Top 5 best domain name registrars comparison, NameSilo or NameCheap

To create your website, you need a domain. It is not only a name but also an address on the internet for your website, guiding visitors on how to find you. Once you have a fantastic domain name, you need to buy it from a domain registrar. There are various TLDs (Top-Level Domains) like .com, .net, .org, and more. But which one is the best? And where is the best place to buy a domain name?

In this article, I will compare the top 5 best domain name registrars. I will cover prices and fees, security, customer service, refund policies, and other features. You will find what you need after reading this article.

Why ‘.com’ TLD is The Best for Domain Names?

‘.com’ is a common TLD type registered by people, and for several reasons, ‘.com’ names are often considered the best. Here are two reasons why:

• If you choose a .net, .org, or other domain extension by mistake, some repeat visitors may not be able to find your domain if they haven’t bookmarked your site. This is because xxx.com is the default type in most people’s minds. As a result, you could lose traffic and even customers.
  • For example, WordPress uses wordpress.org (wordpress.com is a different site), but not everyone is as well-known as WordPress, and being an open-source software, they are less concerned about this issue.
• Imagine you’ve worked hard and made your website popular, attracting around 25,000 visitors or more a month. Due to the first reason, some of your hard work may benefit someone else who owns the same name but with a .com extension.

I think you now understand why .com is so important, even for small websites. Additionally, if your site becomes successful, a .com name will make it easier for you to maintain that success.

So where is the best place to buy a domain name? Which is the best domain name registrar? There are hundreds of domain registrars on the internet, making it hard for beginners to choose correctly. Fortunately, most domain names are not expensive, typically ranging from USD 8 to USD 15 per year. Even if you buy from a less reputable registrar, you won’t lose much. However, there are some registrars with much higher prices, around USD 25 to USD 35, which you can generally avoid.

Comparison of Essential Features

I chose 5 top best domain name registrars on the web, there are the most popular ones too, We also used them, but we are using NameSilo and NameCheap now,

first, let’s check the table which shows the comparison of the key features below, Please note that these prices in the table are approximate and may vary depending on promotions and specific features you choose:

Registrar	Namesilo	NameCheap	Domain.com	Chemicloud	Google Domain (Squarespace)
Registration price for TLD “.com”(USD)	$13.95/year	$10.28/year	$12.99/year	$15.95/year	$12/year
renewal price (USD)	$13.95/year	$13.98/year	$12.99/year	$15.95/year	$20/year
No ICANN or transactions fees		$0.18/year	$0.18/year
Lifetime FREE WHIOS Privacy			$8.99/year	$3.95/year
Offers DNSSEC (Protect your domain from attacks such as DNS cache poison and DNS spoofing)		$4.48/year	Pay extra
Contacts phone number
Contacts Live Chat
Accepts major credit card
Accepts Paypal
Accepts Bitcoin
Easy and friendly Dashboard
registration refund policy	You can cancel a domain registration within 3 days on Namesilo, but only once per account.	New domain name registrations may be refundable within 3 days, at the sole discretion of Namecheap	New domain name registrations may be refundable within 5 days, you need to cotact the Customer Support	don’t accept cancellation	you can open a ticket or chat with Google within 3 days after purchase, but they only give you 3 times cancellations in 1 year.
Offers other Services?	• Web hosting, • API, • Reseller, • Business Email	• Web hosting, EasyWP • Website Builder, • Reseller, • Business Email	• Web hosting, • Website Builder, • Reseller, • Business Email	• Web hosting, • Website Builder, • Reseller, • Business Email	• Online Store website Builder • Google Workspace
Go to Website	Namesilo	Namecheap	Domain.com	Chemicloud	Squarespace

The above list showed that NameSilo almost won most of the features, that’s why we manage most of our domains at Namesilo, and it is the best domain name registrar we ever used.

1. NameSilo

Namesilo is once one of the best and cheapest domain registrars on the web, offering .com domains for only $8.99 per year a few years ago. However, their prices have increased to $13.99 per year in 2024 due to industry-wide price hikes. These prices may change again in the future. Despite the increase, Namesilo’s domain registration fees remain competitive compared to many other registrars.

I can’t find any shortcomings except for the old account dashboard. I think Namesilo may update that in the near future, especially since they already have a brand-new front end.

2. NameCheap.com

NameCheap is another popular and affordable domain registrar. When you search for domains, you will easily find them offering very low prices. New buyers can get a discount when they register a domain on NameCheap for the first time.

While not the cheapest domain name registrar, Namecheap is still a good choice for you.

As a domain registrar, Namecheap also offers web hosting at very low prices. If you purchase an annual hosting plan, you can get a free domain with certain TLDs.

3. Chemicloud Domain

ChemiCloud is relatively new to the domain and hosting industry, having been established in 2016. However, they’ve experienced rapid growth. Initially focusing on web hosting, in 2023, they expanded into domain registration services. Their prices are moderate—not too high, not too low. However, their web hosting services truly excel. In less than a decade, they’ve accumulated over 500,000 customers.

While ChemiCloud’s hosting includes free DNSSEC, they do charge an additional fee for WHOIS privacy， Without this fee, they excel in all other aspects.

4. Domain.com

When you see the name DOMAIN.COM, you’ll immediately know their business—they’re domain name registrars who also offer web hosting services for building sites. They provide affordable prices for domain registration.

The final price is a little bit higher if you register domain on Domain.com, but if you subscribe their web hosting plans, you can get free domain for first year, and they offer a very excellent web hosting and website builder service.

5. Google Domains (Squarespace)

In June 2023, Google announced that it would be selling its domain registration service, Google Domains, to website building platform Squarespace for $180 million. The deal was completed on September 11, 2023.

So, go to squarespace to get more details.

Although Google is one of the biggest IT companies in the world and is well-known to people, the Google domain should be a very new business.

Google Domains is the second best domain name registrar I ever used, although they only accept credit cards, and the price in Google Domains should be in the medium place, not very high, and affordable to anyone.

Pricing and Additional Fees

The first-year prices among different domain registrars may appear similar, But the variation becomes significant if you plan to purchase multiple domains or register them for several years.

Many domain registrars lack transparency in their pricing, making it difficult for users to understand the true cost. Upon adding domains to the cart and proceeding to checkout, customers often discover additional charges for essential features, leading to frustration due to hidden fees.

Among the top five domain registrars, NameSilo and Google Domains stand out for their upfront pricing without any hidden fees. NameSilo, in particular, is known for being the most affordable registrar. Moreover, both NameSilo and Google Domains offer additional advantages:

• The price you see is the price you will pay;
• No constant bombardment of ancillary service offerings;
• No additional fees for things like privacy, DNS management, parking, web forwarding, and enhanced security;
• No hidden charges such as ICANN fees, renewal upcharges, and processing costs

Actually, most of the registrars will often offer some discount to buyers for 1 year (so the first row of pricing may be changed in the above form), but they will resume the regular price for renewal.

Honestly, the first domain name I bought was from Godday, and I bought some other domains from them too, then I transfer to Namesilo, the google price is transparent, what you see is how much you pay, and lower price, so I use NameSilo manage my domains now.

In this section, NameSilo is the winner.

Security for Domains and Account

Almost any websites have several layers for account security and protection nowadays, so you basically don’t worry about it if you had any account on the above 5 registrars, they are famous and professional with technical.

The security that we are concerned about is a domain, like WHIOS privacy and DNS, WHIOS privacy includes the owner’s personal information, and DNS is about the safety of the domain. We can see the winners are NameSilo and Google Domain, they offer lifetime WHOIS privacy protection and DNSSEC for DNS security. Namecheap offers lifetime WHOIS privacy protection too, Actually Domain.com and have these services too, you need to pay for some of them.

Free or Paid for security, which one is better, you can make a decision.

Customer Service and Payment Methods

Good customer service is also a factor that affects buyers’ choose a domain registrar, but it is not so important unless you have a big business with the registrar, if you can get in touch with them quickly, I think that’s really awesome when you encounter some issues urgently. after checking all the above 5 registrars, they have quick ways for you to contact their customer service except NameCheap only have chat methods, all are the winner.

Payment methods may be also a reason to stop the buyer from the door, a Credit card is popular and can be used in most places in the world, but it is not the exact payment method that anyone can use for payment in any place. so if the registrar has more payment methods, they may get more buyers from more countries, and the buyers are easy to pay for the domain.

NameSilo offers a variety of payment methods, including special options tailored to specific countries. This accessibility makes it easy for people in those regions to purchase domains. Additionally, NameSilo stands out by accepting Bitcoin, an electronic currency.

However, it’s worth noting that all five registrars, including NameSilo, offer credit card and PayPal as payment options, which are the most popular methods, covering approximately 90% of users.

Policies and Features

✦ Refund and Cancelling order

Sometimes, You buy a domain, for some reason, you may want to cancel an order and get a refund from the registrars, if they can offer this service, that’s really good for you.

I tried canceling and refunding from Namecheap, NameSilo, and Google domain, 3 of them offer 3 days period after you paid the order for you to cancel the order or get a refund.

• The easiest one is NameSilo, you just login to the account center, find the order, then click cancel an order, and you get the refund. but you can do it only once for any account.
• The second is Domain.com, I chatted with them and canceled one domain successfully, and they promise they will offer 5 days for canceling the order of the domain, but you need to open a ticket to tell them.
• For Google domain, you can reach out a chat with them too, they check if you are still in the period and then will send you a refund, but they offer 3 times only for an account to cancel an order in one year.
• New domain name registrations may be refundable within 3 days, at the sole discretion of Namecheap.
• As for Chemicloud, when I contacted them, they seemed to indicate that refunds were not allowed. You could also try reaching out to their customer service to confirm if this is the case.

NameSilo win again, and Domain.com is good too.

✦ More Wonderful Features

All of the listed registrars also allow immediate outbound transfers and offer more than 15 days grace period for renewing expired domains, NameSilo, google domain, and Chemicloud offer 30 days, actually, if you are going to buy a domain for long-term work or business, you can switch on auto-renewal for the domain, so you don’t need to care about the renewal expired, you can turn off at any time too.

While NameSilo’s slightly outdated dashboard may be its only drawback compared to competitors, it is not good look and maybe a little hard to manage the first time, it still can’t stop NameSilo to win over most of the competitors completely, I like and use it, it is simple, you just pay what you see, and manage it, that’s all, you don’t worry about anything more in future. Definitely, NameSilo is the best domain name registrar, meanwhile, it is the cheapest registrar actually.

If you are only concerned about the price and privacy protection, Namecheap is the second one. Chemicloud price is higher than Namecheap, if you accept the price of Chemicloud, you will love it, and they have an easy dashboard for your management. Not considering the factor of price, These 2 registrars are good choice for people.

If you hope to start your work or business in the same place, you can check more services the registrars offer at the bottom of the table, most of them can help you build a website from scratch

Other Domain Registrars

We can’t compare all domain registrars and providers, the listed ones are the most popular and best registrars we even used and tried on the web, you can search them and find a lot of resources.

Besides, there are some registrars or providers that offer a free domain for 1 year, such as Bluehost, etc., actually Domain.com and Chemicloud do like this too as mentioned above, you need to buy web hosting, then you can choose a domain name free. see below:

Providers who offer 1-year Free Domain Name

Provider	Free Domain Name Deal	Go to Website
	Starting at $2.99/mo. Renewal $17.99/mo. Free 1st-year Domain	Visit Now!
	Starting at $2.95/mo. Renewal $9.95/mo. Free 1st year Domain	Visit Now!
	Starting at $2.99/mo. Renewal $8.99/mo. Free 1st-year Domain	Visit Now!
	Starting at $2.49/mo. Renewal $7.49/mo. Free 1st-year Domain in High-Level Plan	Visit Now!
	Starting at $2.59/mo. Renewal $6.99/mo. Free 1st-year Domain	Visit Now!
	Starting at $2.75/mo. Renewal $6.95/mo. Free 1st-year Domain	Visit Now!
	Starting at $3.95/mo. Renewal $8.99/mo. Free 1st-year Domain	Visit Now!

If you’re not concerned about having a “.com” extension, there are domain registrars like Namecheap that offer free domains for life. You can search for them on Google.

While many people are familiar with GoDaddy and may have used it, I don’t recommend this domain registrar. One simple reason: you never know the final registration price. The price displayed on their website is never the real price; there are often hidden fees and tricks involved. Personally, I dislike it, and I believe many users share the same sentiment, so I don’t recommend it.

Best Domain Name Registrar – Conclusion

To summarize, after comparing the top 5 domain name registrars—NameSilo, NameCheap, Domain.com, Chemicloud, and Google Domains (Now for Squarespace)—I highly recommend NameSilo as the top choice, with NameCheap following closely behind. Chemicloud.com and Domain.com are also reliable options for long-term use.

If you’re new to domain registration, it’s essential to carefully select where to purchase your domain and which registrar offers the best combination of services and prices. Factors such as reliability, customer support, and affordability should be taken into consideration when making your decision.

Additionally, if price isn’t your primary concern, you can consider registering your domain through hosting provider and website builder platforms. The cost of domain registration on these platforms is typically reasonable, ranging from 15 to 20 USD per year. This option could be beneficial for many beginners as well.