I use the following registrars to buy and manage my domains. Although hosting companies might through in a “free” domain name with a hosting plan, if you ever leave the hosting company it can be a hassle to move the domain and might be expensive if you don’t.
NameCheap.com
Great prices. Great support. This is my favorite company for buying domains. For domain names you always want to look at the renewal prices not just the initial purchase prices. GoDaddy sometimes has good purchase prices but really sticks you when it comes to renew. Namecheap always throws in free privacy protection the first year and then its $2.99 per year after that. GoDaddy charges two or three times that much and is more expensive for the domain itself too.
ResellerClub.com
Actually has better prices than NameCheap.com even. They have really nice sales on domain names, so if you need to buy in bulk, this is often a good place to do it. They also have great prices on privacy protection. I believe it is still included for free with domain purchases and renewals. The user interface might be a little trickier to learn than NameCheap but I recommend it nevertheless. As the name implies, ResellerClub will let you set up an account to sell domains to others as well as use for yourself. They have volume price discounts.
GoDaddy.com
I also use GoDaddy but for only two reasons. The first reason is that many websites I buy have the domain registered at GoDaddy so I just leave it there. Often I move it to NameCheap before it renews to cut the cost of renewal in half. The second reason I have some GoDaddy domains is because they have a humongous list of expired domains available for sale in their auctions area. Sometimes you can find a really appropriate domain name for a good price. The prices are always more expensive than if you bought a new domain, but there may be situations where you want an aged domain, or you may just like the name itself.
To Find Domain Names Fast
Use https://instantdomainsearch.com/ It’s the best tool I’ve seen for trying out variations of names and instantly seeing whether they are taken or not. WARNING: Don’t buy the domain here because you’ll get locked into the GoDaddy pricing. Just use this tool to find the domain you want and then go to NameCheap.com or ResellerClub to actually buy it (Register it).
Some of the links in this article are affiliate links which means I may receive a commission if you buy through those links. Other links are direct and other links I did not even include because I don’t recommend those services.