10 Best Domain Name Registrars 2017 (Updated July)

Before you even start building your website, you need to purchase a domain from the best domain registrars, right? 

I think you can agree with me when I say:

It’s EXTREMELY difficult to find a simple, straight-forward registrar.

Most people will say, “Well, my host gives me one for free, isn’t that enough?”. The short answer is no.

Not all companies that sell domains have the same offers, features, ease of use or reputation. That’s why I’ve taken the time and research to give you the best domain name registrars.

Let me show you!

Below is a list of the best domain name registrars. We have used various different types of criteria to go over each website. Also, because I’m Canadian, I’ve included a list of Canadian Registrars within the reviews, Eh?

Hopefully with this list, I can help you find the Best Domain Name Registrar for your needs and answer the question of, Where is the Best Place to Buy a Domain Name in 2017?

American Registrars

• Name Cheap
• Bluehost
• eNom
• iPage
• GoDaddy

Canadian Registrars

• Canspace
• EasyDNS
• Webnames.ca
• Register.ca
• Web Hosting Canada

Look:
When looking for the best domain name registrars, consistency is key.

There are a lot of changes that happen often in the domain registrar industry. These may include including price changes, package changes, add-on features, and many other different variables.

The information indicated in this article is based on the time at which the article was last updated in the title description and is subject to change at any time.

In order to keep the information consistent, I will be using both the USD for the American Registrars and for my fellow Canadian Registrars, we will be using CAD.

Some of the companies that are mentioned have mixed services as well. Some offer hosting as well as domain registering, others are strictly domain registrars.

Registrars in the list may offer a free domain name if web hosting is purchased. We won’t be taking this into consideration, but will mention the companies that offer both.

Are all in one services better?

The difference between a hosting company and a strict registrar is that the hosting company may cost you more.

For instance, through a hosting company, the domain name for the year might be free at first then $15.00 per year after. With a strict registrar service, you may only pay $10.00 per year. More on that later.

Here’s the deal:

NOT ALL REGISTRARS ARE BUILT THE SAME

There are many different services that are offered by the Best Domain Name Registrars. Registrars may offer WHOIS protection, DNS Services, Domain Marketplaces, and even Web Hosting Packages.

Out of these different services provided, we are going to go over them one by one below to gather a better understand of what they mean and how they separate the best domain name registrars from the rest.

Domain Transfers

It is highly unlikely that you will want to transfer your domain as soon as you purchase it. There might be a time in the future in which you will want to transfer it to a different service.

This process is needed when moving from one registrar to another. Don’t confuse this with switching your DNS, that’s a different process.

The best domain name registrars make this process effortless without any penalties or charges.

Contract and Pricing – Renewal Rates

Have you ever found yourself wondering why companies charge different amounts for domain names?

There are premium domain names, .com, .ca, .org, .net, etc. and they all cost different amounts.

Then you start to wonder if I should buy the .com or the .ca or both… This can all be so confusing.

I know the feeling, I’ve been there. Let’s keep it simple.

Once you’re done this article, you will know where to purchase your domain name. I always buy both of the domains that I will be hosting (.com and .ca) to ensure that I have the country code that I’m associated with (Canada) and the .com standard as well.

If the .com is not available, you can reach out to the owner with a WHOIS search or wait for it to expire and purchase it.

The term of the purchase is important as well. I would recommend, if this is your first time purchasing, to only purchase one year.

You can turn on automatic renewal and ensure that your credit card is on file to process.

Customer Support – Live chat

High quality customer support is essential in 2017. The support staff at a domain registrar should always be by your side.

You would hate to be stuck on hold to talk to a representative if your website is down and you’re losing customers. We’ve all been there. Thankfully most registrars support have responsive Chatbots or 24/7 support.

In order to get a full understanding, read some reviews online (like this one) about previous experiences with the host you’re investigating.

Security

Security is an extremely important factor that tends to get overlooked when purchasing a domain. Hardening the security of your domain names is essential. There have been various registrar breaches, phishing and other hijacking.

Ensure your registrar employs a hardened portal that is always searching for security and code vulnerabilities.

Additional Services

Most registrars will offer additional services along with your domain purchase. If you’re looking for hosting, ssl certificates, backups, sitelock, then most domain registrars will be able to help you out.

If you’re looking for an all-in-one solution and prefer to keep all of your information aggregated, then you’ll want to compare the pricing of hosting packages from these companies as well.

Drop Catching

It’s a familiar story and it usually goes like this… My website is down. I don’t know why. My hosting was paid for, but I didn’t set up automatic payments for my domain. Then I try to register the domain and someone else purchased it… The nightmare. It leave you vulnerable and yourself or business in jeopardy.

Most domain registrars offer a service that holds onto the domain for you for a certain period of time to prevent this situation from happening. Your registrar should send out an email to ensure you’re privy to any domains that are about to expire, before it occurs.

Pricing Add Ons

Some domain registrars will add additional fees once you’re about to purchase your domain name. Most common are set up fees, ICANN fees, WHOIS guard / registration, premium dns and privacy protection.

Some will include these features for free and others will charge. Ensure you review the purchase prior to hitting the final checkout button.

Transfer Fees

You may want to switch your registrar in the future. If you sell off your website or domain, you may need to transfer everything to the new buyer. The question that will need to be asked is if there are any transfer fees associated with this process.

User Experience

Once you’ve purchased the domain name, there will be additional steps in order to get your website up and running. These include, DNS servers (if you’re purchasing hosting separately), installing a Content Management System like WordPress, and creating email accounts.

If the process isn’t simple and straightforward it can turn into a headache for the end user.

Why Does All of this Matter?

Because I want you to have the best experience when choosing the best domain name registrars.

Now that I’ve gotten all of that out of the way, let’s start ranking!

 

American Registrars

Namecheap

 

Namecheap was started in 2000 with mission to provide a high quality service mixed with value-priced domains. Currently, Namecheap is one of the best providers of domains in the industry with 3 million customers and over 7 million domain names under management. Not do they only provide domain purchases but also a marketplace to sell.

Their website is extremely easy to use, especially post-purchase with their domain management pages. They offer free WHOIS protection, DNS Service, Chat Support, and Large Knowledgebase. They offer SSL encryption (which is a norm for websites now), PremiumDNS services, and Private Emails for purchase.

.com domain cost $14.68

.ca domain cost $16.46

Namecheap, overall, is a fantastic domain registrar with many features to ensure your experience is flawless. With chat support and a fantastic knowledgebase, help isn’t far away if you run into any issues.

 

Bluehost

Bluehost is a well known hosting service that also provides domain name purchases. The company was started in 2003 and continues to empower people to fully harness the web and currently powers over 2 Million Websites and employs a team of over 750+ people.

Domain Pricing for Blue Host is transparent on their website. This includes Original Top Domains, Country-Code Top Level Domains and Generic Top Level Domains. All pricing is in USD. If you were to buy a hosting package, the domain names are included in their model.

Customer service is one of the best in the industry with 24/7 support as well as a money back guarantee.

 

eNom

eNom is an interesting name in the domain registrar world. They were founded in 1997 in the United States and was acquired by Tucows in 2017. Tucows is now considered the second largest domain name registrar and largest wholesale registrar in the world.

Domain costs for eNom are all in USD.

.com domain cost $13.95

.ca domain cost $17.95

eNom has 24/7 support via phone with a very intuitive backend. The ability to change your DNS, setup SSL certificates or add on security features is seamless.

 

iPage

Founded in 1998, iPage is a hosting provider and domain registrar with features similar to Blue Host. iPage has a simple to use process and is a freemium

24/7/365 customer support

30 Day Money Back Guarantee

.com domain cost $8.99

.ca domain cost $12.99

https://www.ipage.com/register/domains/

 

GoDaddy

Started in 1997, GoDaddy is one of the biggest player in the domain registrar industry. With over 71 million domain names under management, GoDaddy has a large piece of marketshare. GoDaddy is similar as they provide both domain registration and hosting services to their customers.

Some of the services provided by GoDaddy are Domain transfer, Domain Privacy, WHOIS Protection, Auction Services, and Domain Investor Services. GoDaddy provides excellent service to all of their customers.

 

Canadian Registrars

Canspace

Canspace was founded in 1998 and is one of Canada’s leading domain registrars. Their datacentre is located in Quebec which is powered by 100% green power and a proprietary cooling system that doesn’t use conditioning. What does that mean? Savings for all of their customers.

.com domain cost $14.75

.ca domain cost $9.75

EasyDNS

After a quick WHOIS search, the domain for EasyDNS was purchased on March 23rd 1998 and is located in Toronto. After being around for almost 20 years, EasyDNS provides a multitude of services including email, hosting and ssl certificates.

.com domain cost $15.00

.ca domain cost $15.00

The one area that EasyDNS lacks is usability and ease of use. When trying to search for a domain name, there was a prompt to login prior to viewing a price for a .com domain name. This can be concerning as a consumer may only want a quote for a domain rather than signing up.

 

Webnames.ca

Webnames is considered one of the first pioneering Canadian Domain Registrars who founded the country code .CA for Canadians. Currently, Webnames has registered hundreds of thousands of domain names and hosts thousands of websites.

With multilingual support for both English and French speaking individuals and response times under 30 seconds, Webnames gets customer service done right.

.com domain cost $12.65

.ca domain cost $9.99

 

Register.ca

With over 15 years of experience, Register.ca is a top domain registrar and hosting company. Located in Toronto, Register.ca is owned and operated in Canada. As a top domain provider, they provide 24/7 phone support for any issues that may come up.

Pricing for their domain names is extremely transparent via the below link:

https://register.ca/local/html/domain_pricing.htm

 

Web Hosting Canada

Since 2003, Web Hosting Canada has been providing hosting and domain services to thousands of customers. Web Hosting Canada is privately owned, and based in Montreal, Quebec.

They are new to the domain registrar space but have provided top quality 24/7 service to all of their customers and are expanding into the domain registrar space.

.com domain cost $12.99

.ca domain cost $9.99

After looking through the best domain name registrars, it is safe to say that any of these providers will be able to support your needs and help you through any issue you may encounter.

For more information about domains, hosting, SEO and other general website information, please check out my blog!