The internet has become one of the most powerful tools for business and commerce in the modern age. In fact, a study has found that many modern consumers take the brand's website into consideration when choosing which companies to do business with.
Indeed, by extending their presence to the internet, businesses are able to widen their reach to the millions of people that are on the internet on a daily basis. This is especially true for small businesses, as it gives them a cost-effective way to market their products and services.
Given its importance, it's rather surprising to see that 36% of small businesses still don't have a website. Now, if you're a business owner who still doesn't have a website but wants to put one up, then we have something that can help you out.
The first step to establishing a website is to purchase a domain name from a domain registrar. This also applies when you're trying to transfer your domain from one registrar to another.
Considering that there are many domain registrars out there, you may have difficulties in choosing which one to go with. This is why we've put together a list of domain registrars, along with their pros and cons, to help you decide which one is the best d for you.
While the service might seem simplistic, each domain name registrar has unique features and drawbacks. Be sure to examine each one so that you can pick the best domain name registrar for your company or business' website.
Being under the Equity Investment Group brand, Domain.com is one of the most popular choices for business owners.
Domain.com allows you to register your domain name under any of the top-level domain name extensions as well as over 25 country code top-level domains.
Domain.com also offers other basic domain management tools such as private registration, WHOIS privacy protection, easy transfers from other domains, and bulk registrations.
What sets Domain.com apart is that they offer both web hosting and website builder services. This makes it a one-stop-shop if you're looking to expand into the digital space.
The only real downside to Domain.com is their pricing. You'll have to pay $9.99 per year along with the additional $8.99 for domain privacy protection.
All things considered, Domain.com will cost you around $18.98 per year to retain your domain name.
As their name suggests, Namecheap is one of the most budget-friendly domain registrars that provide reliable services.
Other than their great prices, Namecheap also offers free domain privacy to go with all their domains. Choosing a domain name is also more convenient as they have a great domain search tool that allows you to view the owner of a taken domain name so that you can offer to buy it from them.
Namecheap falls short as a web host. Testimonial evidence points to its poor uptime as one of its biggest drawbacks. To make up for this, Namecheap offers an uptime guarantee that refunds service unavailability per month that goes beyond forty-five minutes.
Namecheap costs $8.88 to register and $12.98 to renew. They also offer a special rate for transfers, only charging $8.58 if you register a domain with them after coming from a different registrar.
Bluehost hosts millions of websites, making it one of the most popular domain registrars out there. They're also WordPress's hosting provider of choice.
Given their partnership with WordPress, most of the pros are associated with the site. WordPress users get free domain registration, free SSL certificate, and automatic WordPress installation via their customer control panel.
Their server uptime is also quite impressive, as Bluehost guarantees a 99.98% server uptime, meaning the chances of your site going down are slim to none.
Perhaps the biggest downside to Bluehost is that they only make use of US-servers. Now, this doesn't mean that individuals outside the United States won't have access to your site, it'll just be significantly slower for them. Keep this in mind if you cater to an international customer base.
Bluehost will charge you $11.99 per year for your domain name. They also give you the option to auto-renew domain names if you want to keep them long-term, saving you the trouble of doing it when it expires.
Tech giant Google launched its own domain registrar back in 2015 called Google Domains. While it launched quite some time ago, it is still in its beta stage.
Ease of use is Google Domain's biggest strength. Due to everyone's familiarity with Google's interface, Google Domain's domain management system can be quite intuitive to use.
Google Domains is also one of the more affordable options available. This is in large part due to their free privacy protection that comes with your domain. While the other top domain registrars charge for privacy protection, Google Domains includes it for free with every domain purchase.
Unlike other domain registrars, Google Domains doesn't provide web hosting services. It also doesn't offer as many domain extensions, only catering to the top-level domain name extensions.
You can purchase domains on Google Domains for as low as $12 per year. They also offer an auto-renew function if you're thinking of keeping your domain for the long term.
If you have any more questions regarding how to buy a domain or what to look for in a domain registrar, do not hesitate to contact PageKits!
When it comes to choosing the best domain registrar, it will really depend on your specific needs. Some domain name registrars don't have access to country-specific extensions, which could be a dealbreaker for you.
You'll also want to review their policies. One policy you'll want to focus on is their domain expiration policy. Some domain expiration policies are more forgiving than others, with some domain registrars even offering a grace period for your domain name after it expires.
Lastly, if you'll be transferring from another domain registrar be sure that the current registrar you want to sign up with allows for easy transfers. This is important as some domain registrars even charge a fee for domain transfers.
Google Domains is a great choice for the best domain registrar. They offer competitive pricing along with free privacy protection and access to the Google 2-Step Verification options, which can help further protect your account.
This depends on your agreement with your chosen domain registrar. According to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), you can register a domain in one-year increments with the maximum amount of years capping out at 10.
Domain names have to be registered. There is no way to use a domain name without going through the registration process. You'll also need to keep renewing your agreement with your chosen registrar in order to keep your chosen domain name.
We hope that this helped you in your search in finding the best domain registrar. If you want to find more information on this or if you're looking for the best website builder, let us help you and contact PageKits today!
