Consider Using a Web Host

Another option: Use your web host

As discussed above, experts disagree about whether you should acquire your domain name from your web hosting service or a third party. Web hosting services commonly charge $15 per year for .com names, but many bundle free or below-cost domains with hosting service. If you are choosing relatively expensive hosting services, as for e-commerce or other sophisticated business use, you are more likely to be offered free domain name registration.

A practical approach would be to choose your web hosting service first (see our report on web hosting). Then, you can decide if a separate domain name vendor like Namecheap.com makes sense. If the cost difference is only $6 per year, the choice may be a matter of comfort and confidence in your web host. Using one company is obviously simpler and cleaner.

Stability is important for a web hosting service, but much less so for a registrar. According to the mandatory agreement between ICANN and accredited registrars, if a registrar goes out of business, another accredited registrar will take over its customer base and become responsible for its registered domains. So even if your registrar goes under, your domain will still be registered and maintained, at least theoretically.

We didn't find any reviews of web hosting services or domain registration services that suggest leasing a domain from one service and choosing another as a host is common. Price differences are small in either direction. The top web hosting services we found charge between $10 and $12 per year for domain names. Netfirms.com offers a very inexpensive e-commerce web hosting service and includes two domain names with its base plan at $9.95 per month.

This is assuming you plan to set up a website right away, of course. If you merely want to register a domain name to reserve it for future use, then you can get a domain name pretty much anywhere -- from a domain registrar or a web hosting company -- then subscribe to web hosting when you're ready.