Want a website for your portfolio, blog, or business (brick and mortar or e-commerce)?
That means you need a domain. This is the 'name' of your website. The Google to your .com.
The way to do that is through a domain 'registrar'. These are the brokers that essentially rent you the rights to host your website at a given name for a set amount of time.
Finding the Right Domain
To be clear, registrars don't own the domains they offer. Domains are regulated by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).
To check what domains are available, go to ICANN's lookup service and search for your desired domain there. ICANN is the source of truth and won't upcharge you for names you appear interested in as they don't sell anything, unlike some predatory services (we'll get to that soon).
Your desired domain is free if the name you're looking for produces the words "The requested domain was not found in the Registry or Registrar's RDAP server."
Who to Buy From
Not all domain registrars are the same. In fact, I don't know of an industry where brokers so essential are more different, despite the technology being the exact same. SSL certificates and privacy measures are standards, but not all registrars treat them that way - some include these services, others charge for them.
When you buy a domain for the long term, the renewal price and the included free features are the most important factors.
Here's a simple tier list I've put together to separate the best from the worst. Tier 1 is who you should buy from almost always as the value is higher than the other two tiers. Tier 2 is charging for some features (the normie tier). Tier 3 is straight highway robbery in one way or another, either by charging for what should be free or having much higher prices than the other tiers in general.
Tier 1
- Cloudflare is a great option if you're at all technical. They offer many services that run much of the internet today, so they charge only cost for domain registration. These other services are also often free, but it's a professional platform - there will be little handholding. Powerful if you hire someone like us to create your website for you (wink wink).
- Spaceship is a very modern option with a great user interface (UI). Despite being owned by Namecheap, their prices are very low.
- Porkbun has a funny name and is known for the best support in the industry. If you have a question, they will take care of you. Their renewal prices and included features are also in line with the others in this tier.
Tier 2
- NameCheap is a well-known name, but they land on Tier 2 because their prices are high, at least in comparison to those above. They include many features though, so that's something.
- Domain.com recently announced a merger with Network Solutions, and together will offer a broad range of professional services. Maybe they will rival Cloudflare after the merger, but until that happens they will remain in Tier 2.
Tier 3
- GoDaddy is the Original Bad. They have high renewal prices which they lower for registration to get you in the door. They also charge for some features and really want to upsell you their website builder so you can waste hours setting up a subpar site anyway. Instead, trust us to make your site professional and put that saved time back into making your business successful.
- SquareSpace is much like GoDaddy. After acquiring Google's Domain service, they have merged that into their own website builder so they can do the same - waste your time on something you'll eventually have to replace. And all that for a high price.
- Wix does the same exact thing. Lots of advertising comes from this tier so they are know for their website builders, but ultimately they're domain registrars with gimmicky add-on services.
There are many more out there, so apologies to any services not on this list. Maybe there's a gem out there, but these are the big ones. I recommend doing your research - see what's available and start with what features you need.
Now What?
Once you've decided on the registrar you like best, go through their checkout flow and make an account. This will be the login that you use to manage domain services.
Here you can edit DNS services to point to your website, manage email settings, etc.
Or don't.
Instead, let us do that for you!
Put yourself on our calendar and let's meet up to talk about what you need. We have done this a lot.