Deciding on a Domain name Registrar

Two important decisions to make when you set up your website is which Registrar you will register your chosen domain with and secondly the Hosting company who will host your website. In some cases the company you register your domain with and the company you host your website with might be the same company but they don't need to be.

There are a number of things to consider when choosing who to register your domain name with:

There are innumerable registrars who can be found via a search engine but here I give some details of Registrars I think worthy of consideration

 

D9 Hosting*

d9 hosting for domain registration and website hosting

UK web services provider established in 2007 offering services in the uk and all over the world. They offer a wide range of domain extensions available for registration including as you would expect for a UK registrar UK domain extensions such as .co.uk or .org.uk.

Example charges (prices correct at June 2024):

D9 Hosting has not been reviewed on Trustpilot however Reviews.io gave it a rating of 4.9 out of 5 from 214 reviews.

D9 Hosting as the name suggests is primarily a hosting company offering domain registration in addition to website hosting to provide a "one-stop shop" but their domain name prices are worth consideration in conjunction with their website hosting plans.

D9 Hosting

d9 hosting link button

JustHostMe*

justhostme for domain registration and website hosting

Excellent reliable UK based Domain name Registrar and Webhosting. Particularly recommended if you wish to have domain registration and webhosting with the same uk company.

Example charges (prices correct at June 2024):

JustHostMe has been in business and offering a high level of customer service both for it's domain registration and webhosting since 2007, contact via ticket or telephone. Their Trustpilot score is 4.7 out of 5 (Excellent)

justhostme link button

Krystal Hosting*

krystal for domain registration and website hosting

Currently managing over 95,000 domains with a clear pricing structure Krystal Hosting would be a good choice as your Domain Registrar whether or not you choose the company for your webhosting or used the DNS Manager to forward your domain to another provider.

Example charges (prices correct at June 2024):

Krystal Hosting has a Trustpilot score of 4.8 out of 5 (Excellent). Check out Krystal Hosting for both Domain name registration and Website hosting.

Krystal Hosting Simple, easy-to-use hosting from only £7 per month. Click to learn more.

krystal hosting link button

Namesilo*

namesilo for all your domain names

Namesilo claim on their website "There are less than 12 registrars in the world that have over 4 million active domains. We are proud to be one of them." Namesilo was established in 2010 in Phoenix Arizona, USA. It is both a Domain name Registrar and a Hosting company. Long established it may be the company to meet both your Domain name and Hosting needs... Read on!

Namesilo offers a wide range of domain name extensions at good prices. Being UK based I note that they do not offer .co.uk or .org.uk domain names. They do offer .uk domain name but this domain name extension being newer than the .co.uk and .org.uk domain name extensions is not as well known in the UK.

Example charges (prices correct at June 2024):

Namesilo offers the range of services you would expect from a registrar... Free WHOIS Privacy Forever, DNS management tools, Email Forwarding, Domain Forwarding, Domain Defender Protection (hightened security for your domain).

With such a lot of domains registered and hence customers it will be interesting to see what the customer satisfaction review figures look like. Their Trustpilot page figures give a score of 4.5 out of 5 with over1,500 reviews (Excellent).

namesilo link button

Purely.Website

purely.website for all your domain names

Purely.Website is part of PipeTen With over 20 years experience of working in online infrastructure management Pipe Ten recognised there was a vital need for an independent and affordable domain registration and website hosting platform that is simple to use with a no nonsense pricing structure.

I was attracted to using Purely for my Domain name requirements and transferring domains from my present registrar at that time by the domain registration pricing structure. I was able to reduce my domain registration charges by 50%

Example charges (prices correct at June 2024):

As I make exclusive use of uk (nominet) domain names I find their charges particularly good value.

Purely.website offers full DNS management and forwarding with support via ticket and online chat if you have any difficulties.

Purely.website has a score of 4.6 out of 5 on Trustpilot (Excellent) showing the company is well thought of by most of it's customers for the service they provide.

Purely.website offers website hosting at an economical price. Check out my review on my "Deciding on a Hosting company" page.

purely.website link button

SiteGround *

siteground for all your domain names

Best known for their Webhosting Siteground claim to have over 3 million domain name owners on their platform. Siteground offer free domain names for the first year with their hosting plans, you cannot register domains with them without taking up a hosting plan. Check out their hosting plans.

Example charges (prices correct at June 2024):

Excellent Trustpilot reviews 4.8 out of 5 from over 16,000 reviews. Click over to the SiteGround site and check out their hosting plans and nab a free domain name!

Ad - Web Hosting from SiteGround - Crafted for easy site management. Click to learn more.

siteground link button

Comparison chart Domain name registration charges

- all prices correct June 2024 per year ex vat, figures in brackets - renewal charges.

Registrar .co.uk .org.uk .com .org Trustpilot
.co.uk - £7.99
(£9.97)
.org.uk - £7.99
(£9.97)
.com - £10.69
(£14.69)
.org - £13.99
(£15.99)
4.9/5
Reviews.io
.co.uk - £13.99
(£16.79)
.org.uk - £13.39
(£16.79)
.com - £20.39
(£26.79)
.org - £8.90
(£26.79)
4.7/5
.co.uk - £7.99 .org.uk - £7.99 .com - £11.99 .org - £11.99 4.8/5
.uk - $6.49 .uk - $6.49
only uk domain
.com - $13.95 .org - $9.45 4.5/5
.co.uk - £5 .org.uk - £5 .com - £13 .org - £16 4.6/5

Only with hosting
.co.uk - £NIL
(£14.99)
.org.uk - £NIL
(£14.99)
.com - £NIL
(£14.99)
.org - £NIL
(£16.99)
4.8/5

 

 

Using your Domain name

Domain names are most commonly pointed to webspace to enable your website to be accessed. You may choose to use webspace or hosting that your Domain name Registrar provides or decide on hosting provided by another company. It is best to consider registering a Domain name and securing hosting as separate and register with the best Domain Registrar for you and obtain the best hosting for your purposes.

Domain names may be used for other purposes beside being used for websites. Some uses are as follows:

Investment
Some domains may be registered because the registrant thinks the domain name will be valuable in the future and can sell it for a premium price or a domain name may be registered for a future project that is still in the planning state. Such Domains may display Domain registrars' "Under construction" pages or be "parked" displaying advertising links which generate a small amount of income for the regsistrant or nothing may be displayed.

Web forwarding
Some domains may be configured to forward the visitor to another website. This may be done by some companies that have registered multiple domain name extensions of their chosen domain and the webforwarding forwards visitors which ever domain they have accessed to one particular domain and website.

E-Mail forwarding
This is a simple way whereby a company can register a domain name for their business, set up an e-mail address of the form sales@companyname.co.uk and have all e-mails received forwarded to a free provider with an address of the form companyname@gmail.com. This gives the company a more professional appearance than displaying a gmail address on their literature but any e-mails they send out will still bear their Gmail sender address.

E-mail accounts
Domain names can be registered purely so the company or individual can use a domain name e-mail address to send and receive e-mails. A domain name e-mail address will be of the form someone@domainname.co.uk. The Domain name needs to be configured to point at an E-mail service provider (who may also host websites) or a free e-mail provider such as GMail who offer premium services where you can use your own domain name.

Check out our webpage Deciding on a Hosting company for what to consider and the different options available when deciding on a Hosting company for your website.

 

 

Michael Fowler

 

Other articles by Michael Fowler:

Deciding on a Webhosting Company - Michael Fowler
Review of a number of well known Webhosting Companies including Trustpilot review scores... more >>

Choosing a Webform provider - Michael Fowler
The advantages of using webforms compared with e-mail links, the features you should consider when choosing a webform provider with the recommendation that you consider Ireland based Aidaform

Website Builders - Michael Fowler
Review of a number of Website Builders

Free E-Mail - Michael Fowler
Discussion of the inadequacies of isp e-mail addresses and the free e-mail alternatives available.

Free Domain names - Michael Fowler
Discussion of the Pros and Cons of Free domains, popular free domains available and their suitability for different websites.

Free Hosting - Michael Fowler
The Pros and Cons of using free hosting. A review of the free hosting available in the early days of the internet (1990 - 2000) and the free hosting options available today.

Hosting Reviews - Michael Fowler
A listing of leading website hosting companies with links to Review centre and Trust Pilot reviews

 

Disclosure: Potential Communications is an affiliate of Just Host Me, Aidaform, D9 Solutions, Krystal Webhosting, Namesilo and Siteground * and receives a commission on purchases made through this website.