How Much Should You Pay?

Domain Names

When it comes to registering your domain name, like badkittystudios.com,  how much should you pay?  There is a wide price range available, from $7.00 per year to $37.00 per year.  Most companies price domain names between $10.00 and $12.00 for a dot com.  Dot com domains are the most popular and fall in the middle when it comes to price.  Take a look at this website to compare domain registration prices: www.domparison.com.

So far, I have not found any advantages to registering a domain for $37.00 instead of $10.00.  I think companies just charge whatever they want, or think they can get away with.  My favorite scam is the company who sends me a postcard annually saying that they can renew my domain for only $49.00 a year! And here is an article about these lovely folks: Domain Registry of America Scams.

What do all of those extensions mean?

Below is a list of common domain name extensions and what they were originally intended to be used for.  These days, the dot com is most popular, followed closely by dot net and dot org.  Many businesses register the same domain name with these three most popular extensions to ensure that another business won’t take them.

• .COM (Commercial) This one was originally intended to be used for commercial businesses
• .NET (Network) This one was to be used to network websites
• .ORG (Organization) The dot org is self explanatory, to be used for organizations and non-profits
• .BIZ (Business) The second domain name that can be used for businesses, other than the dot com
• .INFO (Informational) Mostly used for information based websites
• .MOBI (Mobile) Dot mobi is intended for mobile device websites
• .TV (Television) TV, video, and media may use this extension
• .WS (Website) This is a less common extension, used for websites in general
• .ME (ME) For personal, blog, and family or private group sites this is a fun one
• .US (United States) As most countries have extensions specific to them, this on is for the US
• .CA (Canada) The extension specific to Canada
• .CO.UK (United Kingdom)  Most countries have their own domain extension, so there are many domain types that can be registered

Hosting Companies and Prices

Like domain names there is a huge range in what a company will charge to host your website.  For basic hosting the lower end is around $4.00 per month and it goes all the way up to $19.99.  When you look at that amount over a year, you can either pay around $50.00 or $240.00, that’s a big difference!  Always purchase hosting for at least a year because you have to register your domain name for a year.  Most hosting companies will give you a discount if your sign up for a whole year.  I wouldn’t recommend going with a company that doesn’t have a twelve month option, or that forces you to pay every month.  This website on Hosting Reviews has a lot of information and customer reviews on some of the popular hosting companies.

To be practical about it, for a simple informational or e-commerce website, hosting should be between $50.00 and $70.00 per year.  Your domain name in any of the three popular extensions should be around $10.00 per year.  These are reasonable prices and what you should be shopping for when looking at domains and hosting.  If you are planning on running a website like Amazon.com, that’s a different story. However, your domain should still be about $10.00!