Registering A Domain Name - How and With Who?

TojoRalph

I did try a forum search on the subject, but I only found very old threads. My question is, with whom or how do I register a domain name? Thanks.

tafelmoneysaver

There are many choices. 

Do you want any other services for the domain after registration, e.g. email, hosting, blog, commerce? 

J_B

Ours is with 1&1 who now seem to be called Ionos

Cornucopia

So many choices, and unless you're being ripped off, costs are pretty low across the board, although some more exotic suffixes are more expensive.

I've used UK2.NET in the past, and 123-REG (both fairly big names).   

Lots of companies have first year offers (£1-2), but unless you are confident about moving the registration, I'd also check the price for subsequent years.

TojoRalph

tafelmoneysaver said:

There are many choices. 

Do you want any other services for the domain after registration, e.g. email, hosting, blog, commerce? 

It was the registration of the name part initially. The rest I have given no real thought to. Email would not be a bad idea I guess but beyond that I am unsure.

flaneurs_lobster

If you don't mind dancing with the devil then Google Domains has a pretty good front end that explains a lot of the basics (and will try to sign you up for their service, natch). It's just out of Beta after seven years so there's half a chance they might have got rid of most of the bugs. 

Murmansk

I've used Fasthosts and 1 and 1 and both seem very good

Doshwaster

Depends on what services you need.

I use Ionos but only have a domain name and IMAP email hosting which costs £2.50 a month for the email plus around £10 a year for the domain. If you need a fancy website for your business then you may want to look elsewhere

flashg67

I use https://www.freehosting.com/ - they offer domains and hosting. I just use their free email feature but not the website hosting (yet). You'll need to ay to renew the domain name regularly but most are cheap to do

DarrenLee02

It's a good idea to use different companies for domain registration and hosting. If you use the same for both, they can charge more for renewal. Personally I use namecheap.com (good despite the name) for domains, and hostinger UK for hosting.

RedBalloon

So glad I found this thread, I have similar queries:

I am thinking of a startup and want to protect the usage of .co.uk and .com - at this time I'm not sure if they would just be landing pages, or possibly be more detailed, with a blog, possibly e-commerce. Where should I be looking at? I'm thinking about cost, since I may / may not utilise.

Also, how do I protect my privacy online? I don't want my personal name/address to be provided as owner of the website but I don't have company details setup yet?

Edited to add: There's a high chance I'll use one of them for emails even if not for website.

Really grateful for any assistance - it's a new experience for me!