How to Register Your Shop's First Domain: Choosing a Name, .com or .co.th, and What to Know Before You Pay

Picture a small bakery that sells khanom pia, the round flaky Chinese-style pastries, and has just decided to build a website. The owner wants to print the web address on the next batch of pastry boxes. As soon as they start looking into it, the questions pile up. What name should I use? Is .com or .co.th better? Where do I pay? What happens if I forget to renew? In the end they ask a nephew who knows websites to register it for them. A lot of shops do exactly this, and it is often where the trouble starts later.

I understand that domains sound technical, and it's natural to want to hand the job to someone else. But registering your first domain only involves a few decisions you should make yourself. This article walks through them one at a time: what a domain is, how to name it, which ending to choose, where to buy it, and the mistakes shops make most often.

What's the difference between a domain and hosting?

The two words come up together so often that many people think they are the same thing. If your website is a shop, the domain is the street address customers use to find it, and hosting is the building the shop sits in, holding the photos, text and everything customers see on the page.

A domain is something you register for a period of time and renew on a schedule. Hosting is the service that keeps the website online. You can buy both from the same company or from different ones. If you use a website builder, hosting is usually included, so the only thing you need to think about is the domain.

One domain can also be split into subdomains, such as www.yourshop.com or shop.yourshop.com, and each one can point to a different service. We'll come back to this when we connect the domain to your website.

How to name your shop's domain

A domain name is hard to change later, because customers have already remembered it and it is already printed on your signs and packaging. It's worth taking a little time to get it right. Here is what I recommend.

Short, memorable, and easy to type after hearing it

Try telling the domain to a friend over the phone. If they type it correctly the first time, the name works. If you have to spell it out letter by letter, look for something simpler. Thai shop names can often be written in English letters several ways, for example with a k or a g, so pick the spelling most people are likely to try first.

Use the shop's name before generic words

A name like bestpastriesphuket.com might look appealing at first, but customers remember shop names, not descriptions. A domain that matches your shop's name lets anyone who has heard of you type it straight in, and it keeps working even if you start selling other things one day.

Avoid hyphens, numbers and spellings that are easy to get wrong

Hyphens and numbers mean you have to explain the name every time you say it: where the hyphen goes, whether the number is a digit or a word. Avoid them if you can. For .th domains, the THNIC policy revised in March 2567 (2024) says a name can be 1 to 63 characters long and can use the letters a-z, digits and hyphens, but a hyphen cannot be the first or last character and you cannot have more than one hyphen in a row.

Don't use someone else's name or trademark

The same policy says a domain must not be identical or similar to a registered trademark in a way that makes people think it belongs to that brand's owner. Some names are also reserved and cannot be registered at all, including geographical names such as provinces and cities. If you want a city name in a .th domain, always include your shop's name in it too.

Check the same name on social media

Before you pay, check whether the same name is still free on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and LINE OA. If you can use one name everywhere, customers remember it far more easily, and your shop sign only needs one name.

These are guidelines that work for most shops, not fixed rules. If the name you want is taken, adding a short word that fits your shop, such as your name followed by shop or bakery, is a good way out.

.com, .co.th or .in.th: which should you choose?

The last part of a domain is called the extension, and each one has different conditions. Extensions ending in .th are governed by the Thai Network Information Center Foundation, or THNIC. .com is a global extension that falls under ICANN's policies and the terms of each domain seller.

.com is the extension people around the world know best. It suits shops that want an easy-to-remember name and may have foreign customers. The downside is that most short names are already taken, so you may need a slightly longer one.

.co.th is for businesses and trademark owners. According to THNIC's guidelines for third-level .th registration, you need one supporting document, such as a company registration certificate, a commercial registration (Tor.Kor.0401), a VAT registration (Por.Por.20) or a trademark registration certificate. The domain must match the name on that document. You can use the full name, an abbreviation or part of the name, but you cannot add words that are not in the document. The advantage is that Thai customers can tell straight away that it is a business registered in Thailand.

.in.th is open to organisations of any type and to Thai individuals, who can register with a national ID card, driving licence or passport. The name does not have to match anything on the document. It suits shops that have not registered as a business yet but want a Thai extension.

Domains that end directly in .th, with no category in between, are classed as premium names in THNIC's policy. They cost more, open for registration in rounds, and can only be registered by government agencies, juristic persons, educational institutions that are juristic persons, or owners of registered trademarks. .co.th and .in.th are open for registration every day.

If you still can't decide, I suggest starting with one question: is your shop registered as a business yet? If it is, and the shop name matches the name on your documents, .co.th is a good choice. If not, choose between .com and .in.th based on which name is free and easier to remember. Some shops register both and set one to forward to the other.

Where to buy a domain, and what to check before you pay

There are many domain sellers, Thai and international, and prices change often, so I'd rather give you criteria to compare them yourself. Before you pay, check these points:

• First-year price versus renewal price. Many sellers discount the first year but charge much more to renew. Look mainly at the renewal price, because that is what you pay every year, and ask clearly whether it includes VAT.
• You can edit DNS yourself. Connecting the domain to your website means adding DNS records yourself. If that menu is hidden, or you have to contact support every time, it costs you time.
• You can set up a 301 forward. You need this so people who type your name without www still reach your site. Google's documentation explains that a permanent (301) redirect is a signal for Google to treat the destination as the main page.
• Moving away is easy. Check whether you can get the transfer code yourself in the system, so you are not stuck if you want to switch sellers one day.
• Expiry reminders and auto-renew. These go a long way towards making sure you never forget.
• Secure login. Look for two-step verification, because anyone who gets into your domain account can point your website and email somewhere else.

To register a .th domain, use the registrar or an authorised seller, which THNIC's guidelines call an Authorized Reseller.

Mistakes shops make most often, and how to fix them

Letting someone else register it in their own name

This is the one I most want you to watch out for.

A shop hires someone to build its website and asks them to register the domain too. They register it under their own name and email. When the job ends, or the two sides lose touch, the shop finds it hard to prove the domain is theirs.

THNIC's policy separates the "domain name holder", who has the legal right to the name, from the "domain name registrant", the person who submits the request and manages it in the system. These can be the same person or different people. The safe approach is to make the shop or the owner the holder and sign up with the shop's own email. If you need the web designer to help manage it, add them as a manager or share access instead of handing over the whole account.

Forgetting to renew

A domain does not vanish the day it expires, but in the meantime your website and email may stop working. For .th domains, THNIC's guidelines set out the period after expiry like this:

1. Renewal grace period, 5 days. The domain still works and can be renewed as normal.
2. Hold period, 25 days. Your website and email stop working, but you can still renew.
3. Redemption grace period, 30 days. You can still get it back, but there is a redemption fee on top of the renewal fee.
4. Pending deletion, 5 days. It can no longer be restored or renewed. After that, the name becomes free for anyone to register.

For .com and other global extensions, ICANN's Expired Registration Recovery Policy requires domain sellers to send at least two reminder emails before expiry. After expiry there may be another 1 to 45 days to renew, depending on the seller's terms, and once the domain is deleted it can still be restored for 30 days, possibly for a fee.

So there is a fair amount of time, but your shop may lose customers who can't reach the site in the meantime. The simplest fix is to turn on auto-renew, use an email address you actually read, and register for several years at once if your budget allows.

Keeping the account password with one person

If only one employee knows the password and that person leaves, the shop is locked out of the account. Keep the password somewhere the owner can always reach, and keep the phone number and email in the account up to date, because the registrar uses them for renewals and identity checks.

Connect your domain to your HugWeb website

Every website built in HugWeb gets a free address like yourshop.hugweb.app from day one, and you can keep using it at no cost. If you want to use your shop's own domain, buy it from a domain seller first, then connect it in the Domain tab of your site settings. Using your own domain is a paid add-on. You can find the latest details on the HugWeb pricing page.

One thing to know before you buy: HugWeb connects to names that start with www, such as www.yourshop.com. You add a CNAME record named www at your domain seller, pointing to the target you copy from the Domain tab. For the version without www, set up a 301 forward to the www version, so customers reach your site whichever way they type it. That's another reason to choose a seller that lets you edit DNS and set up forwarding yourself.

If you're not sure about the full cost of running a website, from the domain to yearly upkeep, hiring a web designer vs building with AI covers it. And once your site is live, the basic SEO checklist for SME websites will help people find your shop on Google.

Summary

Registering your first domain comes down to a few decisions. Pick a short name that matches your shop. Choose the extension based on whether your shop is a registered business. Buy from a seller that lets you edit DNS and set up forwarding yourself. Most importantly, register it in the shop's or the owner's name, turn on auto-renew, and keep the password somewhere the owner can always reach. Do just these things, and the domain will stay your shop's for a long time.

If you don't have a website to connect yet, try describing your shop in a quick chat on HugWeb. Start with the free address, then connect your shop's domain when you're ready.