How to Buy a Domain Name (Without Overpaying at Renewal)

By Manob Editorial · October 14, 2026

To buy a domain name, pick a short name, search for it on a domain seller such as manob.ai, and compare the first-year price with the renewal price. Choose a term and WHOIS privacy, pay, and confirm your contact email. Then point the domain at your website. You keep it for as long as you keep renewing.

Policy details below were checked against ICANN's published policies on 14 October 2026.

What are you actually buying?

You don't buy a domain outright. You register the right to use it for a set term and renew before it runs out. Three kinds of company are involved:

• The registry runs an extension and keeps the master list of names in it. Verisign runs .com (IANA). The Government of Anguilla sponsors .ai, and Google Registry runs .app and .dev.
• Registrars sell names and update the registry for you. For generic extensions such as .com, .net and .org, they're accredited by ICANN and follow its policies.
• Resellers sell names through a registrar's systems, under their own brand.

Whoever you buy from, the person or company listed as the registrant is the legal holder. Put yourself or your business there, not your web designer. Our guide to transferring domain ownership explains why that matters later.

Terms are capped. ICANN's .com registry agreement allows registrations "for terms of up to ten years" (Appendix 7), so nobody can sell you a .com "forever."

Step 1: Pick a name people can type

• Say it out loud. If you have to spell it for someone ("that's two Ls, no hyphen"), people will mistype it.
• Keep it short. Shorter names are easier to remember, fit on a business card, and leave room in email addresses.
• Skip hyphens and digits unless they're part of your brand.
• Check trademarks. A name that copies someone's trademark can be taken from you through a dispute. In the US, search the USPTO trademark database before you buy.
• Check the social handles you'll want as well, so your name matches across sites.
• Pick the extension for your audience. .com is still what most people type by default. A country code such as .us or .in tells visitors you're local. Tech products often use .ai, .io or .dev; our .ai domain guide covers the trade-offs.

Step 2: Check whether the name is available

Search for the exact name, extension included. On manob.ai that's the domain search; type your own name in place of yourbrand.com. The results tell you whether the name is free and what it costs to register.

If it's taken, you have three options:

1. Try another extension or a small variation, such as adding "get", "hq" or your city.
2. Look the name up in ICANN Lookup to see the registrar and expiry date. Contact details are often hidden behind privacy, so you may only see the registrar.
3. Make an offer through the owner or a broker, and pay through escrow. Our ownership transfer guide covers how to do that safely.

Some available names are marked premium. The registry sets a higher price for them, sometimes for renewals as well as the first year, so check both figures before you buy.

Step 3: Compare the first-year price with the renewal price

The first year is often discounted, and you pay the renewal price every year after that. Compare the renewal column, not just the headline price. Here are manob.ai's live prices for common extensions:

Live manob.ai prices in US dollars, read from the domain checkout. Search a name to see the exact total for your domain.

How to read the table:

• Register is the price per year for a new name. If an extension has a minimum term longer than a year, the table also shows the total you pay upfront.
• Renews at is what each following year costs. It's usually higher than the first year.
• Transfer in is the price to move a name you already own from another company. It includes the extra year the transfer adds.
• Minimum term is the shortest registration the registry allows. For .ai it's two years.

Every seller's price starts from the registry's own fee. Verisign is raising its registry-level fee for each new and renewed .com from $10.26 to $10.97 a year from 1 November 2026 (Verisign Q1 2026 release, as of October 2026). Retail .com prices sit above that floor. For the full breakdown, see how much a domain name costs.

Step 4: Decide on privacy and how many years to pay for

WHOIS privacy hides your name, address and phone number from public domain lookups, which cuts down on spam and cold sales calls. On manob.ai it's free and switched on at registration for extensions that allow it. Some country codes, such as .in and .us, don't allow privacy, so those records show the registrant's details.

Term length is a trade-off:

• One year costs least upfront and lets you drop a name you stop using.
• Several years means fewer renewals to forget. It makes sense for a business name you'll keep. The cart shows the total before you pay.

manob.ai sets domains to auto-renew by default. Leave it on for any name you'd hate to lose, and check the renewal date in your domain dashboard.

Step 5: Register it and confirm your details

1. Add the name to your cart from the search results.
2. Choose the term.
3. Enter the registrant details: your legal name or your company's name, a postal address, a phone number and an email you'll still read in five years.
4. Pay by card or with Manob Wallet.
5. Watch for a verification email and act on it. ICANN asks registrants to give accurate contact details and to answer their registrar's inquiries within 15 days (Registrants' Benefits and Responsibilities). Under ICANN's Registrar Accreditation Agreement (section 3.7.7.2), not answering can be "a basis for suspension and/or cancellation" of the domain.

One rule to know before you buy: under ICANN's Transfer Policy, a registrar can refuse to move a .com or other generic domain to another registrar within 60 days of registration. Buy where you're happy to stay for at least two months.

Step 6: Point the domain at your website

A new domain on manob.ai uses the nameservers ns1.manob.ai and ns2.manob.ai. You can edit the nameservers and the DNS records (A, CNAME, MX, TXT and others) from the domain dashboard.

• A site built in the manob.ai AI workspace: keep manob.ai's nameservers, or point www at gateway.manob.ai with a CNAME record, plus the bare domain where your DNS host allows a CNAME there. HTTPS certificates for workspace deploys are issued automatically.
• Your own server: add an A record with the server's IP address. A manob.ai Linux VPS can run Docker apps, manob.ai projects and Git repos on your domain.
• A host elsewhere: either switch to the nameservers your host gives you, or keep manob.ai's and add the records it asks for.
• Email: manob.ai doesn't host mailboxes. Sign up with an email provider and add the MX and TXT records it gives you.

DNS changes usually show within an hour but can take up to 48 hours to reach everyone (GoDaddy's help center gives the same range). Our guide on connecting a domain to hosting covers every record type, and domain vs hosting explains why they're separate purchases.

Step 7: Keep it renewed

For generic domains, ICANN's Expired Registration Recovery Policy requires your registrar to email reminders about a month and about a week before expiry. If a domain still expires:

1. A renewal grace period starts. You can usually still renew for a while, often around 30 days, though the length and any late fee depend on the registrar and the extension. ICANN requires the registrar to cut off DNS for at least the last eight days of that window, so your site and email stop working.
2. Then comes redemption. Generic registries offer a 30-day Redemption Grace Period after deletion. You can restore the name then, but a restore fee is added to the renewal.
3. Then it's released and anyone can register it.

Country-code domains such as .ai, .io and .co set their own rules, so check them for any name that matters to you.

Mistakes that cost people their domain

• Registering it in a developer's or agency's name. Getting it back means asking them, or a dispute.
• Using an email you'll lose, such as an old job's address or an address at the domain itself. If the domain expires, that inbox goes with it.
• Letting the payment card expire with auto-renew on.
• Paying "renewal notices" from companies you never bought from. Renew only from your own account.
• Judging only the first-year price. The renewal price is the one you'll keep paying.

Already own a domain somewhere else? You can move it with our guide to transferring a domain from GoDaddy. Need a site to put on it? Browse HTML5 templates or business WordPress themes.

Frequently asked questions

How much does it cost to buy a domain name?

It depends on the extension. A .com costs more than the registry's own fee, which Verisign is raising in November 2026, while .ai and .io cost several times as much as a .com. The live table above shows manob.ai's current prices.

Can you buy a domain name permanently?

No. You register it for a term, up to ten years for a .com, and renew it before it expires. With auto-renew on, you keep it for as long as you pay.

Do I need hosting to buy a domain?

No. You can register a domain on its own and connect it to a website later. A site built in the manob.ai AI workspace can be deployed without separate hosting.

Can I buy a domain someone else already owns?

Only if the owner agrees to sell. Make an offer, pay through an escrow service, and have the owner transfer the domain to you once the money is held.

Is WHOIS privacy worth it?

Yes, for most people. It keeps your home address and phone number out of public lookups. On manob.ai it's free wherever the extension allows it.

How soon can I use a new domain?

Once registration completes, you can add DNS records from the domain dashboard. New records usually work within an hour, but can take up to 48 hours to reach every network.