There are a ton of options when it comes to domain registrars, resellers, and brokers. Trying to decide which one to use can be overwhelming, and it may seem natural to use your web host to keep everything in one place. However, registering domain with your host can be a horrible idea, for reasons I’ll outline below.
Domains and Hosting - A Few Basics
Owning a blog or website involves two separate pieces, your domain and your host. It’s important to understand these elements for the most effective management of your site(s).
The domain is the address people use to get to your site. For example, Nuts and Bolts Media’s domain is nutsandboltsmedia.com. You can register a domain with any number of registrars or providers - basically you pay an annual fee to use that particular web address. If you stop paying, someone else can use the domain instead.
Website hosting is the service that actually stores your website’s files. If you have a free blog through Blogger or Wordpress.com, then your host is Google or WordPress, respectively. Self-hosted websites rent server space from a company that agrees to store your files.
Basically, you put your website’s files on your host’s servers, then tell your domain to point to those files when someone puts in your URL. It’s kind of like putting a SIM card in a cell phone - the SIM card tells that phone, “Hey, you work with this particular phone number now.” Just like you can switch out a phone’s SIM card and make the phone work with a different phone number, your domain can be set to work with a different web hosting service.
The Domain Registration Dilemma
When you set up hosting for a website, you can also register your domain through your host (most of the time). For a lot of people, keeping all your website stuff in the same place sounds like a good idea. You only have to keep up with one set of login information, and you know that your host’s technical support staff will make sure everything is configured correctly.
However, you also have the option to register your domain elsewhere and simply point it to your host. This is what I strongly recommend for a number of reasons.
Keep your domain in one place. If you ever get mad at your web host and decide to move your site, you’ll also probably want to transfer your domain if it’s registered with the old host. Domain transfers can be annoying, time-consuming, and confusing. But if you’ve registered the domain elsewhere, you don’t have to do anything except update your DNS settings to point to the new host.
Register all your domains together. You might be thinking, But I only have one website! That may be true, but for many of us, websites are addicting. For example, I own 45 domains right now. If I need to manage them, like when I transferred all my files to my new servers, I can just go to my registrar and mass update the DNS settings.
Added security. A few years ago, my dad’s website got hacked. Not only did the hackers destroy his site, but they also transferred his domain away from his web host and took it over. It took ages for him to prove ownership and get everything back. When your domains are separate, even if someone gets access to your files, your domains are safe (assuming you aren’t using the same login and password).
Recommendations for Domains and Hosting
As always, I recommend Namecheap for domain registration. They are awesome and have excellent customer service. They have a great search feature that will suggest alternate domain names if the one you want is taken.
As for hosting, I personally use Cloudways, but I’ll warn you - it requires a bit of technical know-how to get your cloud server configured correctly. If you’re not comfortable dealing with all the tech pieces, I highly recommend SiteGround.
No matter what domain registrar or hosting service you choose, be sure you understand what they provide, what it will cost, and how your site will be affected in the event of a move. You may think you’ll always stick with your current provider, but you never know what could happen in the future. Better to be prepared - assume the worst and hope for the best.
By registering your domains separately from your hosting, you’re ensuring a much easier transition if you ever want to take your money elsewhere.
I have used host Gatorade for hosting and they have been very helpful the couple times I needed help. I am sure I could get it cheaper elsewhere but 10 a month isn’t bad.
I wonder where this post idea came from.. 😉 I actually prefer bluehost over hostgator because the interface is a lot more intuitive (as far as I remember).
They both use cPanel, so it’s actually the same. Unless there’s something I’m missing?
The Hostgator Re-seller account is the only way to go.
The only reason I am going to continue to keep my
registrar separate from my hosting, is for security,
as you pointed out =)
Thanks for that info. I totally understand it, but here comes my question: What about SEO? I always heard it can be a disadvantage when you have domain and website host separated…it makes it more difficult to get higher in search engines? I know that my current website host won’t sell me SEO add ons, because I am not transferring my domain registrar to them. Is it just a marketing strategy or are there serious disadvantages coming to SEO when separate? Looking forward to your reply!
I don’t see how your domain registration could affect your site’s SEO. It sounds like your host is trying to push you to register your domains with them, which is definitely a marketing strategy, but I don’t know of any way that it would matter whether your domain is registered in one place or another. That has nothing to do with your content, the age of your domain, or any other ranking factors I can think of.
what is ur opinion about godaddy.com for buying domains ?
I have a lot of issues with GoDaddy as a company, but none really related to how they function as a domain registrar. I do think it’s crappy that they offer major discounts on an initial registration, yet renewal fees are often quite a bit more expensive than other registrars. That said, I’ve had several domains registered there in the past with no issues, but I transferred them out when I saw how expensive the renewals were going to be.
Thanks for this post - an excellent read and makes a lot of sense. This is the second time I’ve heard to use Namecheap for domain registration. Noooow, I’m going to have to look into it! Thanks again
I really like Namecheap (and not just because I got them to send me a t-shirt awhile back) - their support has been very responsive on the rare occasions I’ve contacted them, and I’ve never had any issues with registration or renewals. They usually always have some kind of promo code available too, which is a huge plus!
Informative, crystal clear even for noob like me.
Thank you very much.
You’re so welcome! Hopefully you’ll always keep your stuff separated and secured.
There are some good arguments here. Some others, I think, don’t make a difference.
Losing both sites and domains in one hack must be especially annoying. However, if you split hosting and domains into two accounts, you might also see it as doubling the risk of getting hacked at all, as now you’ll have two potential points of attack.
Likewise, my domain registrar might go bankrupt, or I could get disgruntled, just as likely as if it was also my host. Changing hosts is not much of a hassle, in my opinion. The truly annoying bit are domain transfers (hello ICANN, please, do something!), and if it’s the registrar I want to change, it’s not really any less annoying that if I had to change both.
I’m all for neat separation and going with the best provider for each single service, though. An additional factor is that most webhosts are not domain registrars themselves, they’re only resellers of an actual registrar. This additonal level of indirection can cause headaches in case of issues or transfers. It’s best to host your domains with an official registrar of whichever TLD you’re going with (see for example the ICANN accredited registrars list).
Some of the biggest resellers are eNom and PublicDomainRegistry. Many webhosts register domains with them, which is not always easy to find out, especially before purchase. I’ve had 4 domains with one a webhost, and found out through Whois that 3 of them were with eNom, one with PDR. I then transferred these to Namecheap which, even though they’re an accredited registrar, have put just 2 under their own umbrella, and registered the other two, seemingly randomly, with eNom. It can all get quite confusing.
I can sort of see your point re: two points of attack, though if someone manages to get both my login for my hosting AND the one for my domain registrar, I have much bigger problems than my websites - I use 2FA for both, so if someone has gotten past that, they likely have banking info, etc. as well. Scary thought! I’m far more paranoid about my domains, though, because I can always restore a website from an offsite backup, but getting domains squared away is a total hassle (as you mentioned).
Small-level domain resellers are definitely a potential risk, as often the site’s owner has no login to manage the domain(s), nor does s/he even hold the registration in a lot of cases. I’ve worked on way too many websites where I couldn’t even update DNS to move a site because a former designer or developer held the registration and all the login info. I’ve had a lot of luck keeping domain registration, hosting, DNS management, and email all separated; this came about after learning a lot of lessons the hard way.
Dear Andrea,
I would like to understand better how you separate DNS management and email?
How do you keep it ALL separate?
What do you separate?
Which services are you using?
I thought the DNS and email comes with the domain registration.
Here below from your comments -
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Thanks.
I register my domains with Namecheap, and my email is hosted there as well (it was previously hosted with Google Apps). I use DNSMadeEasy for DNS management and Cloudways for hosting.
So I register the domains with Namecheap, then point the nameservers to DNSMadeEasy. Any DNS records are added there, such as those to point the domains to my server or the MX records for my email. If I move my sites to another host, I don’t have to deal with moving my email, transferring domains, etc. since they are all in separate places. It makes life much easier!
Thank you and I wish I would have read this before I decided to transfer my domain and website
Hi Sandra,
Sounds like there may be a story there. I see your site is a new WP install on Siteground - what happened with your move? (If you feel like sharing, that is.)
Thank you for getting back to me. The only issue I had was I did not take into consideration that my site would be down during the transfer and that I would have to take additional steps to move the site because the domain is registered to wordpress and the site was hosted by wordpress. All is good now. The customer support team at Siteground is amazing and they respond quickly.
Hi,
I’m trying to start my own website. It’s currently on weebly but I’m thinking of moving it to Wordpress and was looking into using Sitegrounds as the host. However, I came across some very bad and negative reviews and was wondering what your thoughts with Sitegrounds. I also was asked to conduct a phone conversation with them. I was not free to do so but is that standard procedure? Do you know what they ask on the phone conversation? I’m afraid of falling for a scam.
Hi Shannon,
I have quite a few clients hosting with Siteground and they’ve all been very pleased. My experiences with their support on behalf of clients have always been great - I don’t see any reason to think it’s a scam at all. They do sometimes like to do phone calls when someone has questions, as many people find that easier than email or chat.
Ok. I got a bit nervous after I made the order and they wanted to call me to verify. I don’t know what they wanted to call me about but was hesitant to agree to the call. Do you by chance know what they may wanted to ask me in order to verify my order? As you can tell, I am very green to this process.
Also, they don’t have a monthly plan so I was resigned to order the yearly plan which was another reason for my brief panic.
I’m not sure, but you could always start a live chat with them and ask. They may need to verify billing information to be sure your order is legitimate or something.
Ok thanks for responding in such a timely manner Andrea!! Really appreciate it!
Hi Andrea,
I just registered a domain with godaddy. I wish to use a free web hosting service. All free hosting service providers that I checked out don’t seem to allow me to host my domain for free. They either want me to use a sub-domain under their main domain, or want me to take up their premium service.
Is there a way of hosting my website for free while retaining the domain name I registered with godaddy? Do you know of any hosting service providers that will allow this?
Unfortunately I don’t know of any free services that allow you the same options as a paid host. Most of the time, “free” hosting is designed to give you a very limited account to test things out with the option to upgrade to a paid account to actually use your site. I’d suggest taking a look at Siteground as they offer WordPress hosting for $3.95 per month for the first year.
Andrea, I read your article and appreciate your input. I’m a novice to websites and I have been doing some research. There is so much info it can be daunting. Anyway, after reading various articles, I’m leaning toward keeping my domain and websites separate. However, if I was to keep them on one site for convenience what site(s) would you suggest. I’ve looked at Arxive, bluehost, godaddy, inmotion, ipage, hostgator etc. I’ve also read your comments and would like to know if I’m a novice and want a simple yet appealing website that I can configure with my limited web knowledge, the choice is …. I know I’m asking a lot, but which you do you think is best for me. I guess simplistic/reliable yet I can grow with in the future. My business is service oriented right now (provide lawn, janitorial, minor home repairs/real estate investing and veteran advocacy). I appreciate your suggestions/comments.
Regards,
James M.
Hi James,
I’d recommend talking to the folks at Siteground - their WordPress hosting starts at $3.95 a month for the first year, and you can register a domain there as well. You’ll still need to find a WordPress theme that will work for your business, but there are many options available for free in the theme repository. If you can’t find a free theme that meets your needs, there are lots of premium themes you can find that don’t require a lot of coding to set up. All that said, even if you find a theme you like and it doesn’t require you to know how to code, you’ll still spend considerable time setting things up. It’s not hard but it can be very time consuming if you’re a beginner! Just plan to invest the time to get what you want and you won’t feel as frustrated while getting started. Hope that helps!
HI…what is your opinion about Google domains??
I don’t really have an opinion since I haven’t registered any domains there. I’m always hesitant to trust things to Google in general since they tend to discontinue services sometimes.
I purchased my site at a premium price from an eCommerce website seller. They designed the site to look the way I wanted, but everything else was decided by them. The “training” they provided is over now but I am still a lot in the dark.
My domain is registered with Namecheap. Hosting and email is from their provider.
( Earthgirl.com). I wanted to switch but so far I have found that most hosting services are actually more expensive than $15/month.
How can I determine what platform they used to build my site? Would that knowledge help me to maintain better control? Can you recommend additional steps that would put me more in control?
From what I can tell, your site looks to be a static site, meaning it wasn’t created with a particular CMS platform such as WordPress, Joomla, or Drupal unless it was a completely custom CMS. Did your training involve any sort of back end where you can log in and make changes? If so, it’s likely a proprietary CMS and I’m not sure you’d be able to host it elsewhere or get info about it without paying them for consulting time, unfortunately.
Yes, I do have a backend where I can login and make changes. The option of choosing a host was provided, but I just went with their host for convenience. Is there a host you know of who may have experience hosting a static site?
Hello Andrea,
Thank you for your great article, very informative. Unfortunately, I got my hosting and domain from the same provider. Now I am working on the site. I have installed WordPress, and I am wondering if I can create a testing environment (that is completely independent) with a different domain of my choice, for developers. Is there a way do that? as you mentioned for security reasons.
Thank you in advance.
Have you ever looked at DesktopServer? It allows you to create local sites on your computer that can be used for testing with no need to purchase a domain. I use it constantly for client work as well as testing changes to my own sites (review here). Once you get the hang of it, it’s super easy to use and their support team is pretty awesome if you run into trouble or have any questions.
vinay
im going to get a new domain name , im not going to build a website , i just want to own that domain name , so still i need to host that website to keep it in working condition??
You can own a domain without pointing it to a webhost. Generally in that case you’d be using your domain registrar’s nameservers - often that means the registrar will display ads on the domain, so if anyone happens to visit it, the registrar will earn money for the ad impressions. Otherwise, if you ever decide to build a site on the domain, it will display your content instead of the ads, but until then you can renew the domain registration indefinitely without ever using the domain for anything. Hopefully that helps!
vinay
Thanks a lot Andrea…