Are you looking for a domain name?
A domain name is the first thing someone buys before starting their online business or website. And if you buy it from the wrong place, you may unknowingly pay a lot of money to certain companies for no reason.
But this post can cost money if you want to buy a domain name. Here you will learn about the cheapest and best places to buy a domain name. Before letting you know the platforms, you should know about the original prices of the domain names.
Well, type on the internet, ” buy a domain name,” and I bet you will get results from either Godaddy or Namecheap. These two companies have captured the market of domains and hosting services.
How much does a domain name cost?
The most common domain name extension, .com, costs only $9.15/per yearly. Other domain extension ranges from $12 to $215. The most expensive domain extension is .movie.
If you compare this price with other platforms, it is far less expensive than their prices. To make a comparison, I have created a table of domain name prices of various platforms.
Many companies what they do is they offer low prices of $3-$4 for buying a domain name for the first year. They even provide a free domain name for a year if you buy hosting services from them.
But the following year they add up the prices of the previous.
For example, if you buy a domain name from a particular platform at $4 at the offer in the first year, the following year, you have to pay about $15, which is triple the price you paid on the first.
You can avoid this by researching before you buy a domain name from any platform and comparing the 1st year price with the renewal prices.
To simplify things, I have created a table and listed the first year and renewal prices cost of a domain name from various online domain sellers.
Note: All the prices are for the .com domain extension.
| Domain name platform | Domain name price for the first year of .com | Renewal price. |
|---|---|---|
| Cloudflare | $9.15 | $9.15 |
| Dynadot | $10.99 | $10.99 |
| Godaddy | $4.99 | $19.99 |
| Domain.com | $9.99 | $19.99 |
| Namecheap | $7.98 | $13.98 |
| Google domain | $12 | $12 |
| Hostinger.com | $9.99 | $13.99 |
| Bluehost | $12.99 | $19.99 |
Currently, I am using Dynadot, and soon, I will move my domain to Cloudflare. However, domain privacy is one thing Dynadot provides for free, whereas other registrars charge from $10 to $15 for a year.
Using domain privacy, you can hide the name and contact information. This help to avoid unnecessary calls and emails from spammers.
They also provide certain things like SSL certificates and site lock features, which you can avail yourself of for free.
Which domain name is the best and available at a low price?
The domain name price constantly fluctuates, as many registrars bring offers for their customers. It is not very easy to say about the cheapest domain name. If you are buying a domain name, make sure to buy it for commercial purposes.
If you don’t want the .com extension, here are some suggestions.
| Extensions | Best use case |
|---|---|
| .info | Information websites |
| .blog | blog posts and articles |
| .store | For small and medium business |
| .co | Companies |
| .biz | Business |
| .tech | Tech-related products services |
| .net | Alternative for .com or use for a network. |
| .ai | Use for artificial intelligence-related online products. |
The cost of these domain names ranges from $5-$30.
Check out the list of domain extensions and their meaning.
Why are domain name prices different on various platforms?
There are multiple reasons which affect the price increase of domain names.
- Hike in wholesale prices – Verisign is the global provider of .com domain extensions, and it has increased the wholesale prices for the registrars from $8.39 to $8.97, effective from September 1, 2022.
- Registrars add marketing costs – Many domain registrars do marketing and advertisement to sell domain names on their websites. They priced it at $5-$8 more than wholesale rates.
What is the best time to renew a domain name?
Most people buy domain names for 1-2 years duration. But at the time of renewal, most of them either forget to renew their domain name get expire due to price hikes.
The best time to renew a domain name is 15 days before its expiry date. If you feel that renewal is quite expensive, you can transfer it to another domain registrar by researching.
