The Best Domain Registrars of 2024

The best domain registrars (or registration services) are an essential investment when building a new online presence. These companies allow business leaders to purchase memorable domain names for their websites, making it easier for consumers to find them online.

Chosen carefully, the right domain name empowers your company with instant credibility and appeal. It also ensures you can develop a consistent brand image. Domain registration services ensure you can purchase not only your preferred domain name, but any additional domains you may want to prevent from falling into the hands of competitors.

Today, we’re assessing some of the best domain registrars on the market for 2024, chosen for their affordability, ease of use, and unique features.

What are The Best Domain Registrars?

The best domain registration services are the companies capable of offering an affordable way to access and retain the domains you need when building your brand.

Here are some of the companies currently delivering the best results to business owners.

1. Domain.com

Best Overall

Domain.com is a versatile domain name registration solution, perfect for small to mid-sized companies. With a host of domain options to choose from, including more than 25 country codes, and popular favorites like .org and .com, Domain.com ensures you can build the perfect brand.

More than just a domain registrar, Domain.com actually offers a host of features to get brands started online, including web hosting, and web design services. The company also sells premium domains as a broker for other brands and has more than 2 decades of experience in its industry.

Key Features

• Excellent customer support: Extensive support and guidance from the Domain.com team if you ever have trouble with your domain.
• Wide range of domain options: Choose from a host of location and industry-specific domain TLDs to suit your needs.
• Multiple extra features: Tons of bonus features including privacy protection, email, web hosting, SSL certificates and malware protection.

Domain.com Pricing

The price of your domain with Domain.com will depend on a number of factors, including what kind of TLD you want. A .com domain starts at $9.99 for your first year registration, then it’s $15.99 per year for the following years.

Though the pricing for your domain can go up slightly over time, Domain.com keeps its costs extremely transparent and simple, so you know how to track your budget from one year to the next. You can also access a range bonus services like hosting.

2. Bluehost

Best hosting bundle

Bluehost is a hosting company offering a range of domain registration services alongside its hosting options. If you’re looking for a service provider capable of offering both domain registration and hosting in an affordable bundle, Bluehost could be the service for you. You’ll get a free domain in thrown in with any shared hosting plan.

Bluehost offers dozens of different domain options, including .org, .tech, and .com, with relatively cheap pricing for both your initial subscription and renewal. You can also set up automatic renewal and lock your domain to prevent unauthorized transfers.

Key Features

• Domain management: You can manage every aspect of your domains from an easy-to-use control panel, and automatically lock domains to stop them from being transferred.
• Expert support: The Bluehost team are on-hand to answer all of your questions and assist with everything from automatic renewal to domain forwarding.
• Bundled packages: When buying your hosting packages (starting at $8.99 per month), you can get a free domain to save money on startup costs.

Bluehost Pricing

The cost of your Bluehost domain will depend on your TLD, and how long you’re purchasing the domain for. A .com domain will cost around $12.99 per year. However, you can save money on domain registration and hosting by accessing a shared hosting plan for $8.99 per year, with the free domain thrown in for the first year.

The price of your domain name may change over time with Bluehost, so it’s worth making sure you know the renewal prices before you set up the automatic renewal service.

3. Network Solutions

Best for long-term

Affordable and reliable, Network Solutions offers a wide range of hosting services, with more than 500 extensions for business owners to choose from. As an added benefit, you get the peace of mind of knowing Network Solutions is ICANN certified, which means it sticks to the strictest standards to keep your domain protected.

Network Solutions allows you to either register a completely new domain from scratch, or you can choose from a range of premium existing domains. You can also bundle in various other services, like website and e-commerce hosting, and email tools. You can also get a free domain name from Network Solutions with one of its hosting plans.

Key Features

• Wide range of extensions: You’ll have more than 500 TLD extensions to consider, including popular options like .org and .net.
• Privacy and security: Built-in privacy and security solutions help you to reduce the amount of spam you receive on your domain name.
• Award winning support: Get excellent support from ICANN certified team members who work hard to protect your business and domain.

Network Solutions Pricing

The cheapest way to get a domain name from Network Solutions is to access the company’s “Essential” hosting plan for $9.96 per year with a free domain name. If you upgrade to a Premium plan, you can also get an SSL certificate.

The price of premium domain names can vary into the thousands depending on what you need, while standard domain name costs vary according to your required TLD. For instance, you can get a .com domain name for $9.99.

4. Porkbun

Best for .com alternatives

Porkbun is a lesser-known hosting company offering some of the best domain registrar services on the market. The company is currently ranked number one for the lowest initial registration and renewal prices, and it can also offer easy access to domain name transferring if you want to swap from another registrar and keep your domains.

Porkbun delivers free privacy tools to protect your domain names, as well as access to cheap email hosting starting at $2 per month. You can also access all-in-one packages with domain name and website hosting in one plan. Porkbun is particularly useful for companies in search of alternatives to the standard .com domain name, as it has a wide range of alternatives TLDs.

Key Features

• Premium features included with all domains: You’ll get free WHOIS privacy to keep contact information secure, free SSL certificates, URL forward, and email forwarding with your domains.
• Excellent pricing: Porkbun offers some of the cheapest deals on the market, even when you bundle in domain hosting and other services.
• Fantastic customer support: Porkbun excels at offering multiple forms of customer support, including phone service, knowledge base access, email, and chat.

Porkbun Pricing

As with most domain registration services, the price you’ll pay for a Porkbun domain depends on your TLD. Some options start as low as $0.99. If you’d prefer a more recognizable domain name with a .com extension, it costs $4.75 to register a new one.

Porkbun also offers special deals and bundled packages for web hosting and domain name access. Alternatively, you can visit the Porkbun marketplace to search through premium domains for sale. Porkbun allows shoppers to buy up to 10 domain names at once.

5. GoDaddy

Best for privacy

Suitable for website creation, hosting, and domain name purchasing, GoDaddy is one of the more popular registrars on the market today. The big-name provider offers tons of domain options to choose from, and currently manages more than 75 million domains for over 17 million customers worldwide. GoDaddy also has fantastically low sign-up prices.

Like many of the best domain registrars, GoDaddy offers various valuable “extras” up-front, including things like access to free WHOIS privacy, to protect your contact details from spammers. You’ll also get tools like automatic renewal, so you don’t have to remember to re-purchase your domain every year. However, many of GoDaddy’s top deals require a two-year subscription.

Key Features

• Domain and professional email: You can access a GoDaddy domain name and email address for only $1 a month in some cases.
• WHOIS Privacy included: Automatically redact contact information from your WHOIS directory to prevent domain-related spam.
• Excellent hosting and domain packages: You can get cheap hosting plans starting at $3.99 per year with a free domain, but you need to subscribe for 3 years.

GoDaddy Domain Pricing

Pricing for domain names on their own depends on the TLD you choose. A .com domain can cost as low as $0.01 for year first year, followed by a price of $19.99 during renewal and recurring annual billing going forward.

Also, all GoDaddy hosting packages come with access to a free domain, but you will be required to sign up for at least a one-year subscription. Many of the best packages require a two year subscription at minimum, and the second year can be a lot more expensive.

6. Google Domains

Best for ease-of-use

Google Domains could be the ideal place to search for your domain if you want to focus heavily on simplicity. Google is one of the better-known companies in the world, particularly in the digital world, and it has plenty of excellent domain name extensions to offer today’s business leaders. You can access more than 300 domain endings, and expect simple, affordable pricing for all of them.

With the power of Google behind your domain, you can expect an excellent service, with 24/7 support from real humans if something goes wrong. You can also transfer a domain you already own into Google with minimal stress. Google uses DNS servers for hosting its domains too, which means you can rely on fantastic security, speed, and support.

Key Features

• Simple design: Finding a domain name you want to purchase and signing up with Google is extremely quick and straightforward, with no complexities to navigate.
• Over 300 domain endings: Though you won’t get all the domain extensions you can get elsewhere, all of the most important TLDs are available.
• Simple pricing: Pricing is standardized using simple whole numbers, so it’s much easier to keep track of all your important budgeting each year. Plus, you get freebies like WHOIS privacy thrown in.

Google Domains Pricing

Google’s pricing options for domains depend on what kind of TLD you want to access. The popular options like .com and .org start at $12 for the first year. After this, you may end up paying slightly more for your renewal price.

Notably, while there are cheaper domain name registration services out there, Google provides bonuses you don’t get elsewhere, like one-click DNSSEC, Google two-step verification, and privacy protection already built-in.

7. NameSilo

Best for bulk purchases

Easily one of the best domain registrars online for companies looking to buy domain names in bulk, NameSilo makes it quick and affordable to stock up on domain options. With NameSilo, you can combine affordable pricing (Starting at $0.99) with a convenient interface where you can manage all of your domains in one place.

NameSilo has more than 400 domain extensions to choose from, and you can search for hundreds of available domain names with just a couple of clicks. As an added bonus, NameSilo offers special discount prices if you’re buying in bulk. What’s more, buying your domains and keeping track of everything is wonderfully simple and straightforward, with very few pesky upsells.

Key Features

• Bulk domain pricing: Domain prices on NameSilo are already pretty low when you’re buying one name at a time. If you’re buying in bulk, you can save a fortune.
• Excellent security: The service comes with enterprise-level security already built-in, with WHOIS privacy protection so you can avoid annoying spam from your site.
• Easy to use environment: There’s a simple back-end environment where you can start configuring your domains and keep track of everything. You’ll also have access to 24/7 customer service if anything does go wrong.

NameSilo Pricing

Pricing for your NameSilo domains is based on a number of factors, including which TLD you choose, and how many domains you’re buying at once. Pricing for a .com name starts at $9.95 for the initial install, and you can get business email thrown in for free.

If you want to add an SSL certificate, you can do so for $9.99 per year, and you’ll even be able to get a full hosting package from NameSilo starting at $2.99 per month. Remember, all domains come with free WHOIS privacy, domain defender, and DNS management.

Best Free Domain Registrars

If you’re low on budget when looking for the ultimate domain name registration solution, you might be tempted to look into “free” domain registration. While there are “free” and extremely cheap domain registration options out there, they often come with a number of caveats.

For instance, you can get a free domain with Bluehost when you sign up to one of their hosting packages, but the domain is only free for the first year, and you’ll still need to pay for the costs of your hosting package, so it’s not entirely without cost.

Additionally, companies like GoDaddy can offer domains for an initial sign up cost of only $0.01 in some cases. However, you usually need to agree to a three-year contract with the company to access this price, and the renewal pricing can be much higher.

It’s very difficult to get a domain name for free without any catch, so make sure you check what you’re going to be paying for before you sign up.

Domain Registrars Buyers Guide

What Are Domain Registrars?

Domain registrars, or domain registration services are businesses responsible for handling the reservation of domain names and the assignment of IP addresses on the web. These companies need to be accredited by a generic top-level domain or country-code top level domain registry.

Domain registrars allow you to purchase domain names or “addresses” on the internet, and also manage your domains too. In some cases, you can apply various forms of privacy and security to your domain name with a registrar.

What To Look for In the Best Domain Registrars?

There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to choosing the best domain name registrar. There are plenty of solutions out there all with their own distinct benefits to offer.

You’ll need to think about a number of different concepts, from how much you’re willing to spend, to what kind of bonus features and security you want thrown in with your domain registration. Here are some of the most important factors to consider:

TLD or Extension Options

Most domain registration services will allow you to purchase a .com or .co domain. However, if you want specific, more niche domain names, like .tv, you may need to consider narrowing your search. More TLD and extension options also means you can buy more variations of the same domain name, to prevent other companies from stealing them.

Privacy and Security

Privacy features like WHOIS protection can be very important when choosing your domain name registrar. This protection ensures you can hide your contact details from other people who might want to send spam to your email.

Extra Features

A lot of domain name registration services can also offer additional services, like access to website hosting, SSL certificates, and professional email addresses. Often, you can save a decent amount of money by bundling all of these services into one package with the same provider, so it’s worth exploring your options.

Customer service

If something goes wrong with your domain name, or your registration, it’s good to know there’s someone available to help you out. A strong reputation for customer service should be something you consider when signing up for a long-term service with any brand.

Budget

Budget will always be an important consideration for any business owner investing in an essential service or tool. With that in mind, make sure you can afford the price of your domain name, not just initially, but throughout various renewal years too. Keep an eye out for any minimum subscription requirements, as these can eat into your budget too.

Domain Registrars FAQ

Choosing The Best Domain Registrars

The best domain registrar overall is Domain.com, offering the widest range of extensions, the best customer support, and a wide range of extra features, like privacy protection. However, if you’re looking for a domain name and hosting in a simple bundle, you might prefer to save some cash with Bluehost instead.

Alternatively, Porkbun will give you the widest variety of extension alternatives if you’re looking for something other than .com, while Google Domains provides a simple and straightforward experience.

Good luck choosing the ultimate domain name registration service.