Domain Registrars

In the old days of the internet (just a couple of year ago, actually), there was only one place where you could purchase a new domain name. There was only one price as well. That place was Network Solutions and the price was $35 a year.

Network Solutions did not make it incredibly easy to manage your domain either. The web interface was clunky at best, and customer support was sp weak that it might as well not exist at all. Registering or managing domain names was no fun at all.

Everything changed when Network Solutions lost it's monopoly. Now things are much better - there are over 200 domain registrars.

With that many registrars to chose from, how do you decide?

Price - Very important, especially if you are going to register more than one domain name. However, if you are a typical webmaster then you are going to register a couple of names and renew them each year. Unless you have a very desirable name, we are not talking big bucks here. However, there is generally no reason to pay more than necessary for a domain name.

Management - Being able to manage your domain names via a web interface is, to me, a must. Out of all of the registrars that I have used, Network Solutions is the most primitive, requiring a complex series of emails in order to change anything. On the other hand, NameSecure has a very nice series of web management tools.

Again, I must stress this fact. In general, most webmasters will purchase one or two domain names directly from a registrar. In these instances, we are not talking about any major dollar outlays. In addition, as long as you can make the changes that you need, I don't think it's all that important how difficult or simple it is to make those changes.

So the advice is simple. Take a look at a few of the registrars, then just pick the one that meets your needs.

Of course, if you are speculating on domain names, buying and selling them as if they are commodities, then you will most definitely need to look at both price and ease of making changes.

GoDaddy: This is just about the most inexpensive domain registrar that I have ever seen. At the time of this writing they charge the phenomenally low price of $8.95 per domain (even less in bulk)!
NameSecure.Com: NameSecure is a standard registrar, offering a clean management screen. They are a little on the expensive side (slightly less than Network Solutions) but offer good customer service and their nice web management.
Network Solutions: The old standby - when all else fails you can be sure that you can purchase a domain at Network Solutions. Well, a .ORG, .COM, .TV, .CC, .WS and .NET domain, anyway. You will pay premium prices, the standard rate of $35 each year. Maintenance is awkward but not so bad as to be unusable.
Register.Com: This domain registrar also allows you to register quite a few foreign domains as well as the standard ones. They are expensive, however, offering no discount under Network Solutions price.

Other Domain Registrars

Alabanza, Inc.
AllDomains.com
All West Communications
Capital Networks
Catalog.com
CORE Council
Domaininfo.com
DomainPeople
DomainRegistry.com
DomainZoo.com, Inc.
Domain Bank, Inc.
Domain Direct
Domain Discover
Domain Registration Services
Dotster, Inc.
Easyspace, Ltd.
EnetRegistry.com
eNom, Inc.
FirstDomain.Net
Global Knowledge Group
Identifyourself.com
IHoldings.com, Inc.
InnerWise, Inc.
InterAccess Company
Internet Domain Registrars
Melbourne IT
NameIt Corporation
Names4Ever
NamesDirect.com
NameSecure.com
Network Solutions
Parava Networks, Inc.
ProBoardTechnologies
Register.com
Signature Domains, Inc.
Speednames, Inc.

Check Domain Name Availability