To have your own website you need a domain name. You buy the right to use a domain name from a domain name registrar.

The Early Days

Historically, there was only one registrar – Network Solutions. Today all domain name registrars pay a small fee to Network Solutions for every name they register. Nevertheless, the competition lowered prices. Back then it used to cost about $70 per year to register a business domain name. Now you can find it for around $10 per year. These different registrars can’t compete on quality – they all sell exactly the same thing. Therefore they differentiate themselves with price or with extra products.

Competition-Driven Business

Because there is absolutely no difference in the product, registrars compete fiercely. Like many other businesses, they sometimes do it with somewhat deceptive tactics. For example, one of the registrar sites I visited while researching this blog post had comparison charts up showing the differences between their service and prices and those of their competitors. Although I can’t claim they showed outright lies, they certainly didn’t present the comparison fairly. For example, they showed their own “special” limited-time price compared to their competitor’s highest price with extra security, hosting, and other services added on.

Another tactic they employ is “specials.” On their landing page they offer some fantastic pricing, but when you finally get to the checkout page, somehow that price has gone up by 50% or more! Their “specials” apply to very few actual domain names. Same with their “coupons,” so don’t rely on this. You only know your final cost when you put down your credit card number to buy.

So my first recommendation is to make your own comparisons. Certainly don’t rely on what one of them tells you about a competitor. Check it out! Even what I’m writing now could change before you read it. I’ve provided links so you can check them out yourself.

Services Offered

In addition to registering your domain name, these registrar companies also offer many other related products and services. You can usually find the following:

Hosting – Usually you can find more comprehensive and cheaper hosting elsewhere.

Email accounts – Sometimes your host can only offer email accounts based on your primary domain name only. If you want email based on an addon domain, you may want to purchase an email account from your registrar. Check with your host first, however, as many now offer email accounts for all your domain names. (HostMonster does.)

SSL Certificates – This is something you’ll need if you must have a secure site or secure individual pages. This is what puts the little lock icon at the bottom of your browser so you know the information you type in won’t be read by unauthorized individuals. Hosting companies also offer their own security certificates that cover all domains being run on their servers, but this isn’t usually good enough for today’s browsers. You really need your own certificate if you’re going to conduct financial transactions on your website. You can sidestep this issue by using PayPal or another such payment service, especially when you’re first getting started. They have their own security certificates so you don’t need a separate one yourself.

Site builder – Some registrars also offer software to help you build your site. Some only offer this if you use their hosting, but then most hosting companies offer something similar.

Price Comparisons

Here are some of the top registrars today, along with their prices for a .com domain name for one year:

Go Daddy – special running as of this writing $6.99, usually $10.69

Network Solutions – The original domain name registrar – $9.99

Register.com – $35.00

Yahoo! Domains – $9.95, but with the first year at just $1.99

Name Cheap – $9.69

Note that companies register domain names. Your own hosting company may provide that service for you. However, they are going through these registrars themselves. Registrars are selected by InterNic. Click here to see a list of all approved registrars.

My Choice

My experience is limited to Go Daddy, which I started using years ago and I’ve have never had reason to change. However, I don’t use any of the extra services; I only register domain names there. There are people who don’t like Go daddy, and I’ve seen people on marketing forum boards express a preference for Name Cheap. However, in the long run it really doesn’t make too much difference. The product is the same and most the prices for that product are close. It’s all in the extras and the degree of service you get from your registrar. If, like me, you choose not to purchase any of the extra services, then go for price alone. But be careful — if you plan to register your name for more than one year, the cheapest price might NOT be Name Cheap as indicated above. Most registrars give quantity discounts, but they differ. You’ll also want to look for specials that could land you an even cheaper price for the exact same product.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 11th, 2009 at 11:11 am and is filed under Websites. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.