I see that all these companies offer domains for ridiculously cheap prices when compared to the $75 a year other places charge. Is there a catch with this? Are you in full control of that domain? Can you resell it?

Thanks!

-SCSQ

Well, it really depends on the company and you should always read the TOS and contact the company if you are unsure. Sometimes, companies offer cheap domain names to entice you into buying their other products (web hosting, software, etc).

When registering a domain name, you should be the legal registrant of that name, giving you the power to do whatever you want with. However, a .com domain name isn't really "resold" like web hosting. It can be transferred from one party to another.

Just a sidenote: The highest price I have seen is $34.99, charged by Network Solutions.

I use NameCheap among others.
Between 8 and 9 dollars. No catches. Full control.

Network solutions have been ripping people off since the start of the internet.

cool thanks for the enlightenment... my big word of the day....

yeah i should have said 70+ for two years. I use domainbank which charges regular prices, but i think i'll try using one of the cheaper ones now.

SCSQ

Now that's a blunt way to put it.

Make sure you choose the ones with good company reputation because there're many complains about domain transfer out problem in some cheap domain providers.

Generally cost for .com/.net/.org domains lies between $8-$15 (USD). All the other extra costs are for extra services like hiding your contact details/email id etc. On the other hand country domains/.tv are more costly.. Idonno why

Reputed companies do charge a premium for their services, and I feel it is justified too.

It is better to register directly at root registrar(DirectI, ENOM) or you must atleast know the root registrar of your domain. I have seen many people who even lets their registrar to use his own (registrar's) personal details for his domain. That should be avoided at any cost.

You can register a domain at Yahoo for $2.99 right now.

I used ipower to register domains for $2.95 per year. Lets just say you get what you pay for

Each company sets their prices according to their business plan. Some only sell domains and offer them at higher prices, while those who sell other services may want to lower domains in hopes that the customer will purchase multiple services.

Currently I have been using DomainSite.com, I just register domains and transfer them there all the time with no problems. No fuss sort of place.

As Gnomey hit on, it's all about the business plan. When you see the cheap domains for $3-$5 it generally means that these companies are banking on you purchasing other services from them such as a hosting or email. The general market for your major TLD names is about $8-$10 or perhaps a little more.

If places are charging more, it's pretty much as blunt as blue put it. In a nutshell, they're charging an exorbitant amount of money for those who don't know better. It really doesn't mean their service is any better or they offer special features (though there are a lot of domain sites that do tack on money for certain features). Basically they are selling off of reputation for a "better" product or "better" support.

If one's want to be sarcastic, goddady sells cheap, but has $11Million losses in 2005

Now *thats* a useful statistic... wonder how much longer they'll be able to sustain that level of loss ?

I'm using namecheap as well, a very respected company. Great prices and full control of your domain.

Hello,

Godaddy and Enom also offers domain registeration for cheap. I would suggest you to go for the domain registration either with godaddy or ENOM since they have a good support and they are reliable.

Thank you.

Regards,