Where to Buy a Domain (and What to Watch For).

DOMAIN · 4 MIN READ · WRITTEN FOR PEOPLE WHO OWN THEIR OWN SITE

Every registrar sells the exact same product: your name in the global registry for a year. The difference is price honesty and how many things they try to sell you on the way to checkout.

01 What to look for in a registrar

At-cost or near-cost pricing with the renewal price shown up front. The classic game is $2.99 the first year, $25 every year after. Judge by year two's price, not year one's.
Free WHOIS privacy. This hides your personal info from the public record. Honest registrars include it; others charge yearly for what costs them nothing.
No checkout maze. If the cart auto-adds email hosting, "SEO tools", and site builders you have to remove one by one, that tells you how the relationship will go.

We point our clients at Cloudflare (domains.cloudflare.com) because they sell at wholesale cost with privacy included and renewals that match the sticker. Other reputable no-games options exist; the checklist above is how you judge any of them.

02 Buying it, start to finish

Create the account with an email you check for real, on an address that isn't tied to the domain you're buying.
Search your name. Taken? Try adding your city or trade (mikestiresdfw.com) before settling for a strange ending.
Buy one year. Skip every add-on. Email can come later, hosting comes from elsewhere, and "premium DNS" is a phrase designed for fear.
Turn on auto-renew and two-factor authentication before you close the tab.

One honest caveat about transfers: if your domain currently lives somewhere expensive, you can transfer it to a better registrar after 60 days from registration. Transferring adds a year of registration, so you rarely lose money doing it.

Q Should I buy multiple versions of my name?

Only if it's cheap peace of mind you'll actually maintain. The .com you use matters; a garage full of variations mostly just renews annually for no reason.

Q What's WHOIS privacy and do I need it?

Domain registrations are public record. Privacy replaces your home address and phone with a proxy. Yes, you want it, and you shouldn't have to pay extra for it.

Q The name I want is owned but unused. Can I get it?

Sometimes, through a broker or direct offer, usually for hundreds to thousands. Decide what it's worth to you before making contact, and never negotiate from your business email.

Rather have someone who does this every day handle it? That's the $75/mo plan. Or keep going solo, that's the whole point of these guides.

The straight answers Text Nick