In this article we’re going to cover free v. paid domain names along with pros and cons.
There’s also another factor, depending on the domain name extension as well, but most of us probably prefer dot com as that is king of the domain names and most of the ones you want is taken.
Domain names (free)
Getting a free domain name i.e. .tk from freenom for example comes with a few advantages which a few of them are:
- Usually anyone over the age of 13 years or older, is able to get the very own domain name as it does not require a credit card.
- Sometimes we need to test something out not on a test environment but out in the field, and that may require getting a domain name but we necessarily do not want to use a sub-domain name. Sometimes what is being tested may not work on a sub-domain name, but may work on a domain name like test123.tld.
- If you’re just starting out by getting into running a website, nothing is better than getting your hands dirty and actually try and get yourself to gain some experience to see how the process works hands on. In this case, you can test out a website, a real website. And access it, without paying a single penny
- There are some people who just want to host a small personal website mostly for family and friends to access in which we won’t be running advertisements. At least you shouldn’t and we may not necessarily want to throw money into this, so this would be a perfect solution.
Now it would be incredibly biased for me to not say any disadvantages of using a free domain name, and some of those are:
- Generally speaking, when you are using a domain name for free, there are usually certain requirements that must be completed each month or within the timeframe in order to be able to keep and use your free domain name otherwise they may consider to be abandoned and make it available for somebody else to use i.e. it expired.
- Generally speaking, whatever you register a domain name whether it is free or if you chose to pay for the domain name there’s terms and conditions that you must agree to however when you using a free domain name, there may be certain terms that may be imposed but not on domain names that are paid for.
- When you use a domain name for free, you legally, do not have any rights to the domain name, which means the domain name can be taken away from you at any time, for any reason, with or without a reason, and give them to somebody else or be used for another purpose and you can’t sell the domain name either.
Domain names (paid)
We cover the pros and cons of using a free domain name. Now it’s time to cover the pros and cons for domain names that we pay for.
Some of the advantages or pros for pay domain names are:
- Since this is fresh on our minds, when you choose to buy a domain name, you legally have the exclusive right to use that domain name for the specified term of how long you wanted to have the domain name registered to you.
- When you have a pay domain name, you not only have the exclusive right to use it, you also have the right to rent the domain name, sell the domain name for more than what you paid for or do nothing.
- Generally speaking, if someone chooses to register a domain name and pay for it, somebody cannot come along and say I want a domain name and the place that you registered the domain name from cannot just take it from you and give it to that person unless they go through a process that must be done by in witch certain elements must be met in order for this to happen this is called a Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy, UDRP for short.
- You have the legal right to transfer your domain name to someone else if you don’t like where your domain name is currently, a free domain name you don’t have a choice, you either suck it up or you give it up.
Don’t you just hate it when we have to cover the disadvantages because everything was so nice and pretty? Unfortunately with everything pleasant there are also some things that are just negative and here are some of those things:
- Registering a domain name can be expensive, especially depending on where you choose to register your domain name that’s why it is ALWAYS recommended to shop around and don’t always just look at the registration price look at the renewal price. You can look at this website https://tld-list.com who has done a lot of work for you to make it easy to see what it will cost to register a domain name and the renewal price per year.
- When you choose to pay for your own domain name, while there are many perks and pluses to go along with it, one disadvantages that some people may have is when you are the registered owner of the domain name, the domain name registry may not allow people to have their information redacted by a privacy shield like domainsbyproxy.com for example. What domainsbyproxy.com does it replaces your personal information with their information so anyone who chooses to look up who owns the domain name instead of seeing your name they are going to see domainsbyproxy.com information instead, however the company that you registered your domain name with will still have your contact information in the event that they do need to contact you. If you’re thinking about entering bogus information DO NOT because doing so, could be a violation of the terms and conditions of the registry, and the place where you register your domain name plus, they may go solely based on what it says if there’s ever a dispute that went to occur.
- Since we are talking about protecting your privacy most of the TL D’s which stands for top level domain names and even a gTL D’s genetic top level domain names, and some ccTLDs (county code top level domain names) usually allows people to purchase privacy protect sometimes this comes free whatever you purchase a domain name or somebody give it to you for free if you use a promo code while some charge for the service, again this depends on the domain name extension and where the domain name is being registered at.
- When you register a domain name, consider that all sales are final, generally speaking in almost all cases; however, there may be a few exceptions that they may issue a refund and cancelling the domain name if you registered the domain name by mistake, but this is solely at the discretion of where you’re registering the domain name from if they chose to honor your request.
Whether you choose to register a free domain name, or you choose to use a paid domain name, consider the pros and cons that are listed here or other pros and cons that are not listed here and also do research to see where you get the most for paying less.
Here are some other things you may want to consider, you may not get the dot com as probably you and other people want to get that extension, but there are plenty of other extensions to choose from.
You can also opt to register a two character domain name using a ccTLD, then make sub-domain names off the main domain name i.e. you.xx.xx, so your limitation is your imagination.
This in a way has some advantages, even though it may not be exact preferred method. It gives you pretty much an unlimited number of domain names; you don’t pay extra for creating sub-domain names, a ccTLD is sometimes cheaper for registering and renewing.