01What a domain should cost
Every .com has a wholesale price set by Verisign, the .com registry, plus an ICANN fee. Openprovider reports the Verisign fee rising from $10.26 to $10.97 a year on November 1, 2026, with ICANN's fee at $0.20. No registrar can sell a .com renewal below that without losing money, so anything far cheaper is a first-year promotion.
Other extensions vary widely: .org and .net cost similar amounts, while .io, .ai and .dev usually cost more and some new extensions renew at many times their first-year price.
02Registrars compared
| Registrar | Pricing approach | Good to know |
|---|---|---|
| Cloudflare Registrar | At cost, no markup | Must use Cloudflare nameservers; 430+ extensions |
| Namecheap | Low first-year and renewal prices | Free lifetime privacy on most extensions |
| Porkbun | Low, transparent prices | Free privacy and SSL |
| Squarespace Domains | Higher renewals | Took over Google Domains customers in 2023 |
| Website builders | Often free for year one | Renewals usually higher; harder to move |
03Cloudflare Registrar
Cloudflare says its registrar charges at or below what registries and ICANN charge it, with no markup and no inflated renewals. The catch, from its FAQ, is that all domains on Cloudflare Registrar use Cloudflare nameservers; to use other nameservers you must move the domain elsewhere. For most sites that is fine, since Cloudflare DNS is free and fast and you can still point records at any host. Namecheap vs Cloudflare compares the two in detail.
04What to check before you buy
- Renewal price for the second year and beyond.
- Free WHOIS privacy, so your name and address are not public.
- Two-factor authentication on the account.
- Auto-renew, with a card that will not expire.
- Easy DNS editing and transfer-out without fees.
- No forced bundles of hosting, email or "SEO packages".
05Should you buy it from your website builder?
Builders often include a free domain for the first year. It is convenient, but renewals tend to be higher, and the domain ends up tied to the platform you may later leave. Buying it separately and connecting it keeps you in control; do I need hosting if I have a domain? explains how the two fit together, and what is a domain name? covers the basics.
Whichever registrar you choose, renew early and keep your contact email current. What happens when a domain expires? explains what is at stake.
06How to buy a domain, step by step
Buying takes five minutes, but a few checks first save trouble later.
- 1Search for the nameShort, easy to spell and easy to say out loud. Avoid hyphens and numbers people have to explain.
- 2Check trademarksSearch the name with your country's trademark office so you are not building on someone else's brand.
- 3Compare renewal pricesLook at year two, not just the first-year offer.
- 4Buy and secure the accountTurn on two-factor authentication, WHOIS privacy and auto-renew straight away.
- 5Point it at your siteAdd the DNS records your host or builder gives you.
What people who tried it say
Hacker News users praise at-cost and low-markup registrars and share warnings about account suspensions and expired domains being grabbed, which is why many spread risk and turn on auto-renew.
- Introducing Cloudflare RegistrarHacker News
Commenters welcomed wholesale pricing and compared it with low-markup registrars like NameSilo, hoping for broad extension coverage.
- Namecheap just seized and disabled all my domainsHacker News
A user describes all their domains being disabled; replies share similar stories and advice to keep important domains with a registrar you trust.
Looking for more first-hand opinions? Search Reddit for “where to buy a domain”. We link the live threads rather than summarizing them, so you read them in full.
Our take
use Cloudflare Registrar if Cloudflare DNS suits you, otherwise a low-markup registrar with free privacy. Never pick on the first-year price alone.
Where this falls short
Prices change, especially renewals, and registrar experiences vary by account. The .com wholesale figure comes from industry reporting of Verisign's notice; check the registrar's checkout for the actual total.
Orlume gives every site a free name.orlume.site address, so you can publish before buying a domain; custom domains are part of the Pro plan. The free plan includes 10 message credits.
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Sources
- 1.Cloudflare Registrar · Cloudflare
- 2.Registrar FAQ · Cloudflare Docs
- 3.What the .com price increase in 2026 means · Openprovider
Researched and written by the Orlume team · Updated October 2026
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