: For a lot of the smaller companies (us included) we are just resellers for a Registrar (in our case NetEarthOne). Registrars often offer different pricing bands depending on the volume of domains

For a lot of the smaller companies (us included) we are just resellers for a Registrar (in our case NetEarthOne). Registrars often offer different pricing bands depending on the volume of domains you purchase from them and then resell via your site.

As we are low volume, we pay more than other higher volume resellers but we don't add any mark-up on our cost price so often our domains are actually cheaper than some of the larger companies for example Fasthosts.

It is the same as many businesses, the big Registrars can buy in bulk, keeping prices down low and then the middlemen (us) can either sell at cost or try to make a small profit. Those resellers buying/selling more can leverage cheaper prices which they can then pass on to their customers. There can be several layers of Resellers as well which can push the price up or and extra layers of obfuscation which can hamper when trying to make changes to your domain.

Some companies also sell domains below cost or free as a loss-leader to try and get the business in. Same as your supermarket selling the bread & milk cheap to get you through the door.

You should be looking to see what additional features their dolman registration provides. Do they have a control panel where you can change the nameservers or update your contact details? Do they offer domain privacy whereby your details are hidden by a front company e.g. PrivacyProtect.org so spammers can't harvest your email address from a whois lookup. Do they allow free transfers out and can you run this process from your control panel?

Is it better to go with a big name? I don't know. Ok they are well known so you "should" be in safer hands but as Lèse majesté says, even the big names can be underhand. Everyone will have a customer service horror story they can tell you about company X, Y or Z. The little guy can often provide a better price & service and you will end up building a good relationship with them which can help when it comes to requiring additional services or needing advice.

Not really much of an answer, more of a ramble but I hope it helps.

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