If you start researching about starting a website for your business, one of the first things you will come across is the term domain name. What is a domain name? In simple terms, this is the name of your website that you register to get exclusive rights to use it.
Have you ever wondered how all the website names get stored? Computers don’t understand English. Each name of a website is stored as a string of numbers known as IP address. When you buy a domain name like EatFrenchFriesAllDay.com (yes, this name is available for purchase), a unique IP address is attached to it and this will allow people to connect to your website when it is live.
Things to Consider Before Buying A Domain Name:
The question you probably have is where to buy a domain name from? What you need is a domain registrar. A domain registrar is a company that registers and manages a domain name for websites. So, when you buy a domain name it will not be a one-time thing. You will have to renew it every few years, depending on the package you choose, for a small fee.
All the companies are basically selling the same type of license for your domain registration, what differentiates them is the price. Companies come up with different offers to attract customers. This can be in the form of discounted license renewal for a few years or a bundle of products or services as a package deal.
There are several websites that offer this service, along with an option to host that website on their servers. Here are the top 5 websites you can consider buying a domain name for your website.
Domain.com has emerged as a popular choice for small and medium-scale businesses. Some of the lesser-known registrars don’t sell licenses to all extensions, mostly because buyers usually go for the .com extension. The smaller players also don’t sell all country extensions. Domain.com sells licenses of more than 25 country extensions.
You can start building a basic website, a service that is offered for free by Domain.com. The website also acts as a broker, which means you can buy premium domain names directly from them.
The price of a .com domain from Domain.com will cost you $9.99 per year and the cost of renewal is $13.99.
If you want to host your website using WordPress then Bluehost is the best choice. They are an official WordPress hosting partner.
Bluehost’s primary business is web hosting, but they do sell domain names. If you take the bundle of the domain name and hosting from them it will work out to be a lot cheaper.
The cost of a .com domain from Bluehost is $11.99 and the renewal cost is $17.99.
If you search around for domain name registration and web hosting, you may have come across the name GoDaddy. They are one of the oldest registrars in the world.
Just like other service providers, GoDaddy offers you web hosting, web security, and email. But all these services come at an add-on price. The company also offers 24/7 customer support through online chat and phone.
The only concern about GoDaddy is that the registration prices tend to go up in the subsequent years. When you compare different registrars, make sure you compare the price by taking into account the total license cost for the first couple of years.
Another web hosting service provider also offers domain names. Hostgator has made a name for itself with its focus on delivering a reliable service that is backed up by its 24/7 customer support.
HostGator users are particularly positive about the company’s cloud service, where your website is hosted on a cloud. This feature helps to minimize the downtime of your website and delivers a faster load time of your website for your customers.
Whether or not you choose to host your website on Namecheap, you will love their search options. It is easy to view all the additional information related to the name you want to register.
If the name you are looking for is already registered, you will know when it was registered, where, whether the website is active, the estimated revenue, number of employees, and the Alexa ranking. You can also make an offer to buy the domain name from the owner directly from the search results page. If you rather try another name, Namecheap gives you suggestions related to your search along with the prices.
While Namecheap is a good place to buy a domain name, you may want to do your research before using their web hosting services. The two factors you have to look at in a web hosting service are the uptime and the speed of website loading. There may be other companies in the market that provide you with better services on these two factors compared to Namecheap.
