Cheap Domain Name Registration for Small Business

Owning your own business can be expensive (we know, preaching to the choir here). With that in mind, we at Business.org look for ways to help business owners save money wherever they can—which is why we’ve compiled a list of the most affordable places you can register a domain for your small-business website.

We’ve even broken down their affordability by category so you can choose the domain registrar that makes the most sense with your particular budget and needs.

Let’s get our thrift on!

Data effective 05/10/19. At publishing time, pricing and features are current but are subject to change.

1&1 IONOS: Most affordable overall domain registrar

1&1 IONOS is our pick for the best domain registrar out there—and it’s also the most affordable overall. Now, that doesn’t mean that 1&1 has the lowest registration prices (see GoDaddy below), but it does mean that 1&1 gives you the most bang for your buck. Its domains are competitively priced, and there’s no surprise jump in pricing when you renew and no hidden fees in general.

In fact, 1&1 IONOS comes with a lot of freebies: a free SSL certificate for your site, free WHOIS privacy (so no one can see your home address by looking up your domain registration), and a free custom email address—all things your website should have. Heck, 1&1 even pays the ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers—they keep the net organized) registration fee for you. Sure, that’s only 20 cents or so, but we’ll take it. Put simply, 1&1 IONOS is a great value and our pick for the cheapest domain registration.

Namecheap: Cheapest gTLD domains

Want to give your business’s web address a little flair and make it stand out from the crowd? When you’re choosing a domain name, forget .com and go with .pizza or .diamonds or one of the many other gTLDs (generic top-level domains) that have been released in the past few years—and get that gTLD from Namecheap, who offers the best prices on gTLDs from .app to .zone.

While other registrars also have low first-year registration prices for gTLDs, Namecheap easily has the best renewal prices (though, full disclosure, those renewal prices are still much higher than the initial domain registration cost). As an added bonus, Namecheap has the least-aggressive upselling we’ve seen, so you won’t get roped into spending more than you wanted to. If a gTLD sounds right for your business, go with Namecheap.

DreamHost: Cheapest domain/hosting bundle

Several of the domain registration sites on this list offer web hosting in addition to domains—many even offer a free domain when you get hosting services—but DreamHost offers the best deal with its dirt-cheap domain hosting/registration bundle. (DreamHost happens to be our pick for inexpensive VPS hosting.) DreamHost’s three-year shared web hosting starts at the same price point as a bean burrito, and its shared hosting plans include a free domain.

Now there are some conditions: this only applies to businesses willing to sign up for a one- or three-year hosting account, and that free domain registration is just for one year (after which you’ll have to pony up for the renewal cost). Also, the ultra-low hosting costs may go up a little to very-low hosting costs at the end of your plan. But for bundling hosting and a domain name, DreamHost is tough to beat.

GoDaddy: Cheapest first-year registration

Sometimes you need what’s cheapest now, even if it’s not the best overall and could cost you later (we call it the “college student eating Top Ramen” principle). And if that’s the boat you’re in—you just need the cheapest domain you can get today—then GoDaddy is your best bet. It offers cut-rate domain registration prices that you can’t beat anywhere else.

Sure, its prices go up a lot when you renew your domain, but you can always jump ship and transfer your domain somewhere else. Just watch out for GoDaddy’s aggressive upselling; if you’re not careful, you’ll end up with a pocketful of extras—and out the cash you’d hoped to save.

Dynadot: Cheapest .com renewal and transfer

But maybe you’re more of a long-term thinker (how admirable!). In that case, Dynadot might be more your speed. While its first-year pricing isn’t the lowest we’ve seen (though it is still competitive), Dynadot has the best renewal pricing for .com domains. So if you want to have an affordable domain for year two, three, and so on, think Dynadot.

Plus, Dynadot offers excellent domain transfer pricing. In almost all cases, its transfer costs are the same as its renewal costs. If you bought a domain elsewhere but want to escape hefty renewal fees, you can transfer that domain to Dynadot for a good deal. So whether you’re renewing or transferring your web domain, Dynadot’s good for the long haul.

Honorable mentions

Google Domains: Best for no-frills domains

Look, Google Domains doesn’t have the lowest prices on anything. What does it have, you ask? Just domains—which might be a great way to keep your costs down. While other domain registration sites constantly try to upsell you on everything from hosting to email accounts to security, Google Domains sells you just a domain. So if you want a straightforward registrar that won’t tempt you to overspend, try Google Domains.

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HostGator: Best for traditional TLDs

HostGator stands out in the domain registration world for offering only 15 TLDs (top-level domains)—mostly traditional extensions, like .com, .biz, .net, etc. That means HostGator could save you money on your domain name search, given that .coms and .nets tend to be far cheaper than newfangled extensions like .diamonds and .pizza. So if you want to keep things simple—and affordable—HostGator will steer you in the right direction.

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Name.com: Best for bulk domain registration

You can often get a discount on domains when you purchase them in bulk—and that’s something Name.com happens to be very good at. Name.com lets you sift through domains by category (the social category, for example, includes gTLDs like .club and .buzz) or by selecting the domain suffixes you want. If you plan to get multiple domains for your business site(s), then Name.com’s bulk buying might save you a lot of dough.

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Hover: Best for helping you choose

Hover has great tools to help you choose a domain name. That can help if your URL of choice has already been taken (ugh), but it can also help you find a cheaper alternative if you find out that your desired domain name costs big bucks. If you type in a domain you want (probably your business name), Hover will suggest both wording variations (like adding a “the”) and suffix variations—and you just might find one that saves you money.

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Domain.com: Best for protecting your site

Domain.com offers some great security features for your site, including upgraded SSL certificates, site backups, security scans, and domain privacy. While those will cost you a little extra, they could easily end up saving you money in the long run. Like they say, an ounce of site protection is worth a pound of hiring someone to fix your website after it gets hacked or accidentally broken. Let Domain.com save you money with extra security.

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FAQs about domain registration

What else can a domain registrar do for me?

Most domain registration sites can do a whole lot more than just register a domain or two. Registrars often offer web hosting (including shared, VPS, and dedicated hosting), custom email accounts, SSL certificates for your site—basically anything you need to create a business website.

In fact, many domain registration sites are web hosting services first, domain registrars second. Go figure.

What’s the difference between TLDs like .com, .me, and .pizza?

Well, they’re all valid domain extensions. But before you leave behind .coms forever, there are a couple things to consider.

Like professionalism. We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: you probably wouldn’t trust this ranking as much if it were housed at Business.pizza instead of Business.org. So think about whether or not a non-standard extension would work for your business. It’s one thing to be Dominos.pizza, but another thing entirely to be MortsMortuary.pizza.

Then there’s price. In theory, gTLDs like .pizza were created to give people more domain options. The catch? They cost a lot more than the supposedly scarce .com domains tend to. That’s not always the case—a highly desirable domain, like google.com, would probably cost more than a variation like google.pizza. But generally, gTLDs cost more than their traditional counterparts—hence our pricing charts including costs for both.

Finally, there’s search engine optimization. If you want your website to be findable via Google and Bing, you might want to stick with a .com website. At least for now, search engines tend to favor .coms and other traditional TLDs over new gTLDs.

But as long as you understand those considerations, there’s no reason you shouldn’t choose a funky TLD for your business. Have fun with it.

Does my domain registrar have to be my web host too?

Nope. You can buy a domain from any registration site you want and then make your website with a different host or website builder. So go ahead, register with 1&1 IONOS and then create a WordPress website, or buy your domain from Namecheap and build with Wix. Follow your heart.

Now, you will need to update your DNS (domain name server) to make sure your domain is properly linked to where your website is actually hosted. It’s an easy process that mostly involves a little copying and pasting, but the steps vary from registrar to registrar. But whatever registrar you choose should have a how-to guide (for example, how to connect a 1&1 IONOS domain with a WordPress site).

If you get stuck, just ask customer service.

The takeaway

Building a business website—whether you’re building a blog, an online store, or just a simple online presence for your brick-and-mortar store—shouldn’t cost you an arm and a leg. With our list of the cheapest domain registrars, you can snag a great deal on the URL of your dreams without skimping on quality.

So go ahead: get the perfect domain for your business website, whether it’s a .com or .pizza—with everything from .academy to .zip, you’ve got plenty of options.

Once you’re done registering a domain, check out our rankings of the best web hosts and our favorite website builders.

Disclaimer

At Business.org, our research is meant to offer general product and service recommendations. We don’t guarantee that our suggestions will work best for each individual or business, so consider your unique needs when choosing products and services.