Choosing a domain registrar: 4 things to pay attention to

Are you thinking of creating a website and are you looking for the right domain registrar? We know that choosing a domain registrar can be a daunting task. With so many different registrars on the market, it can be difficult to find the best deal that is also the right fit for your business.

While you obviously want the best price on the market, it is also important to consider other values when choosing your domain registrar. Think of renewal prices, domain transfer and expiration policies, extra products for your domain, a friendly user experience, and good customer support. If you look beyond just pricing, it is more likely that you will find the domain registrar that is truly best for you.

In this article, we therefore go over four key points you should consider when you are choosing your domain registrar. We hope this article will be helpful for you to make the best choice for you and your company.

Renewal prices and extra fees

When you are looking to register a domain, you will often be bombarded with offers from domain registrars that are offering domains at extremely competitive prices. €0,99 for the first year of a .com registration, doesn’t that sound great?

However, there are usually some drawbacks to prices like this. If you are paying a very low price for the first year of a domain registration, you will likely be presented with a much higher renewal fee for the years that come after.

Moreover, many “cheap” domain registrars will add all kinds of hidden fees to the final price of a domain. These “administrative fees” or “service fees” tend to only pop up at the end of your transaction, when you already have your credit card in your hand. In the end, you may therefore end up paying a lot more for your domain than you expected. Always be sure to know the “real” price of a domain before you bite the bullet and purchase it.

Domain policies

While pricing is certainly very important, it is not the only thing you should look out for when you are choosing a domain registrar. When you are buying a domain, you likely want to keep it for multiple years. It is therefore important to do your research on the domain of your choice to anticipate any future plans or changes.

Important information to check for includes how many years you can register a domain (paying upfront for a multi-year registration is often cheaper!), and what happens if your domain were to accidentally expire because you forgot to renew it. Some registrars, including Openprovider, will automatically renew your domain as long as you have sufficient funds in your account. We will also send you a reminder email when the renewal date of your domain is coming up.

Do also take a look at the transfer policy of each domain registrar. In case you are not happy with the services of your registrar, it is possible to transfer your domain to a new one. However, this process can be more or less complicated with different registrars, so it is important to know what you are signing up for. You can find all about Openprovider’s inbound and outbound transfer information in our Knowledge Base.

“Extras” for your domain

Just buying a domain does not make a website. If you want to build a great website, there are a lot of other “bricks” that you will need. You can simplify your life by getting some or all of these bricks from your domain registrar.

Some of the most important products include security measures to safeguard your own and your customers’s data. Think of SSL certificates, Whois Privacy Protection, and Anycast DNS. Building a website usually also includes creating a business email account. Email scams lead to billions in damage every year, so it is a smart idea to add some protective measures to your corporate email account, such as spam filters or EasyDMARC.

Many domain registrars also offer package deals with hosting services and access to website and e-commerce store builders, such as WordPress, WooCommerce, and Shopify. Packages like these can be a great deal if you don’t want to deal with the billing and management of different services, and if you are certain you are going to use all of these services.

However, if you already know that you are not going to use some of the products in a package deal, you might prefer a more tailored approach. For some people, package deals are unnecessarily costly, and they can be difficult to opt out of if you decide that the deal is not for you. In these cases, you might prefer to “shop around” for hosting, email, and website-building services while registering your domain name elsewhere.

Openprovider is a great place to register your cheap, transparently priced domain name and get qualitative security products. With us, you are free to choose whichever hosting provider and website builder you would like, which makes it easier to find the best deal without getting stuck with unnecessary package services.

User experience

Lastly, before taking the plunge with your purchase, it is important to consider the user environment of the registrar you are considering. In many cases, you can already sign up and explore the platform or dashboard of the registrar of your choice, without buying any domain or service just yet. This gives you a good feeling of what it is actually like to work with the registrar you are considering.

Some questions to ask yourself include: Is the user platform clear and intuitive? Does it have all of the functionalities that you are looking for? Is there a FAQ or Knowledge Base with answers to any questions that you might have? The answer to all of these questions is yes for the Openprovider control panel, and we gladly invite you to take a look at it. Signing up just takes a minute!

This is also a good time to look into the support options of your chosen provider. Your experience with your registrar will hopefully be smooth, but you never know what might happen to your website, and you may well need some help in a potential future emergency. It is recommended to check which contact channels are available, what the working hours of the support team are, and which languages you can use to speak to them. Openprovider’s support team can help you in English, Dutch, Spanish, Catalan, Russian and Hindi!