Domain.com is a simple solution for buying domain names and building your online presence. It’s affordable, easy to use, and offers other integrated services—making it one of the best domain registrars on the market for varying use cases. Benefits like free SSL certificates and enhanced domain privacy and protection help provide security for yourself and your visitors. Overall, Domain.com is a great choice for anyone seeking domain registration services.
Compare Domain.com to The Best Domain Registrars
Domain.com is an excellent option for most website owners that plan to buy a domain and keep it for themselves. If you’re looking for a way to constantly buy and sell domains, it’s probably not the best option for your needs. The platform can operate strictly as a domain registry, or you can use its additional services for web hosting and design for an all-in-one solution.
While Domain.com is a top choice for many people, it won’t be the best option for everyone. You can see other top recommendations and Domain.com alternatives in our in-depth review of the best domain registrars:
- Hostinger – Best domain registrar for most
- Domain.com – Best for low renewal rates
- Porkbun – Best registrar for .com alternatives
- Network Solutions – Best way to register your domain for a century
- Namecheap – Best value with full identity protection
- NameSilo – Best domain registrar for locking down your brand
- Gandi – Most crystal-clear domain transfer guidelines
Our team researched and reviewed the top domain registrars on the market to narrow down specific use cases for each one. See all of our top picks.
Domain.com: The Good and The Bad
The Good
Affordable Pricing: Domain.com is one of the more affordable domain registrars. .Com domains are available for as little as $11.99, while .net domains cost $12.99. Some domains are available for as little as $2.99 per year, so you can choose the domain and price that’s just right for your needs.
Optional Domain Privacy + Protection: Domain.com offers domain privacy and protection services. With other domain registrars, your domain name is searchable in the WHOIS domain registry. Searchers can locate your name, address, and contact information. Domain.com offers WHOIS Domain Privacy, which protects your personal information, letting you control who can see your information through a search. Domain.com’s domain transfer lock provides additional protection to secure your domain. This helps to prevent unauthorized transferring or hijacking of domains so your site stays secure. These two services are available as a bundle for $8.99 per domain.
Multiple Hosting Plans: With the Basic web hosting plan, you can host one domain. Upgrading to the Deluxe or Ultra hosting plans will allow you to host unlimited domains. All plans come with the ability to host unlimited subdomains, so you can choose the plan that best fits your needs. If you take on a new website project and need increased capacity, you can upgrade your plan at any time.
Ecommerce Hosting Plans: Beyond general website hosting plans, Domain.com has a number of options for creating a high-quality ecommerce site. Not only does Domain.com make it easy to create an online store with multiple products listed, but it can help you with inventory management. Should you need to ship physical products to customers, the Domain.com hosting plan has tools that simplify the process of sending packages at the best rates. You also can set up your site to accept any of multiple payment options. This is a nice set of features, especially for a service provider that doesn’t specialize in creating ecommerce sites.
Free SSL Certificate: Domain.com offers free website SSL certificates. These certificates are an essential security investment for any modern website, and Domain.com uses Lets Encrypt Free SSL to provide them.
Plenty of Customer Service: Domain.com offers three customer support options. The Knowledge Base provides a broad selection of articles on helpful topics. Customer support is available by phone from 7:00 am ET to 9:00 pm ET, seven days a week. You can also get help via the site’s live chat function.
The Bad
Domain Privacy and Protection is an Extra Cost: While Domain.com offers domain privacy and protection, that protection comes at a cost. This service costs $8.99 per domain, which can quickly add up if you have multiple domains.
No Reseller Options: If you plan to buy domains to resell, then Domain.com isn’t the right fit for you. This domain registrar doesn’t have a reselling platform, leaving you on your own if you decide to resell any.
No Monthly Plan Options: Domain.com plans are available in 12-, 24-, and 36-month options. This has its benefits in that you can lock in pricing and minimize your renewals. But if you want a plan that’s just a few months long, you’ll be out of luck on this platform.
Domain.com Pricing and Options
Domain registration pricing depends on the particular domain that you’re interested in. Most .com domains cost $11.99 per year, while .net domains cost $12.99 per year. These prices are competitive with industry standards, and they’re affordable for anyone starting up a new website.
Domain.com also offers some value-priced domains that are just $2.99 per year. These domains might not be the most popular options, but they’re a highly affordable way to get started with a new website. They can also let you affordably buy up domains that could potentially compete with your chosen domain.
Premium domains cost significantly more. For example, the BestDomainHosts.com costs $999.99 to register for the first year, then renews at $21.99 after its initial purchase. While this premium pricing is steep, Domain.com does provide alternative domain suggestions that are more affordable.
Domain.com Website Hosting
In addition to domain registration prices, Domain.com offers affordable web hosting plans that include domain names. Three site hosting plans are available. The Basic plan includes everything you need to start a basic site, while the Deluxe and Ultra plans are suitable for larger businesses, developers, and growing operations.
The Basic plan starts at just $3.75 per month and offers unlimited storage, one website with one domain name, a free SSL certificate, and scalable bandwidth. It’s available in a 12-, 24-, or 36-month option, so you don’t have to worry about frequent renewals.
The Deluxe and Ultra plans are still very affordable, starting at $6.75 per month and $13.75 per month, respectively. They include unlimited websites and offer the scalability you’ll need to grow your sites and businesses. The Deluxe plan accommodates 25 databases and 25 FTP logins, while the Ultra plan offers unlimited databases and FTP logins.
These different plan options mean that not only can you register a domain, but you can also easily host it in one central location. Domain.com can accommodate most users with plans suitable for the most basic startup to the more ambitious business websites.
All plans offer unlimited storage and scalable bandwidth, as well as databases and FTP logins. While the plans lack some of the bells and whistles that you might find from a higher-cost host, they still offer the functionality suitable for many site owners.
All of the plans also include access to 24/7 customer support, helping to address problems and minimize any site downtime quickly. Also, Domain.com offers a 99.9% site hosting uptime, one of the best uptimes you’ll find from any site host.
While the hosting plans are largely comprehensive, it’s important to note that Domain.com’s website builder is offered as a different service with three paid plan levels. Other hosting services often include even a basic site builder for free, so be sure to account for this expense in your budget.
Domain.com WordPress Hosting
In addition to general website hosting, Domain.com also offers WordPress hosting. With WordPress hosting, you’ll enjoy a selection of popular WordPress themes that are mobile-friendly to help you get your site online faster.
Domain.com also automatically installs and configures your site with popular plugins. These plugins include W3 Total Cache and Jetpack, giving you a more functional site and saving you from manually installing these plugins.
The Domain.com customized control panel makes it easy to edit and develop your WordPress site. While Domain.com doesn’t provide the popular cPanel, this control panel is easy to use and serves as an alternative.
WordPress hosting plans start at $3.75 per month and include a free domain for one year. The WP Starter plan includes unlimited storage and bandwidth and the pre-installed themes and plugins, plus the customized control panel.
The WP Essential plan includes all of those same elements, but you’ll get access to 24/7 support from Domain.com. This plan also includes automatic malware removal and daily security vulnerability scans. At just $6.95 per month, the WP Essential plan is well worth the investment.
Domain.com Website Builder
Domain.com used to offer its own website builder, but has since decided to partner with Web.com to offer Web.com’s website builder to its customers, instead. And, it just so happens that Web.com is one of our favorite website builders for absolute beginners.
Web.com has continued to up its game and focus its efforts on creating one of the most effective and easy-to-use website builders on the market. And dare we say, they’ve done a pretty good job.
So, we can understand why Domain.com decided to partner with Web.com to offer a top-notch website builder to its customers.
Features like an AI builder, an intuitive drag-and-drop builder, and even templates to choose from to get started, guarantee that you’ll have a professional-looking website up in less time that it takes to brew a cup of coffee.
You can choose from four Web.com plans that all include its AI-powered site builder.
You’ll appreciate that Web.com also offers eCommerce plans—Online Store and Online Marketplaces—which both make it easy to start selling products and services across a variety of channels. It’s an affordable way to build out an ecommerce store, though it lacks some of the more advanced functions you would see when working with an ecommerce platform like Wix or Shopify.
Domain.com Email
Domain.com also offers business email options that can improve your credibility. It offers Google Workspace email. It no longer offers Microsoft 365 for new users.
With Google Workspace, your Google apps will be integrated with your account. This makes it easy to access Gmail, Meet, Docs, Sheets, and other essential apps. You can edit documents stored in the cloud through your Google Drive for easy collaboration.
Google Workspace subscriptions start at $6.00 per month per user, but Domain.com’s will often hold promotional offers that can reduce that price to just $3.00 per month. Plans are billed annually.
Google Workspace is available in three separate plans you can choose from: Business Starter, Business Standard, and Business Plus.
Features like instant message, email, and video chat keep teams connected, while Google Drive and Cloud sSearch ensure secure storage that’s easy to access. Many smaller businesses and startups can power their operations entirely off of the Business Starter Google Workspace plan. For larger enterprises, Business Plus is the way to go.
How Domain.com Ranks
Domain.com is easy to use and offers affordable domain registration plans. Perks like a free SSL certificate and optional domain privacy and protection allow you to customize the plans to suit your needs.
It’s important to understand that Domain.com is more than just a domain registrar. Its web hosting options make it an all-in-one solution where you can buy and host your domains. Upgrading to the website design options further enhance the platform, and its 99.9% uptime is among the best that you’ll find in website hosting.
While there are some downsides, like the lack of a domain reseller platform, Domain.com offers solid value for most, including new website owners and long-time business owners looking for an affordable platform. It’s our top pick for having affordable renewals. Hosting and domain registration bundling options, like Hostinger, are still our absolute favorite.
You can see other options worth considering in our review of the best domain registrars.
Domain.com is an excellent choice for a standalone domain registrar. In our list above, we give Hostinger the edge because you can get a domain and top-quality web hosting in one fell swoop.
But if all your site or web property is missing is a killer domain, then get one for a great rate (both now and upon renewal) with Domain.com.
