Using the same domain registrar for hosting can be convenient in a lot of ways. You don’t have to mess with changing your nameservers, it makes connecting your domains with your hosting easy and practically automatic, the interface is all kept on the same site, and even billing is all done through one company. Should you use your domain registrar for hosting, though?

Domain Registrar for Hosting

What you save in time and convenience in using your domain registrar for hosting at the start can turn into a huge headache later on. Say you have an email list on your site and someone makes a complaint about it to the hosting provider. Many hosting providers reserve the right to take down your site even from just one complaint as they’re often more concerned with covering their interests than standing by you.

I have heard stories of registrars locking down sites and making it near impossible for you to change your nameservers to another hosting provider, sometimes even charging you for the ability to do so.

Worse is if the company goes out of business altogether overnight and you find yourself locked out of access to your nameservers indefinitely. This is why it’s a smart and safe idea to register with an established company than a fly by night cutthroat rate registrar.

Keeping your site on a different hosting provider than your registrar enables you to easily change your host in the event of any issues with your current provider. This is another reminder to constantly backup your MySql database and any other files you might have to make switching your host for whatever reason comes up as easy and pain free as possible.

Check out my list of the top 5 hosting providers for more ideas if you need to change providers.