Article 1: Choosing a Domain Name Registrar

zach · 09-30-2006, 03:42 PM

Choosing a Domain Name Registrar
By Domain Social's Amol Hatwar

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Gone are the days when Network Solutions would charge you astronomical fees for registering a domain. Actually, their fees are still heavy, but they have competition now. There are hundreds of Domain Registrars on the Internet today most which charge considerably lesser than Network Solutions. But with so many registrars, how exactly do you go about selecting the one for you? Here's what you need to pay attention to.

First and foremost, you check if provider is an accredited ICANN domain registrar. This is important because ICANN only certifies businesses with the right technology and processes. Besides that, if your registrar does foul up; you always have the choice of complaining about it to ICANN.

Secondly, you must know what varieties if domains you may need in the future. Almost everyone offers TLDs like .com, .org and .net, but not all will provide specific domains like .in, .fr, .eu, .cc or even the more recent .mobi. Of course, when a new TLD or ccTLD is approved, it takes time for registrars to upgrade the applications and pay fees to handle the new extensions. But, your registrar should be proactive in doing it. Otherwise, you will end up depending on several registrars for these other fancy TLDs. This means more control panels to look after, more usernames and passwords, and often, more headaches. However, there are some people who prefer to do this, but for different reasons entirely: They will go with the lowest cost registrar for a particular TLD at that time.
Another point worth consideration is how powerful and feature-rich the control panel of your domain registrar is. Some registrars won't let set your own child name-servers, or make the domain transfer process overly complex and time consuming. You might also want a separate account manager of a domain or a group of domains, while you look after billing and renewals. Other features like alternative name suggestions, whois data privacy, and, added services like email and hosting differ from provider to provider. You need to know what features you want, and what you are ready to pay for them.

Again, if you are looking for buying domains in bulk, you should look for a registrar that allows you to do so at a considerable discount. If you are, or want to become a reseller, you should check if your registrar provides customizable web pages or APIs that allow you to sell domains with your own prices and branding. Of course, there are additional costs involved for this. These are levied on a subscription basis. Also, as the API and web pages will reside on your provider's servers, uptimes and service quality become an important point to check. If you plan to do a lot of business, you should stick with providers with a good reputation. With competition just a click away, lost business never comes back.

You should pay attention to the price last. Most competitive providers offer .com, .org and .net domains at a price near 10 USD (inclusive of the 0.25 USD ICANN surcharge). However, the cost per domain varies a great deal if you are looking for other extensions and ccTLDs. If you are just a casual buyer, or are just interested in booking .com, .org and .net domains; the price shouldn't bother you much. But if you are buying domains in bulk, cost savings of even one dollar per domain becomes huge when you talk numbers. Before you decide to buy a domain, you should check out a few registrars, as prices change almost every day. Here is a list of some popular domain name registrars. Good hunting.

Discussion:

What do you look for in a domain registrar?

Which registrar do you prefer?

Do you have a registrar horror story?

Or tell us what you think!

.firebug · 09-30-2006, 08:43 PM

Hi thanks for the article. As a domain investor, I've found that purchasing domain reseller accounts (like Wild West Domains and Enom) are the best way to go. Not only can you sell domains to others and get commission for it: you can buy domains from yourself at a fraction of the cost.

However, I wouldn't do this if you only plan to register a handful of domains. You should make sure you can cover the sign up costs. Otherwise, it's great for people who make a living off domain investing.

Darkneoboi · 10-03-2006, 11:40 PM

I have noticed that you put godaddy and 1&1 on the list of top registars. I would aviod them since I have heard of people losing their domain on Godaddy and I know of people who get a lot of bad support from 1&1. I would advise to use NameCheap for a registar or even eNom - domain name, internet services, dns hosting