimes they even include the first year of domain registration for free with a hosting package! However, companies that offer multiple products may not have specialized technical support to cover all aspects of their services, and it can be difficult to transfer your domain to another registrar if you aren’t happy with your provider.

How Much Does a Domain Cost?

Many companies offer deep discounts on the first year of domain registration to get your business. Be sure to look at the regular rates at which your domain registration will renew once the introductory period is over. Most people register a website with the intention of having it live for multiple years, so factor in the long term cost of your domain provider before you commit. Also, if you want to register a premium domain name, be prepared to shell out a few hundred or even few thousand dollars to secure a well-known domain name.

What's in the Fine Print?

We’ve all done it. The final part of the checkout process is a single line asking us to accept the Terms & Conditions or Service Agreement, and we just check the box without ever reading what they say. This is one instance when it’s definitely worth your time to slog through the fine print.

We know it’s boring, but hidden in their terms could be questionable practices such as termination fees, domain transfer fees, automatic renewal policies and more. Nothing is worse than getting hit with a charge you didn’t see coming because you failed to read a company’s policy.

We've compared each domain provider with their notable features and offers. Take a look at the side-by-side comparisons so you can quickly and easily find the domain provider that works best for you and your business.

Trusting our Top Pick

Navigating the many choices for every consumer purchase can be challenging. Our team spends hours doing research, combing through forums, and reading consumer reviews on even the most basic of household items, and we summarize that information in clear, precise comparisons.

Join the millions that have trusted BuyersGuide.org to help them make smarter buying decisions. We help our readers spend their money wisely and find the right product to suit their specific needs. Our independent expert reviews and data-driven shopping recommendations empower you find the domain provider that's right for you.

What sets us apart?

We leverage user data to understand decision-making and put the best products in front of each user. We tailor our comparisons to what matters to our user's needs, specific or broad. We keep our content up to date, we are constantly looking for new merchants and products to compare, and we are quick to remove any that are outdated or no longer meeting our standards. Our rankings change day-to-day based on our proprietary algorithms that crunch data to identify top-performing products and tailor recommendations to exactly what our readers are looking for.

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