When building your first WordPress website, the primary step is to find a domain name and register it.
It doesn’t really matter where you buy the domain from with regards to WordPress, but not all registrars are equal.
When choosing a registrar you need to consider their prices, interfaces, and additional services they offer.
The domain registrar we use today is Namesilo.
It has made it super easy for our team to manage and buy domains over the years, so it’s one of the easiest recommendations I can make.
In the past, I’ve also used MyDomain and GoDaddy.
MyDomain was decent but GoDaddy, although hugely popular, makes constant attempts to upsell and has an overall sales-y approach that bothered me.
Namecheap is another alternative with a nice interface and fair prices, but NameSilo has remained our registrar of choice for now.
How much does it cost to buy a domain?
I know for most of you price will be the prime factor when choosing a registrar.
I checked the prices from the above providers and compared them.
The prices quoted below are for a .com domain for one year, as of 2022.
Namesilo: $10.95 per domain (bulk discounts are available)
Mydomain: $9.99 (but the price may rise soon)
GoDaddy: $11.99
Namecheap: $13.99 (Privacy add-on comes free for the first year)
The price of DOT COM domains increased across the board as of 1st September 2022. The prices shown above reflect this change. Namesilo has been very transparent about this change, even offering current customers to renew early and keep their original price for a few more years.
This, among other factors, shows the kind of company that you’d be working with, which is why we’ve continued to trust in their platform.
Remember that domains need to be renewed every year. With some registrars, you can also pay upfront for 2 or more years to receive a small discount.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Yes, but there are two versions of WordPress to consider. WordPress.com is a hosted service where you don’t pay for hosting separately and they offer a domain as part of their plans. WordPress.org, on the other hand, requires you to get your own hosting.
Yes, many hosts offer a free domain name when you set up your website’s hosting with them. For example, Bluehost offers a free domain for 1 year as part of its pricing. However, you’re better off registering your domain separately with a registrar like Namesilo.
No, domain names are registered on a yearly basis, so you’ll have to keep renewing them every year. Alternatively, some registrars have offers where you can pay for a few years at a time and you’ll receive a small discount. Likewise, you can purchase multiple domains at once to get yet another discount.
On average, most domain names should cost you between $11 and around $20. Of course, if you want a domain name that’s one word or very competitive, it can even cost you hundreds or thousands of dollars, but in most cases, you’re looking at under $20 a year.
Our preferred domain registrar
For now, we’re sticking to Namesilo. The renewal process, management options, and costs are a great fit for us.
Many of these providers also offer hosting services, so you can have everything under one roof if you prefer it like that.
However, I would recommend you use one of our recommended shared WordPress hosting providers or managed WordPress hosting providers for hosting purposes.
4 Responses
What you get with pairNIC
pairNIC extends pair Networks’ unsurpassed customer service, reliability, and high-quality offerings to domain name registration and management. pairNIC makes the domain name registration and management process simple and straightforward, with customers’ needs at the heart of the service. While other domain name registrars nickel and dime you, pairNIC includes all of the following enhanced services for FREE, with every domain name:
Free Whois Privacy
Free pairNIC Dynamic DNS
Free Domain Parking
Free Custom DNS (including SPF, IPv4 & IPv6)
Free GLUE records (IPv4 and IPv6)
Free Web Site Address Forwarding
Free E-Mail Forwarding
Free Domain Name Lock and Transfer Lock Security
Free DNSSEC
Secure Online Account Management
Free 24/7/365 Toll-Free, Top-Notch, Unlimited Customer Support
I bet you guys did not know that the one of the best domain registrar’s in the world PairNic is now offering $10 registration with these guys you 24 seven phones for an email course and people at pick up in two minutes it is beyond excellent.
Please call care and inquire about the price dropped from $20 to 10 and they will allow it
Hey Jean, thanks for the post… perfect timing. Reason being is I am moving my sites over to WPEngine and am looking for a decent service for email. Was going to move all my domains over to Namecheap to use theirs but someone warned me that their email wasn’t very good.
Question. Do you have experience with the email services at Mydomain? Appreciate any feedback you or your readers could give me.. thanks!
That’s a good question Bob, I was lucky enough to have signed up with the Google for Business free email hosting before they shut that down, so I haven’t had a need for email hosting till now. Therefore I can’t really tell you much about the Mydomain email service. Possibly one of the readers can share their experience however.