How to Buy Your First Domain Name: Step-by-Step Guide (2026)

Start at a registrar's search box, or at our domain name generator, which checks a keyword across several extensions at once. Type the exact name you want, for example mybusiness.com. The result shows whether it is free to register and suggests alternatives if it is not.

Tips for choosing the name:

• Keep it short, ideally under 15 characters before the extension.
• Make it easy to spell after hearing it once.
• Avoid hyphens and digits.
• Prefer .com if a good one is free; use your country's code if you serve one country.
• Check that the matching social handles are available.

If your first choice is taken, try a different extension or a small modifier (getmybusiness.com). How to choose a domain name has the full checklist, including the trademark search you should run before buying.

If the name has been registered before, find out what it was used for. Our WHOIS lookup shows, for a registered name:

• When it was created and when it expires.
• Which registrar holds it and which status codes are set.
• Which nameservers it uses.

Since 21 August 2025, ICANN's Registration Data Policy has registrars redact the owner's name, street address and phone wherever data protection law applies, so you will usually see the registrar and the dates rather than a person. What WHOIS is explains each field.

For a name that was used before, check the Wayback Machine (web.archive.org) to see what the site looked like. Walk away from names previously used for adult content, spam or malware.

For a brand-new name there is no history to check, and the lookup simply shows it as unregistered.

A registrar is the company that manages your registration. Compare them on the price you will pay every year, not the first-year offer. Five years of a .com is the first year plus four renewals; at Porkbun, on prices read on 16 October 2026:

Three registrars we cover, and what distinguishes them:

EuroDNS: its site lists over 1,000 TLDs, with particular strength in European country codes. WHOIS privacy is a paid add-on, listed at EUR 5.00 a year on its site on 16 October 2026.

Cloudflare Registrar: says its prices are "at or below what registries and ICANN charge us", so renewals carry no markup. Domains registered there must use Cloudflare's nameservers.

Namecheap: a mainstream choice for beginners, with live chat support and free WHOIS privacy according to our registrar data.

For an online shop, Shopify can register a domain inside its commerce platform.

Our registrar comparison lists more registrars' published prices side by side, and domain registration cost 2026 compares them on five-year cost.

Once you have chosen a registrar and found your domain:

1. Add the domain to your basket and choose the period. One year is standard; several years locks in today's price.
2. Keep free WHOIS privacy on, or decide whether a paid one is worth it; WHOIS privacy explained covers that.
3. Decline the add-ons you do not need yet: premium DNS, email hosting, SSL certificates and site builders can all be added later. Most hosts issue a free SSL certificate.
4. Create your account with a password manager and turn on two-factor authentication straight away.
5. Pay, by card or another method the registrar accepts.
6. Verify your email address promptly. Under ICANN's 2013 Registrar Accreditation Agreement, if the registrar gets no affirmative response within fifteen calendar days it must verify your details manually or suspend the domain.

Then turn on auto-renew and check that the transfer lock is on (a WHOIS lookup shows clientTransferProhibited). Losing a domain because a card expired is the most common avoidable mistake. How to register a domain name in five steps explains the rules behind each of these steps.

Your domain is registered but does not point anywhere yet. Connect it to your website in one of two ways:

• Change the nameservers to the ones your host gives you. The host then manages all the records. This is the usual route for Hostinger, Cloudflare and most managed hosts; if you use Hostinger, the nameserver values are in its dashboard.
• Keep your registrar's DNS and add records: an A record for the root domain pointing to the host's IP address, and a CNAME for www pointing to the host's hostname. Your host's setup page lists the exact values.

If you use Shopify: add the domain under Settings, Domains in your Shopify admin and follow its instructions.

How quickly a change reaches everyone depends on the TTL of the old records, from minutes to a day or so. You can watch it spread with a global DNS checker.

Then set up email if you want addresses at your domain; business email on your own domain covers the MX, SPF, DKIM and DMARC records. For the record types in detail, follow our tutorial on how to set up DNS records, or read what DNS is and how it works.