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In order to be present on the Internet, it is a good idea for companies to buy a domain permanently. However, there are a few things that you should pay attention to in advance.
Buy a domain permanently: Here’s what you should look out for
Before you buy a domain, you should consider a few points. Otherwise, you could face higher costs or unknowingly commit a crime.
- In principle, every person and every company or organisation can buy its own domain. Only certain endings, the Top Level Domains (TLD), are subject to certain conditions. For example, you can only purchase these if your place of residence or business is in Germany.
- In most cases, the provider will offer you a desired domain query. You can enter your desired domain name there and see a selection of TLDs, if the domain is still free.
- It is possible to buy a domain that is already in use, but these are usually much more expensive and, in case of doubt, may already have been banned by Google. Therefore, you should carry out a Google check in advance. If the website does not appear at all, you should leave it alone. In addition, you will be charged a transfer fee by your domain dealer.
- Particularly as a company, you should make sure that you have the option of extending the TLD after the purchase. You buy the domain beispiel.de and later also want to reach the Austrian market with beispiel.at. This option should be open to you. Check the availability of the domains in advance.
- Pay close attention to the term and renewal. The price conditions can skyrocket with some providers after the first year. Take a close look at the providers.
- A domain also includes web hosting, technical support, email facilities and so on. This should either be included directly in the contract or you should factor it into the total cost.
- Avoid trademark and copyright infringement at all costs. If you choose a name that is very similar to a trademark, that domain may be revoked.
Domain providers: Models in comparison
Depending on what you want, there are different offer models. We have compared the prices of the three best-known providers in Germany. The terms are usually 12 months.
- Simple forwarding to your domain: You can get this from Strato for €0.05 per month for the first year and €1 per month thereafter. This can be useful if you want to directly include typical typos when writing your domain. An example of this would be rtlnow.de (today tvnow.de) and rtlnau.de.
- E-Mails and domain: With the Basic offer, Strato offers 25 mailboxes with 2GB per mailbox. After that, you pay 2 euros per month plus 10 euros for the setup. With the PLUS offer, you pay 1 Euro per month for 25 mailboxes with 5GB each in the first year and 4 Euro per month thereafter. Strato also states on its website that two email addresses are permanently included in so-called domain packages.
- Hosting and email: For a much better package that also includes hosting, you pay significantly more. At Strato, this also costs 1 euro in the first year and then 8 euros per month from the second. With Checkdomain it starts at 4,90 Euro per month and an additional 10 Euro set-up fee.
- The more domains you want to buy and the more additional services you want to use, the more expensive the purchase will be. For example, you can pay just under 20 euros per month with Checkdomain, but for this you also have eight domains included and can increase to up to 50.
- You should be clear in advance what exactly you want to do with the domain and then compare the providers. Only then should you decide on a provider.
