Buy a domain

How to pick a registrar and TLD, dodge the renewal trap, protect your privacy, and point DNS once you've bought it.

A domain costs maybe $10–15 a year and instantly makes your project look real — far more legit than your-app.vercel.app. But buying one has traps: the $1 first year that renews at $15, and the pile of add-ons they sneak into your cart. This guide helps you avoid all of them.

在哪买 / Where to buy

The biggest difference between registrars isn't the first-year price — it's the renewal price and the add-on upsells. Here are solid choices:

Registrar	特点	备注
Cloudflare Registrar	At-cost pricing, zero markup, renewal equals registration price	You must use Cloudflare DNS; no new registrations — transfer one in
Porkbun	Cheap, clean UI, free WHOIS privacy and SSL	Beginner-friendly, transparent pricing, no gimmicks
Namecheap	Popular, mature, full-featured dashboard	First-year promos are common — check the renewal price; some services cost extra
Google Domains	Gone	Business sold to Squarespace; existing domains moved to Squarespace Domains
阿里云万网 / 腾讯云	Major China providers, easy local payment, Chinese support	ICP filing (备案) required if you host in mainland China (see end)

Cloudflare Registrar is the cheapest — it sells at the registry's exact cost with no markup, so renewals never go up. The catch: you must use Cloudflare as your DNS (recommended anyway, see Set up Cloudflare). It doesn't do new registrations, so you buy elsewhere first and transfer in.

后缀怎么选 / Choosing a TLD

Your TLD affects trust and price:

.com — safest and most trusted. People instinctively type .com. If you can get the .com, get it.
.dev / .app — run by Google with forced HTTPS (built-in HSTS preload). Great for dev tools and apps, moderately priced.
.io / .ai — popular in tech, but pricey (.ai often $70+/year) with steep renewals too.
Cheap new gTLDs (.xyz, .site, .online, etc.) — inexpensive and totally fine for side projects. This site uses .xyz.

Don't pick an obscure TLD for a serious business just to save a few dollars — some have been abused by spam, so your email is more likely to land in junk and users hesitate to click. For hobby projects, anything goes; for real ones, prefer .com.

续费陷阱 / The renewal trap

This is the trap beginners fall into most.

Always check the renewal price

Those "$1 first year" deals often renew at $10–20+. Renewals are how registrars make money. Before you buy, find the renewal price and base your real long-term cost on that — not the first-year teaser.

Checkout also pre-checks a bunch of add-ons (premium DNS, email, SSL, SiteLock). You almost never need these — uncheck each one before paying.

For example: a TLD might be $0.99 the first year and $13.99 to renew. If you keep it, you pay $13.99 every year after — nothing "cheap" about it. Transparent registrars like Cloudflare and Porkbun spare you this guessing game.

WHOIS 隐私保护 / WHOIS privacy

Your registration details (name, email, phone, address) go into the public WHOIS database by default, where anyone can look them up. Without privacy protection, your personal info is effectively published online — hello, spam and robocalls.

Good news: reputable registrars now include free WHOIS privacy (Cloudflare, Porkbun, Namecheap all do). Confirm it's on when you buy. If a registrar tries to charge extra for it, just use a different one.

购买与配置步骤 / Buy & set up

Search a name

Search your desired name in the registrar's dashboard. Try .com first; if it's taken, consider .dev, .app, or a cheap new TLD. Keep it short, easy to spell, and easy to say — avoid hyphens and confusable digits.

Check the renewal price

Open the listing and read the renewal price, not the first-year price. Estimate your real long-term cost from it. Only proceed if it's worth it.

Buy with privacy on

Make sure WHOIS privacy is enabled (usually free). At checkout, uncheck every pre-selected add-on and buy just the domain. Then pay.

Point DNS

A fresh domain is "empty" — you need to point it at your site. Two common ways:

Set nameservers: change the domain's nameservers to the two addresses Cloudflare gives you, then manage all records there (recommended).
Add records directly: in the registrar dashboard, add A / CNAME records pointing at your server or hosting platform.

For the full walkthrough, see Set up Cloudflare. DNS usually propagates in minutes to a few hours.

转移域名 / Transferring a domain

When moving a domain from one registrar to another (e.g. into Cloudflare to save on renewals):

60-day transfer lock: a newly registered or recently transferred domain can't be transferred for 60 days — a registry rule.
Unlock + auth code: in the current registrar, unlock the domain and get its auth code (EPP code), then enter it at the new registrar to start the transfer.
Transfers add a year: most TLDs add one year to the expiry on transfer (you pay for it, but it's not wasted).

Transfers usually finish within a few days, and your site keeps working throughout.

中国大陆备案 / ICP filing (mainland China)

If your server is in mainland China (Alibaba Cloud, Tencent Cloud, or other domestic data centers), your domain must complete ICP filing (备案) to be reachable — otherwise it gets blocked. Filing is done through the registrar/cloud provider's platform, requires verified identity info, and takes a few days to a couple of weeks.

If your server is outside mainland China (or you use Cloudflare, Vercel, etc.), you generally don't need filing — which is exactly why many personal projects pick overseas hosting.

Checklist for this step

Chose a reputable registrar (Cloudflare / Porkbun / Namecheap, etc.) and compared prices
Checked the renewal price before buying — not fooled by the first-year teaser — and unchecked extra add-ons
Enabled free WHOIS privacy
Pointed DNS at your site (nameservers or records) and confirmed it resolves
If hosting in mainland China, understood the ICP filing requirement

See the full launch checklist.

Buy a domain

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