How much does a domain name cost per year?

Around $20 a year for a typical .com, and roughly CAD $11 to $26 a year for a .ca across CIRA certified registrars. Watch first year promotions: $1 domains often renew at the normal price, which is fine, just not a surprise you want.

Should I choose .com or .ca?

Both are respected in Canada. A .ca signals local clearly and requires a Canadian presence to register, which CIRA verifies. A .com travels better if you ever serve customers outside Canada. If both are free, many businesses register both and point one at the other.

Who should the domain be registered to?

You. Your name, your email, your registrar account. If a designer or agency registers it under theirs, your address depends on their availability and goodwill. This is the single most important line in the whole topic.

What happens if a domain expires?

The website and any email on it stop working, and after a grace period the name can be bought by anyone. Set the domain to auto renew and keep the payment card current. It is a $20 a year problem that can cost a business its name.

What Is a Domain Name and Who Should Own Yours?

Q: What is a domain name?

Your address on the internet, like yourbusiness.com. It is separate from the website itself and from hosting: the domain is the address, the website is the building, hosting is the land it stands on. You rent the address by the year.

The short answer: a domain name is your address on the internet, it costs around $20 a year, and it must be registered in your name, on your email, no matter who builds your website. A .ca costs roughly CAD $11 to $26 a year and requires a Canadian presence, which CIRA verifies. Everything else on this page is detail; that sentence is the protection.

Domain, website, hosting: three different things

People buy them together, so they blur together. The domain is the address: yourbusiness.com. The website is the building: the pages people see. Hosting is the land: the computer the pages sit on. You can move the building to new land without changing the address, which is why a well set up website is portable, and why the address is the piece worth guarding hardest. We went deeper on this in do you own your website.

What it costs, honestly

A typical .com runs around $20 a year. A .ca runs roughly CAD $11 to $26 a year depending on the registrar, and CIRA, the Canadian body that runs .ca, keeps a list of certified registrars. Two things to know about pricing. First year promotions are real but temporary: the $1 domain renews at the normal rate, which is fine as long as you expected it. And the renewal is the actual price of a domain, because you pay it every year the business exists.

.com or .ca?

Both look professional in Canada. A .ca says local at a glance and comes with a real requirement: CIRA verifies a Canadian presence, citizen, permanent resident or Canadian business, before you can register one. A .com travels better if customers outside Canada are ever part of the plan. When the name you want is free in both, registering both and pointing one at the other costs about $35 a year total and ends the question.

The ownership rule

The domain gets registered in your name, on your email, in a registrar account you can log into. Not the designer’s. Not the agency’s. Not your cousin’s who set it up in 2016. A designer can manage the technical records with access you grant, and that is normal. But when the account itself belongs to someone else, your address depends on that someone answering email forever. Most domain horror stories are just this rule, skipped years earlier.

The renewal trap

Domains expire quietly. The card on file dies, the reminder goes to an old inbox, and the site and email stop working on a Tuesday. After a grace period, the name can be bought by anyone, including people who buy expired business domains for a living. The fix is boring: auto renew on, payment card current, and the domain in your account so the reminders reach you. Twenty dollars a year, guarded like it matters, because it does.

How we set it up

When we build a site, the domain is registered in your name from day one, auto renew on, and the roughly $20 a year renewal is your only ongoing cost, because the site itself has no monthly fee. Websites anywhere in Canada; photo and video across Vancouver, Burnaby, Richmond, Surrey, Coquitlam, Langley and Abbotsford. Numbers in the price guide.

Common questions about domains

What is a domain name?

Your address on the internet, separate from the website and the hosting. You rent it by the year.

What does one cost?

Around $20 a year for a .com, roughly CAD $11 to $26 for a .ca. The renewal price is the real price.

.com or .ca?

Both work in Canada. A .ca signals local and needs a CIRA verified Canadian presence; a .com travels better. Both together ends the debate.

Who should it be registered to?

You, in an account you control. Everything else on this topic is secondary to that.

What if it expires?

Site and email stop, and eventually anyone can buy the name. Auto renew and a current card prevent the whole story.

Sources

Keep reading: do you own your website? · what a website costs in Vancouver

What is a domain name, and who should own yours?