Buying a domain name. Please help a noob!

[Stealthy_Singh]

Hi all. This may seem like a noob question and in this regard I am a noob. I am looking to but a specific domain name. Now as far as I can see I need to choose a domain name registrar to do this. But I don't know what the difference is between them and which one would be good to go with. Does one have advantages over the other? I can't see how if all they do is sell domain names but I may be wrong. Any help in what to look out for would be useful.

Once I have the domain name I won't be using it straight away might be a few months before I do anything with it but I'd rather have it before any one else uses it!

Thanks!

Edit: it will be a .com address

[sagum]

As long as the registra registers the domain name under your name rather then registering it on your behalf. You should be fine. If you're not taking hosting with them at the same time, you'll at least need the option of changing the name servers or transferring it away.

Some will register the domain name for themselves then register it to you. You do not want to use these types. Also, some will charge you a fee to transfer the domain out, again you don't want these types.

For the uk, 1and1.co.uk are pretty good for domains and give you nice options for free as holding without any additional charges.

[Royalty]

Use Namecheap.com . It's the most trusted throughout the internet plus it's relatively cheap.. I have over 15 domains hosted with them.

[szo]

hover.com and namecheap.com are easy and minimal!

I warn you to avoid godaddy though! They spam their other crap way too much!

[dead.cell]

Use Namecheap.com . It's the most trusted throughout the internet plus it's relatively cheap.. I have over 15 domains hosted with them.

Thanks for this, I've been using NameAlerts for years. I'll keep them in mind.

[primexx]

if you want to stay away from US-based companies use Hover or Gandi. If you don't mind then also check out Name.com (and the aforementioned namecheap is also a good one)

[game_over]

go with namecheap.com i have over 50 domains hosted with them, they are definitely the most trusted domain seller around at the minute.. in at 2nd i would choose gandi.

[Guth]

Definitely stay away from godaddy, I bought mine with them (it's nothing important so I just bought it real quick one night) and the control panel is FULL of options and every one you click on you cant use unless you buy something else from them. Its like buy this buy that. It's so annoying and makes their CP so hard to use.

[Seahorsepip Veteran]

namecheap indeed, cheap and good :p

And I suggest to use domai.nr to look for available domains, it's a very handy tool ^^

Also don't forget the new domain extensions we're getting very very soon!

Definitely stay away from godaddy, I bought mine with them (it's nothing important so I just bought it real quick one night) and the control panel is FULL of options and every one you click on you cant use unless you buy something else from them. Its like buy this buy that. It's so annoying and makes their CP so hard to use.

yup they should have been paydaddy.com

[COKid]

Great info, guys. I was considering godaddy.

[game_over]

Also don't forget the new domain extensions we're getting very very soon!

what are they?

[Jose_49]

Just in case, get

hostgator.com for dedicated hosting.

[Sir Topham Hatt]

namecheap.com were cheap so I moved from GoDaddy.

They didn't email me to tell me my domain was running out though which GoDaddy does. Shame.

But now I am paid up until 2022 so will worry about it then :p

They also have lots of discount codes floating around...

[primexx]

namecheap.com were cheap so I moved from GoDaddy.

They didn't email me to tell me my domain was running out though which GoDaddy does. Shame.

But now I am paid up until 2022 so will worry about it then :p

They also have lots of discount codes floating around...

really? I'm pretty sure they do have email notification, or they should anyways. ask them about it.

[Stealthy_Singh]

Wow lots of replies. Thanks guys. I've just logged on to see. I'll have to go through them all in a bit. But at a quick glance it looks like namecheap.com looks good. In the first instance I won't be using it but I want to keep it so no one else can use it. Is there anything I need to look out for, to do that seeing as I won't be hosting anything for a while?

In case anyone is wondering I'm not domain troll, I just want 'myname.com'.

[Seahorsepip Veteran]

what are they?

.love .art .monkey .google .whatever

[DrJohnSmitherson]

godaddy is awful. Name cheap is great!

[Stealthy_Singh]

Got it on namecheap.com. Thanks everyone!

[xpablo]

Just to re-afirm what's been said so far is STAY AWAY from GODADDY.COM unless you like giving them lots of your money and having headaches and frustration.

Namecheap.com is good and simple. there's plenty of domain registrars around, most of them are fairly straight forward and provide simple domain services.

now what hasn't been mentioned here is you have a domain name, but where's it going to point to? So you need a webhost to host your website, or you could just park the domain at the Registrar

but then that leaves you with a page that may provide ads from the registrar and them making money off your parked page. or you could pay into a plan to host your own advertising.

so what you need to think about more than a domain registrar is a webhost provider, an easy solution is dreamhost.com with that you can get a domain name registered free with them

for your annual webhosting. But be careful and do your own reviews on webhosts, I've never had any major issue with Dreamhost, but there have been people who've registered their domain with them

and have had issues moving it to another registrar in the future. Domain registration is easy finding a good webhost provider is a little more difficult.

[kman1985]

namecheap.com all the way