Your guide to domain privacy

A domain name usually runs you about $10 to $20 a year for a standard .com. But if you’re after something super rare or trendy (like one-word domains), you might be looking at a few hundred—or even thousands. Some registrars sweeten the deal with discounts for your first year, but heads up: renewal prices are often higher. Pro tip: always check those renewal rates before clicking “buy.”

Absolutely! You can register as many domain names as your heart (or business plan) desires. Whether you want to cover all the variations of your brand name, lock down different extensions like .com and .net, or snag some creative ideas for future projects, there’s no limit. Just remember: every domain has its own yearly price tag, so keep an eye on your budget if you’re building your domain empire.

An SSL certificate is like a digital security badge for your website. It encrypts the data traveling between your site and your visitors, keeping sensitive info like passwords and credit card details safe from prying eyes. You know that little padlock icon next to a web address? That’s the SSL certificate at work, proving your site is secure. It’s also a trust booster—search engines love it, and your visitors will too.

DNS stands for Domain Name System, but think of it as the internet’s phonebook. It takes the easy-to-remember domain name you type in and translates it into the actual IP address (a string of numbers) that computers use to find websites. Without DNS, we’d all have to remember those long, boring IP addresses. It’s what makes the internet user-friendly, letting you get where you need to go without breaking a sweat.

Domain forwarding is like setting up a mail forwarding address—but for websites. When someone types in one domain name, it automatically sends them to another. For example, if you own both yourcoolbusiness.com and yourcoolbusiness.net, you can forward the .net domain to the .com one, so all your traffic lands in the same place. It’s super handy for keeping things simple for your visitors and making sure you don’t miss out on any clicks.

Your domain registration lasts as long as you pay for it—typically one to ten years at a time, depending on what you choose when you register. You’ll need to renew it before it expires to keep it under your control. If you forget to renew, you risk losing it, and someone else might scoop it up. We always suggest setting up auto-renewal so you don’t have to think about it!

Renewing your domain name is a breeze. Just log in to your domain registrar account, find the domain you want to renew, and follow the steps to extend your registration. You can usually renew for one year or multiple years at once, depending on your plan. To make life even easier, most registrars (Epik included) offer auto-renewal—just turn it on, and your domain will stay yours without lifting a finger.

If your domain name expires and you don’t renew it, you’ll lose control of it. But don’t panic just yet! Most registrars give you a grace period (usually around 30 days) to renew it without extra fees. After that, it enters a “redemption period” where it’s still possible to get it back, but it can cost you more. If you let it go too long, the domain may be released and available for someone else to register. So, it’s best to renew before it expires!

ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) is like the internet’s rulebook keeper. It’s a nonprofit organization that manages and coordinates domain names, making sure everything runs smoothly. ICANN oversees the system that turns domain names into IP addresses, handles domain name extensions like .com and .org, and ensures there’s no confusion or overlap. In short, they keep the internet organized so we don’t end up with multiple websites fighting over the same name.

WHOIS is like the public directory for domain names. It’s a database that stores information about who owns a domain, including contact details like name, email, and phone number. When you search WHOIS, you can find out who registered a specific domain, along with other technical details. While most of this info is visible to anyone, some people choose to use privacy protection services to keep their personal details hidden from the public.