Glossary
What is a domain registrar?
The short answer
A domain registrar is the company you rent your domain name from, such as Namecheap, Porkbun, Cloudflare, GoDaddy or Squarespace Domains. First-year prices look similar, but .com renewal prices run from about $10 to $23 a year. Keeping your domain at a registrar separate from your website builder makes it easier to switch builders later.
What it means
You never truly buy a domain name. You rent it, one or more years at a time. The company you rent it from is the registrar.
The registrar keeps the official record that the name is yours, lets you choose where it points, and bills you every year to keep it. If you stop paying, the name eventually goes back on the market.
A registrar is not the same as a web host or a website builder. Many companies do all three, which is where people get confused.
How it works
There are three layers:
- The registry runs a whole ending. Verisign runs .com and charges a wholesale fee for each name: $10.26 a year, rising to $10.97 on November 1, 2026.
- ICANN, the body that oversees domain names, adds a $0.20 fee per registration, renewal or transfer.
- The registrar sells the name to you, adds its own markup, and gives you a dashboard to manage it.
So the floor price for a .com is the registry fee plus the ICANN fee. Anything above that is the registrar’s margin.
In the dashboard you set the domain’s nameservers or DNS records. That is how you point the name at your website builder, your host and your email provider, which can all be different companies.
Why it matters when you build a site
Renewal price. First-year deals are marketing. The renewal is what you pay for years. Here are .com prices from the registrars’ own pages:
| Registrar | First year | Renewal | 3 years at today’s prices |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cloudflare | $10.46 | $10.46 | $31.38 |
| Porkbun | $11.08 | $11.08 | $33.24 |
| GoDaddy | $0.01 (3-year purchase required) | $22.99 | $45.99 |
| Namecheap | $11.28 sale | $18.48 | $48.24 |
| Squarespace Domains | “$10” promo | Not shown on the page | Not published |
Cloudflare sells at cost, so its price comes from an unofficial tracker and should rise to about $11.17 after the November 2026 registry increase. Namecheap’s regular first-year price is $14.98. WHOIS privacy, which hides your personal contact details from the public lookup, is now free at Namecheap, Porkbun, Cloudflare and Squarespace Domains, so do not pay extra for it.
Control. Whoever controls the registrar account controls your website and email. Make sure the account is in your name, not a designer’s.
Leaving. If your domain sits with your builder, moving away means a domain transfer as well as a site move. If it sits at an independent registrar, you just repoint DNS.
How the big builders handle it
- Free first-year domain: Squarespace, Wix, WordPress.com, Framer (Basic and Pro), GoDaddy Airo and Hostinger include one with a qualifying plan, usually annual billing only. After year one it renews at the builder’s own rate, so check that price before you count on the freebie.
- Webflow lists no free domain; you connect one you own.
- Squarespace lets you transfer a domain away with an auth code. Its help center says new or recently transferred domains have a 60-day lock, a transfer can take up to 15 days, and the free offer does not follow the domain.
- Connecting your own domain works on Squarespace, Wix, Webflow, Framer, Shopify and WordPress.com, and every platform in our exit scores gets full marks for letting you keep your domain.
Common mistakes
- Letting a designer register the domain in their account. You can lose your own name if the relationship ends.
- Turning off auto-renew, then forgetting. An expired domain takes your site and email offline at once.
- Choosing on the first-year price. Compare renewal and the 3-year total.
- Paying for privacy. Most good registrars include it free.
- Trying to transfer right after registering. The 60-day lock will block it.
Related terms
- Web hosting: where the site files live, separate from the name.
- Email hosting: runs on your domain but is billed separately.
For the full picture, read domains and hosting explained.
Questions people ask
Is a domain registrar the same as a web host?
No. The registrar rents you the name; the host stores and serves the website files. Many companies offer both, but you can keep them separate.
What is the cheapest place to register a .com?
Registrars that sell near cost, such as Cloudflare ($10.46) and Porkbun ($11.08 to register and renew), are among the lowest. Compare renewal prices, not just year one.
Should I register my domain through my website builder?
It is convenient, but an independent registrar usually renews for less and makes switching builders easier, because you only repoint DNS instead of transferring the domain.
Can I move my domain to another registrar?
Yes. Remove the transfer lock, get the authorization code, and start the transfer at the new registrar. New or recently transferred domains are often locked for 60 days.
Why are .com prices going up?
Verisign, which runs .com, is raising its wholesale fee from $10.26 to $10.97 a year on November 1, 2026. Registrars pass that cost on.
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