One of the first steps before start blogging is to come up with a name and buy a website domain name. Finding the right domain name is not an easy task. There are many factors you need to keep in mind and there are so many website domain registrars outthere.
How to find the ones that you can really trust? You have to spend countless hours to go through all the options available and find the top. We made it easy for your and save you the time.
Below are some of the top places to buy a website domain names. Most of them offers a great deals for hosting as well.
What is a Domain Name Registrar?
A domain registrar, or in some cases you can find it as a DNS registrar is a company that manages the reservation of Internet domain names and has been accredited by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). The domain name registrar must be accredited by a country code top-level domain (ccTLD) registry or a generic top-level domain (gTLD) registry.
When you choosing a domain registrar there are numbers of criteria to go about it:
- Very easy of searching for domain names
- Checkout process made easy and simple
- Easy configuration
- User-friendly dashboard for clients to manage their domains
- Excellent customer service, support options via live support, knowledge center and phone.
- A small number of upsells in the buying process
- Long history and a good reputation
- User-friendly DNS settings
Top Places to Buy a Website Domain
Bluehost
Bluehost is one of the best options not only when you buy a website domain but if you want to pair your domain and web hosting together. Not so many people know that Bluehost offer great promotions and also offer free domain names if you decide to purchase any of their hosting plans.
Bluehost works with the second biggest domain registrar Tucows to registers their domains. Bluehost is one of the top-recommended options for a WordPress hosting provider. If you need a domain and you do not have hosting yet, they might be a great option. As we know the top blogging platform out there is WordPress.
If you buy just the domain name, you can get one of two upgrades:
- WHOIS privacy and protection: $11.88/year
- Professional email hosting Microsoft 365: from $35.88/year
Bluehost includes the following standard features to all domain registrations:
- Easy to use domain management dashboard
- Domain locking (keeping your domain safe from thieves)
- Free SSL certificate (not all registrars offer this)
- Auto-renewals
- Complete DNS control
- Self-service knowledge base
- 24/7 expert support
Bluehost pricing (new domain for the first year)
| .com | .org | .net |
|---|---|---|
| $12.99 * | $9.99 * | $14.99 * |
| * If you buy any of Bluehost’s web hosting plans, you can get a domain name for free. |
Bluehost pricing (domain renewal)
| .com | .org | .net |
|---|---|---|
| $17.99 | $17.99 | $18.99 |
NameCheap
NameCheap grew tremendously over the last decade and is an established place to register your domain name or buy hosting. Their website dashboard is easy to use and intuitive. They offer free WHOIS protection and have a free DNS service, reasonable-priced domains. You can also look into many of the other services they offer including SSL encryption to increase the security of your domains, CDN options to speed up your website, and numerous other handy tools.
This is my favorite option for WordPress hosting, email hosting, or integration with third-party apps and website builders. The support is extremely helpful and will also help you transfer all the domains that you might have registered with another registrar.
Namecheap is one of the most affordable registrars and has over 9 million domain names registered.
Some extra perks you can upgrade too at a little extra cost include:
- Premium DNS: $4.88/year
- Web hosting: from $8.88/month
- Premium SSL certificate: $3.88/year
- Namecheap VPN: free trial, then from $0.83/month afterward
- Email hosting: free trial, then from $0.74/month afterward
- ICANN fee: $0.18/year
Namecheap pricing (new domain for the first year)
| .com | .org | .net |
|---|---|---|
| $8.88 | $9.18 | $10.78 |
Namecheap pricing (domain renewal)
| .com | .org | .net |
|---|---|---|
| $12.98 | $14.98 | $14.98 |
GoDaddy has more than 20 million customers and over 7,000 employees worldwide. GoDaddy is the world’s largest web host with a market share of over 62 million registered domains. They sell a lot of other services to support websites with larger traffic, eCommerce sites, and much more.
They often run promos where you can buy a website domain for just $0.99. One downside is the constant upsells of other services and products they are trying to upsell during checkout.
Some extra addons you can add includes:
- Full domain privacy and protection: $9.99/year (includes protection against malicious transfers and domain hijacking)
- Ultimate domain protection and security: $14.99/year (includes everything above, plus automatic malware scans and security monitoring)
- Email hosting: from $1.99 to $8.99/month
- DNSSEC: from $2.99/month
- ICANN fee: $0.18/year
Some of the free perks includes:
- WHOIS privacy
- Domain lock
GoDaddy pricing (new domain for the first year)
| .com | .org | .net |
|---|---|---|
| $11.99 | $9.99 | $14.99 |
GoDaddy pricing (domain renewal)
.com | .org | .net |
|---|---|---|
| $17.99 | $20.99 | $19.99 |
Hostgator is based in Houston and was founded back in October 2002 by Brent Oxley. Hostgator offers you an option to buy a website domain name and it is also a provider of shared, dedicated web hosting, reseller, and virtual private server.
HostGator currently host over 9 million websites on their platform and have one of the top uptime with a 99.99% uptime.
HostGator introduced its cheapest web hosting plans at $2.08 USD per month in 2020.
Hostgator pricing (new domain for the first year)
| .com | .org | .net |
|---|---|---|
| $12.95 | $12.95 | $12.95 |
Hostgator pricing (domain renewal)
.com | .org | .net |
|---|---|---|
| $17.99 | $17.99 | $17.99 |
Domain.com expanded its services and offers not only domain names but also email hosting, web hosting, SSL certificates, WordPress hosting, and even online marketing services and web design.
They continue to expand their services and even introduced a user-friendly free drag and drop website builder with many templates, SEO tools, and access to a stock image library.
More than 1.2 million websites worldwide use Domain.com services.
Domain.com pricing (new domain for the first year)
| .com | .org | .net |
|---|---|---|
| $9.99 | $8.99 | $12.99 |
Domain.com pricing (domain renewal)
| .com | .org | .net |
|---|---|---|
| $13.99 | $14.99 | $15.99 |
| Registrar | .com | .org | .net | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bluehost | $12.99 | $9.99 | $14.99 | Get Deal |
| Namecheap | $8.88 | $9.18 | $10.78 | Get Deal |
| Godaddy | $11.99 | $9.99 | $14.99 | Get Deal |
| Hostgator | $12.95 | $12.95 | $12.95 | Get Deal |
| Domain.com | $9.99 | $8.99 | $12.99 | Get Deal |