What should I know before I choose and buy a domain?

Think first about who will type the name; then compare renewal prices and registry rules. A broad audience types .com first, a tech product often uses .io, .ai or .dev, and a local business fits its country code. Our method in steps turns this into a decision table.

DotAlmanac's count of the IANA root zone shows 1,436 TLDs on 29 October 2026. Of these, 248 are two-letter country codes and 151 are internationalised (IDN) extensions. What is a TLD explains each type.

.com is the stronger default, because people type it first and it renews at $11.99/year. A .io costs $33.99/year the first year, then $52.49/year, and its future is tied to the Chagos sovereignty question. .io vs .com compares both in detail.

Often, yes. According to DotAlmanac's table of 225 extensions, 52 of the 94 country codes are open to anyone, including .io, .ai, .co, .me and .de. Others, such as .eu, .fr and .ca, require residence or a local presence. Country domains lists both groups.

Yes. Google Registry put both extensions on the HSTS preload list of browsers, so a site on .app or .dev loads only over HTTPS. Hosts such as Vercel, Netlify and GitHub Pages issue a free certificate. .app vs .dev compares the two.

$11.99/year to register and $11.99/year to renew, as of 29 October 2026, with free WHOIS privacy. The wholesale floor is Verisign's $10.26 a year plus a $0.20 ICANN fee. Verisign raises its part to $10.97 on 1 November 2026.

Many registries and registrars sell the first year below the regular price to win new customers. According to DotAlmanac's price grid, 35 of the 43 extensions sold in your own name renew for more, as of 29 October 2026. Why renewals cost more explains the mechanism.

Yes, and we say so. Porkbun lists a .com at $11.08 (19 October 2026), and Cloudflare Registrar charges cost price, $10.46 (8 October 2026). Our case rests on no ID check, crypto payment and a renewal price shown upfront.

The .ai registry sets a 2-year minimum term, for registrations and renewals alike. A .ai costs $84.49/year, so each order covers 2 years. According to DotAlmanac's table of 225 extensions, no other extension has this rule.

Only for a name you are certain to keep, on an extension that allows it. Most gTLDs accept up to 10 years, but .co stops at 5, and .de, .nl or .gg accept 1 year at a time. Should you register a domain for 10 years weighs the cost.

Bitcoin (BTC), Tether (USDT), USD Coin (USDC), Ethereum (ETH), Solana (SOL), Litecoin (LTC). No Monero, no Lightning, and no card, PayPal or bank transfer. Every price is paid from a balance you top up in one of these coins.

$25. If your cart costs more, the top-up equals the cart. Balance rule: Unused balance stays on your account and never expires, and it pays for new domains, renewals and transfers. When a purchase costs less than the minimum top-up, the part added only to reach the minimum is refundable on request to support within 30 days of the payment, in USDT or USDC, as long as it has not been spent. The rest of the balance is not paid back, except where the law requires it.

Credit comes once the network confirms the payment. The number of confirmations differs by coin, as listed on how it works. We promise no fixed delay, because it depends on the network.

You keep the money. Our rule: if a domain cannot be registered (taken in the meantime, registry refusal), the full amount goes back to your balance. This can happen with extensions marked Availability confirmed at order, such as .io, .co or .me.

Yes. Each domain comes with free DNS hosting with A, AAAA, CNAME, ALIAS, MX, TXT, NS, SRV and CAA records, one-click templates (Vercel, Netlify, GitHub Pages, Cloudflare Pages, Shopify, Proton Mail, Fastmail, Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Zoho Mail), or your own nameservers (2 to 13). DNSSEC is available as well.

Apply the one-click template in your DNS settings. The Vercel template adds an A record to 76.76.21.21 and a www CNAME to cname.vercel-dns.com. The GitHub Pages template adds four A records and a www CNAME. Guides: Vercel and GitHub Pages.

Yes. Each domain includes free URL forwarding and email forwarding from the client area. Send mail for contact@yourdomain to an inbox you already use; the steps are in email forwarding.

Type the name in our domain search: it asks the registry's RDAP service first and answers available, taken or undetermined. ICANN's lookup.icann.org gives the public record of a taken name. How to check availability covers expired names too.

Yes. You upload no identity document and no selfie, and you type no ID number. We hold one email address per domain, which ICANN rules require us to verify, and it stays private. This suits people who prefer not to upload identity documents.

You do. You are the registrant of record, with full control of DNS, nameservers, renewals and transfers. Domains are registered through our ICANN-accredited registrar partner.

Yes, at no cost, on every extension whose registry permits it. Each registry decides what remains public. According to DotAlmanac's table of 225 extensions, 23 registries forbid WHOIS privacy, among them .us, .in and .es. We sell none of those 23.

A paid option, +$29 per domain and per year, that puts the domain in the name of DomaineGoat LLC while you remain the beneficiary. It also keeps the transfer lock on, limits our data to your email, and adds human review of complaints. Details on Domain protection.

We release the data we hold only when Panamanian law requires it (a Panamanian court or prosecutor's order), or in a UDRP case. We act within 24 hours of a well-documented report on phishing, malware, botnets or fraud that takes money from victims. Anyone can report to [email protected], without an account.

DomaineGoat LLC, incorporated in Panama, runs the site and the almanac. Domains are registered through our ICANN-accredited registrar partner. The about page explains how the almanac is written and checked.