Domain

Where do you buy a domain, and how much does it cost?

You buy a domain from a domain seller called a "registrar." In Korea, examples include Gabia and Whois, and you can also register through overseas companies. Wherever you buy it, the address itself works exactly the same.

The price depends on the ending, but common ones like .com and .kr usually run about KRW 10,000–30,000 a year. Many registrars give a big discount only for the first year and then raise the renewal price, so always check the renewal price separately before you pay.

Some short, catchy addresses are sold as "premium domains" for several hundred thousand won or more. For a small business, a plain address built on your business name is far more practical than holding out for an expensive one.

When choosing a registrar, look past the price: is the dashboard easy to use, is there customer support in Korean, and do auto-renewal and expiry reminders work well? You'll keep a domain for years, sometimes more than ten, so easy management matters more than a difference of a few thousand won.

What's the difference between a domain and hosting?

A domain is the address, and hosting is the server that actually shows your website at that address. The two are often bought separately, and DNS settings connect them by saying "this address goes to that server."

So if your domain is active but your hosting lapses, the address is right but nothing loads. If your hosting is active but your domain expires, the server is fine but customers have no way to reach it. To keep your website open, all four of the items below have to stay active.

Buying the domain and hosting from one company keeps billing and management in one place, which is convenient. The catch is that if you leave that company, you have to move both together, so check from the start that each one is in your name.

How do you choose a domain name?

Choose a domain name that a customer can type right after hearing it once. An address can only use lowercase English letters, numbers and hyphens (-), and it doesn't distinguish between uppercase and lowercase.

You can also create a Korean-script address (for example, yourbusinessname followed by the Hangul extension for "Korea"). But some apps and email services display Korean-script addresses as a string of meaningless characters starting with "xn--", so most businesses use an English address as the main one and keep the Korean one as a backup.

Be especially careful with names that can be spelled several ways in English. For example, customers might type "Seoul Hair Salon" as seoul or soul. Use the most common spelling as your main address, and buy the confusing spellings too and point them to it.

If your business name is long, keep the name customers actually call you rather than an abbreviation. For "Haneulbit Hair Studio," for example, keeping just the key words, as in haneulhair, ties your sign and your address together naturally and makes the address stick.

1. 01Write down 3–5 candidate English versions of your business name. (Example: Dalbit Craft Studio → dalbit, dalbitcraft, dalbitstudio)
2. 02Say each candidate out loud and check whether family or staff can write it down correctly on the first try.
3. 03Type it into a registrar's search box to see whether someone already uses it.
4. 04If you use your business name as a trademark, also check the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) trademark search (for example, KIPRIS) to make sure it doesn't clash with someone else's trademark.
5. 05Pick the ending (.kr, .com, etc.) and register it in your own name or your business's name.
6. 06Turn on auto-renewal, and set the contact email for renewal notices to an address you check often.

What can you do with one domain?

With one domain, you can run your website address, your business email addresses and several subdomains together. Once you have an address, it works as your business's main name online, not just as a website address.

For example, if a cafe owns dalbitcafe.kr, it can tie everything to one name: the website at dalbitcafe.kr, email at hello@dalbitcafe.kr, and a coffee-bean subscription shop at shop.dalbitcafe.kr. Wherever customers see it, they instantly know it's the same business.

It's a good idea to put your domain on business cards and flyer QR codes too. Even if you later switch web agencies or booking services, as long as the domain stays the same, you won't need to reprint materials you've already handed out.

What happens if your domain expires?

When a domain expires, the website and business email connected to it stop working together. Your website files aren't deleted, but to customers it looks like your business has closed.

An expired domain doesn't go to someone else right away; there's usually a grace period when you can still recover it. But the length of that period and the recovery cost vary by ending and registrar, and once it passes, someone else can register your address. The longer you've used an address, the more it has spread through search results, business cards and signs, so losing it hurts more.

Most expiry accidents happen because "nobody saw the notice." It's common for renewal notices to go to a former employee's or the web agency's email, or for the card used for automatic payment to have changed.

If your business email uses the same domain, the damage is even bigger. If your website is down for a few days, customers can still call and ask, but if supplier order emails or booking confirmations quietly bounce, you may not notice for a long time.

• Mark the expiry date on your calendar and check again one month before
• Check the expiry date of the card used for automatic payment
• Renew for several years at once so you worry less about renewals

What should you ask a web agency that handles your domain?

First, ask "whose name will the domain be registered under?" Even if the agency buys it for you, the registrant should be your business or you, so you keep the address if you ever switch agencies.

Next, put in writing, in the contract or a message, who takes care of renewals and who pays for them. If it's only agreed verbally, memories tend to differ a few years later when the person in charge changes.

You can also move a domain to a different registrar. Usually you get a transfer authorization code from your current registrar and request the transfer at the new one, and some registrars block another transfer for a set period right after registration or a transfer. If you're only changing web agencies, keep the domain where it is and just change the connection settings.

• Is the registrant (owner) your business or you?
• Will you give me the registrar account ID and password too?
• Who keeps track of the renewal date and cost?
• How do I take over the domain when the contract ends?