Buying domain names could be quite a messy or frustrating decision to take when you start looking for buying a domain name. Many questions might be there in your mind like if the registrar you are going to buy a domain from is legitimate or not? The prices they are quoted for the domain names are as per industry standards or not?
It is one of the most frequently asked questions to me when I discuss the fundamentals of setting up a website.
Read on, to know some of the key factors which you should consider while choosing the best domain registrar that suits to your needs.
What is a domain registrar?
A domain registrar is a service provider company which lets you register a unique domain name & use it develop your website.
Initially, there was just one registrar & now you can witness hundreds of registrars which lets you register a domain name.
Some popular registrars are Godaddy, Namecheap, Dynadot, Bluehost, Hostgator, Namecheap etc.
Let’s understand a few factors that do matter, and you should consider while choosing the best registrar for your next domain name purchase.
7 Factors to be considered while choosing a Domain Registrar –
1. Price
Price plays a prominent role while purchasing or renewing a domain name. You might have noticed various companies offering domain names as cheap as INR 99, INR49 or $0.99, the reason why these domain registrar companies do adopt such aggressive strategies is simple, low price attracts the masses.
You might be wondering why I recommend it to not to fall for the cheapest priced domain name. Let me try to decode it.
While considering the price of a domain name, you should also find its renewal value. There are a lot of companies which offer a domain name almost for free or at very low prices, but when it comes to renewing those domain name, you will have to pay a hefty amount.
Having said that there’s also an option to renew your domain name from some other domain name registrar, which is a bit of complex process for newbies. Hence It is highly recommended to check the renewal prices of a domain name while purchasing it.
In other marketing strategies, some companies do promote the domain names at very low prices. When you proceed to purchase it, you will come across terms & conditions which restrict you to buy a domain at an offered low price for one year; you will have to purchase it for at least two years, where charges of the second year onwards shall increase.
2. Registration Period
Usually, a domain name can be registered for a minimum of 1 year by most of the registrars. However, a few domain name registrars may have a higher minimum required two years or more.
A domain name can be registered for up to 10 years at once. You may buy it for a year and renew it every year or you may buy it for multiple years to avoid renewal every year.
3. User Interface
Amongst other key things that I do notice before opting a domain name provider, I would always recommend buying a domain name from a registrar whose platform is simple & easy to use unlike many of the registrars which auto-add privacy-policy to your cart.
4. Free Privacy Protection
When you register a new domain name, you have to share some valid contact details which are available in the public domain and can be accessed by third parties. To avoid sharing data with third parties, companies do offer whois privacy protection plans.
Some domain name registrars provide privacy protection for free while others may charge a hefty fee for the same.
You may choose a registrar which offers free privacy protection, however in the case of certain TLDs like .in you won’t be able to purchase privacy protection since central registry does not permit it.
5. Customer Support
Another essential factor to keep in mind while registering a domain name is to see the availability of customer support whether they have a 24/7 customer support and how much time does a company take to respond to queries.
For instance, companies such as GoDaddy have got robust customer support over chat & phone calls whereas some other companies are reachable over chat option only.
In my experience with Support over GoDaddy, Dynadot & NameCheap, I didn’t find any need of having a conversation over a phone call since everything got resolved over chat or email.
A Domain name registrar should provide chat/email support option since at times you might need to share a screenshot of the issues you might have to face.
6. Automated renewal & reminders
Today, most of the registrars do provide a facility of automatic renewal of your domain name, to avail this either you need to have a balance in wallet of a registrar or you might have to add your credit card details. Automated renewal option could save you from the last-minute hassle.
7. Ensure your registrar doesn’t spam you
I recall this conversation I was having with the website developer of my previous employer. He told me a story of how the then ex-web developer wanted to get his phone number removed from one of the web hosting providers since he was quite annoyed by the marketing classes he used to receive from the hosting company.
Since you understand some of the significant factors to be considered while buying domain names, be smart next time while choosing a domain registrar that doesn’t spam you for renewable of subscription or to pitch some other services.
When I started buying Domain names, I preferred Dynadot, had a good experience with it. I have also tried other registrars such as Namecheap & Godaddy, prices & interface were fair in case of NameCheap, whereas Godaddy was fine.
Another thing that you might like to go for should be the ratings and reviews given by people about the company over different online forums.