When you are starting a blog or website, one of the first and probably the hardest step is to come up with a name for your blog. You don’t want to sound like a copycat – you would want to settle on a unique name that is easy to read and sticks in mind. But it doesn’t stop there. Once you have a good name for your blog, the next immediate step is to buy the domain name, preferably the .com version. In this article, I will talk about the pros and cons of top 4 domain registrars to buy custom domain name.

Best 4 Domain Registrars to Buy Domain

Namecheap

Namecheap is my go to recommended domain registrar service nowadays. The reason is simple – they have great prices. I have been able to purchase domains from Namecheap for as cheap as $1 for the first year! They also provide free email forwarding service.

Another great thing with Namecheap is that they also provide free WhoisGuard Privacy Protection. To buy a domain name, you need to provide your personal details like name, address, contact number, email id etc which goes into the public Whois database. This information can be abused by spammers and other malicious parties. Hence, a Whois Guard Privacy Protection is highly recommended if you buy a domain.

One thing I was not impressed with Namecheap is that they only accept Paypal and Credit Cards. This will make it impossible to buy from Namecheap if you don’t have either of those.

Pros of Namecheap

• Great prices for domain names.
• Free WhoisGuard Privacy Protection.
• Free email forwarding service.
• Good customer support.

Cons of Namecheap

• Domain purchase may be difficult because of lack of payment options.

GoDaddy

GoDaddy is an industry leader in internet domain names and they have presence in all major markets. The domains in GoDaddy is little bit expensive especially for renewals. However, they have deals running all the time. Their customer support is good however, in my personal experience, GoDaddy is quite aggressive with marketing and they might try call you and sell you other services that you may not need at all.

However, one of the advantage of GoDaddy is that they provide you with free Email inbox credits and free Email Forwarding service which allow you to have free email ID under the domain name. Also, unlike Namecheap, GoDaddy provides variety of payment options including internet banking, debit card etc. This is very helpful for people in developing countries where Credit Card or Paypal are not that common.

Pros of GoDaddy

• Free Email credits.
• Free Email Forwarding credits.
• Good customer support.
• Variety of payment options.

Cons of GoDaddy

• No free Domain Privacy Protection.
• Little expensive.
• Marketing calls.

Gandi.net

You may have never heard of this domain registrar Gandi.net and that’s probably because they have never spent a single penny in mass advertising like usual businesses. However, that doesn’t change the fact that Gandi.net is one of the well reputed domain registrar in the industry.

Gandi.net provides 2 free standard mailboxes with upto 3GB storage and unlimited aliases and forwarding for each domain you have with them. They also provide free domain privacy.

Gandi.net also provides variety of payment options including Bitcoin!

Pros of Gandi.net

• Free domain privacy protection.
• 2 free mailboxes with each domain.
• Free email forwarding.
• Variety of payment options.

Cons of Gandi.net

• Little expensive compared to the rest.

Google Domains

Google is a name that you can never forget. They also run a pretty good domain registrar service under the name Google Domains. The best thing about Google Domains is they have a very easy to use interface and provide easy integration with popular platforms like Blogger, WordPress, Shopify etc.

Google Domains also provide free domain privacy protection without any additional costs.

The payment option in Google Domains is limited to Credit Cards and Debit Cards only.

Pros of Google Domains

• Free domain privacy protection.
• Easy interface.
• Free email forwarding.

Cons of Google Domains

• Little expensive.
• Limited payment options.

Conclusion

I highly recommend you to buy a domain name before you commit yourself to blogging. This is important, because you don’t want some domain squatter buying the unique name of your blog once before you do. If you let that happen, you’d end up paying thousands of dollars to the domain squatter when you could have bought the domain for just around ten bucks!

I hope you found this article helpful to find the best domain registrar to buy a domain for your blog. If you have any comments, feedbacks or questions, feel free to write down below.