How to choose and buy a domain name in India: .com or .in?

A domain name is your address on the internet: yourbusiness.in. It goes on your website, your email (hello@yourbusiness.in), your visiting cards and your ads. It costs less than a pizza per year, yet many businesses put it off, until someone else books the name they wanted.

Here's how to choose the right domain, what it costs in India, and how to buy it safely.

.com or .in?

• .in is India's own domain, run by NIXI. It tells customers you're an Indian business, and the name you want is more often free. It is usually cheaper too. It's a great choice if most of your customers are in India.
• .com is the most recognised domain in the world. It's best if you sell abroad or plan to, but good .com names are often taken.
• .co.in is fine, but people often forget the co.
• New endings like .shop, .store, .ai and .online are fun but less familiar to customers. Use them only as extras.

Simple rule: if it's free, book both the .in and the .com of your name, use one, and point the other to it. It's cheap protection against copycats.

What a good domain looks like

• Short and easy to spell: say it on a phone call and check the other person can type it.
• No hyphens or numbers if you can avoid them (best-cakes-24.in is hard to say out loud).
• The same as your business name and Instagram handle, or as close as possible.
• Add your city or service if the plain name is taken, like cakelyjaipur.in or cakelybakes.com.

Don't have a name yet? Our free Business Name + Domain Ideas tool suggests names and checks whether the .com and .in look free.

What does it cost?

Prices change and offers are common, but roughly:

• .in: a few hundred rupees for the first year, then usually ₹700–₹1,000 a year to renew.
• .com: usually ₹800–₹1,500 a year.

Watch the renewal price, not just the first-year offer. A ₹99 first year can renew at ₹1,200. GST is added to all of them.

How to buy it safely (step by step)

1. Pick a registrar: a well-known company such as GoDaddy, Hostinger, Namecheap, BigRock or Google's partner Squarespace.
2. Search for the name and add it to your cart. Skip extras you don't need. Privacy protection is useful, but most other add-ons aren't.
3. Register it in your own name and email. Never let a freelancer or agency register it in their account. If you fall out, you could lose your own website address.
4. Turn on auto-renew and add a card or UPI autopay. Expired domains get grabbed quickly.
5. Turn on two-factor login for the registrar account.

After you buy

• Point it to your website. Your web developer or website builder will give you DNS settings to add.
• Set up business email like hello@yourbusiness.in (Google Workspace, Zoho Mail and others). It looks far more trustworthy than a Gmail address on your bills.
• Add it everywhere: Google Business Profile, Instagram bio, WhatsApp Business profile and visiting cards.

The bottom line

Book your .in (and .com if it's free) today, in your own name, with auto-renew on. It's the cheapest insurance your brand will ever have.

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