Does it matter where I buy a domain name?

I've never bought one before, but I see you can buy them from a bunch of different sources. Thanks.


Most are priced about the same.  Some have better user interfaces and help.   I dislike GoDaddy.   Namecheap.com is good and Dotster.com is ok.  


I hope the domain you want is not  a .org. A private equity group is trying to buy control of them. Prices will go through the roof.


dave said:

Most are priced about the same.  Some have better user interfaces and help.   I dislike GoDaddy.   Namecheap.com is good and Dotster.com is ok.  

 @dave Why don't you like GoDaddy. I bought my art site name from them years ago. Used my rescue name for my artsite but now I'm thinking I should use my real name to make searching easier. My thought was that all money from the sale of paintings and drawings would go to my non profit but not sure its easily searchable so I'm open to change.


Morganna said:

dave said:

Most are priced about the same.  Some have better user interfaces and help.   I dislike GoDaddy.   Namecheap.com is good and Dotster.com is ok.  

 @dave Why don't you like GoDaddy. I bought my art site name from them years ago. Used my rescue name for my artsite but now I'm thinking I should use my real name to make searching easier. My thought was that all money from the sale of paintings and drawings would go to my non profit but not sure its easily searchable so I'm open to change.

I've used GoDaddy myself for many years with no complaints.

I started with GD before it became kind of apparent that they were being run by some kind of retrograde, misogynist, right-wing AH. That period seems to have passed. Not sure if they've got new management or are just being quiet.

Looks like new management. See below.


I went with https://www.one.com/ to get the domain, and host a basic website (5 pages) with their cheapest plan.

You can get multiple domains, like .com and .org, that will resolve to the same address)  It also comes with an email account, but I don't use that functionality.


Bottom line - it doesn't matter who you use to get the domain.  They all use the same process to submit your information.  Which I think is basically sending a record to the ICANN service.

Most try to get you to buy extras which you don't need.  Choosing privacy block some unwanted calls and scammers trying to get you to transfer your domain to them.  I have dozens of domains - I haven't used privacy on any of them - the amount of scams is fair minimal.  I have had a few clients fall for them though.


Morganna said:

dave said:

Most are priced about the same.  Some have better user interfaces and help.   I dislike GoDaddy.   Namecheap.com is good and Dotster.com is ok.  

 @dave Why don't you like GoDaddy. I bought my art site name from them years ago. Used my rescue name for my artsite but now I'm thinking I should use my real name to make searching easier. My thought was that all money from the sale of paintings and drawings would go to my non profit but not sure its easily searchable so I'm open to change.

 It was a long time ago and probably had to do with what drummerboy mentioned.


I've had domain names bought and sold in multiple hosting companies.

GoDaddy by far is the easiest.  I also have domains with Dotster, and have had problems linking websites to them.  I'm sure its just not being knowledgeable enough.


Do NOT use GoDaddy.  I got a vanity domain name "robertsandow.com" through them many years ago.  Mostly the only reason to have it is a vanity email address I use, "rob(at)robertsandow.com".  The domain name with anonymous registry costs about $17/year.  3 months ago, they informed me that the email address would no longer be included in the cost of the domain registry, and that I would need to pay $5/month for the address.  That would effectively raise my cost for this email address by about 4x.  What's worse, they informed me only by email and gave me only 3 weeks to pay or be cut off.  Without sufficient time to research alternatives or transfer the registration elsewhere (it takes time), I did pay, but will be moving off of them before next year. 


Rob_Sandow said:

Do NOT use GoDaddy.  I got a vanity domain name "robertsandow.com" through them many years ago.  Mostly the only reason to have it is a vanity email address I use, "rob(at)robertsandow.com".  The domain name with anonymous registry costs about $17/year.  3 months ago, they informed me that the email address would no longer be included in the cost of the domain registry, and that I would need to pay $5/month for the address.  That would effectively raise my cost for this email address by about 4x.  What's worse, they informed me only by email and gave me only 3 weeks to pay or be cut off.  Without sufficient time to research alternatives or transfer the registration elsewhere (it takes time), I did pay, but will be moving off of them before next year. 

 Who will you switch to?



Namecheap.com doesn't hire Russians and all of their ticket support is located in Ukraine (ETA ....and have additional operations in EU, Great Britain, US).


dave said:


Namecheap.com doesn't hire Russians and all of their ticket support is located in Ukraine (ETA ....and have additional operations in EU, Great Britain, US).

 Did Giuliani put you up to this?


I’ve used google domains too 


Morganna said:

Rob_Sandow said:

Do NOT use GoDaddy.  I got a vanity domain name "robertsandow.com" through them many years ago.  Mostly the only reason to have it is a vanity email address I use, "rob(at)robertsandow.com".  The domain name with anonymous registry costs about $17/year.  3 months ago, they informed me that the email address would no longer be included in the cost of the domain registry, and that I would need to pay $5/month for the address.  That would effectively raise my cost for this email address by about 4x.  What's worse, they informed me only by email and gave me only 3 weeks to pay or be cut off.  Without sufficient time to research alternatives or transfer the registration elsewhere (it takes time), I did pay, but will be moving off of them before next year. 

 Who will you switch to?

 Not sure yet.  I'll need to research who provides a free or nominal cost email with the registration


peteglider said:

I’ve used google domains too 

Does Google Domains charge extra for an email address?  I would think not since gmail is free.  If so, I may move my GoDaddy hosted domain to Google.



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