When you buy domains for a site you intend to host, you are buying a yearly registration and the account that controls it, and the decision is smaller than the search results make it look. There are two routes. You register the name at a registrar and point it at whichever host you choose, or you take the domain the host bundles into a hosting plan and let one company hold both. The registrar route costs a little more attention at setup and keeps the name portable if the hosting disappoints you. The bundle route is fewer logins and is free or close to free in the first term, and the price of that convenience is that the name and the server sit behind the same account and the same renewal invoice. Whichever route you take, the number that decides it is not the price on the checkout button: it is the renewal price the registrar prints for year two, plus whatever it charges for privacy and for letting you leave. This page prices both routes and names the traps, and the hosting and domain guide on this site sets out how the bundle is billed when the hosting renews with it.
Registrar or the host's bundle
A registrar sells the registration and nothing else, so its renewal price is the whole product and it competes on that number. At cost registrars such as Cloudflare Registrar, Porkbun and Namecheap are the usual comparison here. A host that bundles a name into a plan is selling hosting and giving the registration away for the first term, which is a real saving as long as you read what happens at renewal and whether the name is registered in your name or the host's. Keep the two purchases separate if you expect to move hosts, or if a client rather than you owns the site: a name held at an independent registrar can point at a new server the same day, without a conversation with the host you are leaving.
The first-year price is not the price
Registrations are sold on a first-year price and renewed at a standard rate that is often several times higher, and extensions outside the common ones are where the gap is widest. Before you check out, find the renewal price for the exact extension, not the headline figure for the registrar's cheapest one. The same reading applies to the hosting the name is bundled with. Hostinger's $2.99 Premium entry price requires a 48-month prepay of $143.52, and Hostinger Premium renews at $10.99 a month after the prepaid term, so a free domain inside that plan is free for a term you have already paid for in full and is priced normally once the plan renews. Multi year registration is worth considering only when the multi year price is the renewal price rather than the promotional one.
A worked example: one name over five years
Compare two checkouts for the same name. Registrar A charges 11 dollars for the first year and renews at 21 dollars, so five years is 11 dollars plus four renewals at 21 dollars, which is 95 dollars. Registrar B charges 9 dollars for the first year and renews at 45 dollars, so five years is 9 dollars plus 180 dollars, which is 189 dollars. The cheaper checkout is 94 dollars more expensive over the period you will actually own the name. Add privacy if it is charged: 10 dollars a year at registrar B is another 50 dollars across the five years, and nothing at a registrar that includes it. Price the name over five years, because you are not buying a year of a domain, you are renting an address you intend to keep.
Transfer lock and WHOIS privacy
Two settings decide how free you are after checkout. ICANN's transfer policy lets a registrar refuse a transfer away for 60 days after the registration, and applies a further 60 day lock after a change of registrant, so a name bought today cannot be moved immediately no matter who sold it: register at the place you want to keep it. WHOIS privacy replaces your name, address, phone number and email in the public record with a proxy. Some registrars include it at no charge for the life of the registration and some bill it every year, so check which before you compare prices, and check that the registrant contact is your own email address rather than an agency's, because that address is what proves the name is yours.
What to check at checkout
Confirm the extension's renewal price, whether privacy is included or billed, and whether auto renew is on with a card that will still be valid next year, because an expired card is the most common way a working site loses its address. Confirm the registration is in your legal name and your email, not the agency's or the host's. Turn on registrar lock, keep two factor authentication on the account, and note the renewal date somewhere outside that account. If the name came free with hosting, write down what it renews at and when, so the decision to stay or move is made on a price you already know.
Questions people ask about buy domains
Should I buy the domain from my host or a registrar?
Buy it from a registrar if you may change hosts, if a client owns the site, or if you want the cheapest renewal. Take the host's bundled name if you want one login and one invoice and you have read its renewal price.
Why is the renewal so much higher than the first year?
The first year is a promotional price the registrar sets to win the registration; the renewal is the standard rate for that extension. Compare registrars on the renewal, because that is the price you pay in every year but the first.
Can I move a domain I have just registered?
Not straight away. Under ICANN's transfer policy a registrar may block a transfer away for 60 days after registration, and a change of registrant starts a further 60 day lock, so choose the registrar you want before you check out.
Do I need WHOIS privacy on a business domain?
It is worth having on any name registered to a person or a home address, since the alternative is publishing those contact details. Check whether your registrar includes it or charges for it yearly before comparing checkout prices.