How to choose Best Domain name registrar in 2024? Pros and Cons of domain name registrars

How to choose best domain name registrar in 2023


Buying domain is common in these days.  Many people starting their online company or shops and making their online presence in a much useful way.  But to show your presence in online you need a website then you need to buy a custom domain name.  Then only people will find your website address by using your domain name.

So buying domain name in the correct domain registrar is much needed to reduce your cost and improve your experience.  Here some of the best domain registrar companies which are approved by ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers).
  1. Google Domains
  2. Namecheap
  3. GoDaddy
  4. Domain.com
  5. Porkbun
  6. Dynadot
Read: How to find your unique domain name

These companies are popular across internet.  You should buy your domains only from ICANN approved registrars.

Choosing your best domain name registrar:

Here we are going to compare some of the noticeable things among these domain name registrars.  These are things are important that everyone need to consider when buying a custom domain.
  1. Price
  2. Tax fee
  3. Whois Privacy protection
  4. Free SSL
  5. Can make subdomains?
  6. 24/7 support and user interface
  7. Domain transfer fee
  8. Add on services
At last I have added a section for domain and website hosting in the same company.  If you need to host your domain means you need to buy hosting from hosting provider.  Some people buy domain in one place and hosting in another place.  Other people buy both domain and hosting at the same place.  For those people refer the last section.

Google Domains:

Google Domain name registrar

Pros of Google Domains:

  • Price -  For a top level domain like .com domain you have to pay $11.81/year (without tax) and for renewal  $11.81/year (without tax).
  • Tax fee - You have to see that tax is included in your cart or not.  In India 18%  GST tax for online goods. Tax in India is included in cart and almost $2.13 in Google domains. 
  • Whois Privacy Protection - Yes, it is free forever in Google domains. No fee you have to pay for that.   It also gives you free DNSSEC support (Supports Domain Name System Security Extensions).
  • Free SSL - No Google domains didn't deal with any SSL you have to separately buy the SSL if you need it.  Google domains offers only domains.  But their platforms like Blogger and google sites offer free SSL.
  • Can make subdomains? - Yes, you can make subdomains in Google domains.  You can create up to 100 subdomains.
  • 24/7 support and user interface - Yes, there is 24/7 support and the user interface of their website is good and simple. 
  • Domain transfer fee - There is no hidden charges in domain transfer in google domains.
We are using search console and other google products. So if you buy a domain in google domains, then you can easily verify that domain in all google products.

Google Domains gives you free email forwarding.  Up to 100 alias email address you can forward using google domains.  Ref - Why Google domains

 

Cons of Google Domains:

  • They didn't offer any discounts.
  • They didn't provide any add on services like hosting service, premium SSL.
Here you can find full review of google domains

Google domains is now sold to squarespace domains.  So all existing domains will move to squarespace.  After completely moved all google domains to squarespace, domain renewal price in squarespace will vary and also new buying domain price will be high than google domains.

Namecheap:

Namecheap domain name registrar

Pros of Namecheap:

  • Price - For .com domain they offer $8.88 for first time and ICANN fee $0.18 separately added to your cart.  Renewal at $12.98/year (only domain without any fee)
  • Tax fee - You have to consider this based upon your country.  But namecheap mentioned that they didn't include any taxes in their price.
  • Whois Privacy Protection - Yes, it is free.
  • Free SSL - No you have to buy separately.  They offer many SSL in different prices.
  • Can make subdomains? - Yes, we can make subdomains.
  • 24/7 support and user interface - Yes, they offer 24/7 support and user interface also good.
  • Domain transfer fee - To transfer a .com domain $8.58(without any tax) and renew price is $12.98 (without any tax).  Refer their website for more details.
  • Add on services - They offer many add on services.
They offer many discounts for the first time purchase.

 

Cons of Namecheap:

  • For first time purpose of SSL or add on service, price is low but renewal price is high.

GoDaddy:

GoDaddy domain name registrar

Pros of GoDaddy:

  • Price - For .com domain the price is $11.99/year  (They mentioned in disclaimers all included with tax)  and renew at $18.99/year (They mentioned in disclaimers all included with tax)  
  • Tax fee - You have to consider this based upon your country.
  • Whois Privacy Protection - No free whois privacy protection.
  • Free SSL - No free SSL.
  • Can make subdomains? - Yes, we can make subdomains
  • 24/7 support and user interface - Yes, they offer 24/7 support and user interface also good.
  • Domain transfer fee - They mentioned transfer your .com domain for $11.99.  Refer their website for more details.
  • Add on services - They offer many add on services.
They offer many discounts for the first time purchase

Cons of GoDaddy:

  • Very expensive to buy domains in this website.
  • Renewal cost of domains are very high.
  • Even though there is no free whois protection.

Domain.com:

Domain.com domain name registrar

Pros of Domain.com:

  • Price - For .com domain $9.99/year(without any tax) and renew at $13.99 per year (without any tax).
  • Tax fee - You have to consider this based upon your country.
  • Whois Privacy Protection - No free whois privacy protection.
  • Free SSL - No free SSL.
  • Can make subdomains? - Yes, we can make subdomains.
  • 24/7 support and user interface - Not full support.  Only call and chat support. Don't mentioned 24/7 support.
  • Domain transfer fee - They mentioned transfer your .com domain for $9.99 and and get free 1 year registration.  Refer their website for more details.
  • Add on services - They offer many add on services.

Cons of Domain.com:

  • Very expensive to buy domains in this website.
  • Renewal cost of domains are very high.
  • Even though there is no free whois protection.
There is a similar website in the name domains.com, only single 's' is the difference.  So make sure you choose the right website domain.com.


Porkbun:

Porkbun domain name registrar

Pros of Porkbun:

  • Price - For .com domain $8.58/year (without any tax) and renew at $8.58/year (without any tax)
  • Tax fee - You have to consider this based upon your country.
  • Whois Privacy Protection - Yes, they give free whois protection.
  • Free SSL - They offer free SSL issued by Let us encrypt. And they didn't sale any other SSL.
  • Can make subdomains? -  Yes, we can make subdomains.
  • 24/7 support and user interface - They didn't mention 24/7 support but offer email and chat support.
  • Domain transfer fee - To transfer .com domain for $8.58 (without any tax).  Refer their website for more details.
  • Add on services - They offer add on services.

Cons of Porkbun:

  • Many delay in email support and also time zone is different for different countries, so you will get support in delay
  • Payment gateway is worst from my experience.  In India, payment gateway only accept credit cards and there is no option for Gpay or debt cards for payment.  This was worst experience for people in India when they have not any credit cards.

Dynadot:

Dynadot domain name registrar

Pros of Dynadot:

  • Price - They offer for .com domain at $8.99/year (without any tax) and renew at $8.99/year (without any tax)
  • Tax fee - You have to consider this based upon your country.
  • Whois Privacy Protection - Yes, they offer free whois protection.
  • Free SSL - No free SSL.  You have to buy it separately.
  • Can make subdomains? -  Yes, we can make subdomains.
  • 24/7 support and user interface - They didn't mention 24/7 support.  And they mentioned chat and support tickets.
  • Domain transfer fee - They transfer .com domain at $8.99 (without any tax).  Refer their website for more details.
  • Add on services - They offer add on services.
They give you free single page website builder, you can add to your cart for free.

Cons of Dynadot:

  • They offer cheap price domains but 24/7 support is not given.

Domain and Website Hosting Companies:


Web hosting with free domain name provider

I have selected some companies.  They offer free domain for first time with hosting plan.  If you have to buy hosting plus domain means you can go to these option.
  1. Hostinger
  2. Hostgator
  3. Bluehost
  4. Wordpress.com
Comparing above four companies, the price is less only in Hostinger.  Many people also suggest Hostinger for domain + hosting and if you need separate hosting also many people suggest this one.

Companies like Namecheap and many other companies offer hosting, you can also check that, but don't know they will provide free domain for first time with hosting.

Also check the above four companies official websites for more details for hosting and renewal prices.

Conclusion:

My recommendation is not buy domains in websites which does not offer free whois protection.  If you want to add more quantities for comparison then add your items and compare it by your own.  By now you will get an idea about buying domain in domain name registrar.

Choose your registrar based upon your expectation like price, renewal price, support like that.
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Content last updated on 26th January, 2024 5:00 PM IST.

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Arul Prakassam

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