How to Pick a Domain Name and Set Up Your First Website

Before you write your first AI prompt, before you open Cursor or Lovable, there is a step most tutorials skip: getting your domain and hosting set up. It takes about thirty minutes, costs $12 per year, and saves you from the scramble of trying to figure it out after you have already built something you want to share with the world.

This guide covers everything you need to do before coding. By the end, you will have a registered domain, understand how DNS works (at a practical level, not a computer science level), and know how to connect your domain to the hosting platforms that vibe coders actually use.

Do You Even Need a Domain?

Short answer: not immediately, but soon.

When you deploy a project to Vercel or Netlify, they give you a free subdomain like my-project.vercel.app or my-project.netlify.app. This is fine for prototyping, testing, and showing friends. It is not fine for anything you want to be taken seriously.

A custom domain (myproject.com) signals legitimacy. It looks professional. It is easier to remember. It builds brand equity. And it costs roughly $1 per month. There is no good reason to skip it once you have something worth sharing.

That said, do not let domain registration slow you down. If you are in the "just experimenting" phase, use the free subdomain and buy a domain when you have something worth naming. The switch takes ten minutes.

How to Choose a Good Domain Name

Picking a domain name feels high-stakes, but it does not need to be. Here are the practical guidelines that matter.

Keep it short. Aim for 6-15 characters. Shorter domains are easier to type, remember, and fit in social media bios. taskflow.com is better than my-awesome-task-management-app.com.

Make it easy to spell and say out loud. If you tell someone your domain at a coffee shop, can they type it correctly without asking you to spell it? Avoid hyphens, numbers, and unusual spellings. getpulse.io works. g3t-puls3.io does not.

Use .com if available, but do not obsess over it. The .com extension is the most recognized, but most short .com domains are taken. Alternatives that work well for tech products: .io (popular with startups, ~$30/year), .co (~$25/year), .app (~$15/year), .dev (~$12/year), and .space (~$10/year). Avoid obscure extensions like .xyz or .club unless you have a specific reason.

Check for conflicts. Before buying, search for the name on Google, Twitter/X, and the App Store. If another product with the same name exists in your space, pick something else. Trademark conflicts are not fun.

Do not overthink it. You can change your domain later. It costs another $12 and a few minutes of DNS updates. Do not let the perfect name be the enemy of shipping your product.

Where to Register Your Domain

Not all domain registrars are equal. Some add hidden fees, charge extra for WHOIS privacy, or make transfers unnecessarily difficult. Here are the three registrars we recommend for vibe coders, with honest assessments of each.

Our recommendation: Use Cloudflare Registrar for the best price, or Vercel Domains if you are already deploying to Vercel and want the simplest setup. Cloudflare sells domains at wholesale cost with no markup, which means you pay the lowest possible price for any extension.

WHOIS privacy matters. When you register a domain, your name, address, and phone number are added to a public database (WHOIS). WHOIS privacy replaces your personal information with the registrar's. All three registrars above include this for free. Some other registrars charge $10-15/year for it — avoid those.

DNS Explained: The Minimum You Need to Know

DNS (Domain Name System) is the system that translates your domain name (myproject.com) into the IP address of the server where your website lives. When someone types your domain in their browser, DNS tells the browser where to find your site.

You do not need to understand DNS deeply. You need to understand three things:

Nameservers tell the internet which DNS provider manages your domain's records. When you buy a domain from Cloudflare, Cloudflare is automatically your nameserver. If you buy from Namecheap but want to use Cloudflare's DNS, you change the nameservers in Namecheap's dashboard to point to Cloudflare.

A records point your domain to an IP address. If your hosting provider gives you an IP address, you create an A record. Example: myproject.com → 76.76.21.21 (Vercel's IP).

CNAME records point your domain to another domain name. This is more common with modern hosting. Example: www.myproject.com → cname.vercel-dns.com. The hosting provider tells you exactly what to enter.

That is it. Nameservers, A records, CNAME records. Every domain configuration you will encounter as a vibe coder uses some combination of these three.

Connecting Your Domain to Vercel

Vercel is the most popular hosting platform for vibe-coded projects, especially those built with Next.js or React. Connecting a domain takes five minutes.

1. Add the domain in Vercel. Go to your project's Settings > Domains. Type your domain name and click Add.
2. Vercel shows you the DNS records. It will display either an A record (for the root domain like myproject.com) or a CNAME record (for subdomains like www.myproject.com). Usually both.
3. Add those records at your registrar. Go to Cloudflare, Namecheap, or wherever you registered your domain. Find the DNS management section. Add the records exactly as Vercel shows them.
4. Wait for propagation. DNS changes take anywhere from a few minutes to 48 hours to take effect globally. In practice, it usually works within 10-30 minutes. Vercel will show a "pending" status until it detects the records.
5. SSL is automatic. Vercel provisions a free SSL certificate (HTTPS) once the domain is connected. You do not need to do anything.

If you bought your domain through Vercel Domains, steps 2-4 are automatic. This is why Vercel Domains is the simplest option despite the slightly higher price.

Connecting Your Domain to Netlify

Netlify is another popular choice, especially for static sites and simpler projects. The process is nearly identical.

1. Add the domain. Go to your site's Settings > Domain management > Add custom domain.
2. Choose DNS configuration. Netlify offers two options: use Netlify DNS (they manage your DNS records) or use external DNS (you manage records at your registrar). For simplicity, Netlify DNS is easier. For flexibility, external DNS gives you more control.
3. Add records. If using external DNS, add the A record and CNAME record Netlify provides to your registrar's DNS management.
4. SSL is automatic. Like Vercel, Netlify provisions a free Let's Encrypt SSL certificate once the domain is verified.

Connecting Your Domain to Cloudflare Pages

If you registered your domain with Cloudflare and host on Cloudflare Pages, the setup is the simplest of all. Cloudflare handles both DNS and hosting, so there is no need to copy records between services.

1. In the Cloudflare dashboard, go to Pages > your project > Custom domains.
2. Add your domain. Cloudflare creates the DNS records automatically.
3. SSL is enabled by default. You are done.

This is one reason Cloudflare is a popular all-in-one choice for vibe coders: cheapest domain registration, free DNS, free hosting with unlimited bandwidth, and automatic SSL. The trade-off is that Cloudflare Pages only supports static sites and serverless functions, not full-stack applications. For those, you will need Vercel or Railway.

The Pre-Coding Checklist

Before you write your first AI prompt, make sure these things are in place. Each one takes minutes but saves hours of retroactive setup.

• Domain registered — Even if you do not connect it immediately. The name you want might get taken tomorrow.
• GitHub account created — Free. You will need it for version control and deployment. Vercel and Netlify both deploy directly from GitHub repositories.
• Hosting platform chosen — Vercel for Next.js/React projects, Netlify or Cloudflare Pages for static sites, Railway for backend services. All have free tiers.
• AI coding tool installed — Cursor for code-level work, or Lovable/Bolt.new for visual app building.
• Basic project structure — A folder on your computer, initialized as a Git repository (git init), connected to a GitHub repo. Your AI tool can help with this if you are not sure how.

Common Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

Buying from the wrong registrar. Avoid GoDaddy, which charges premium prices, upsells aggressively, and charges for WHOIS privacy that others include free. Avoid any registrar that shows artificially low first-year prices and then charges 3-4x at renewal.

Forgetting WHOIS privacy. If your registrar does not include free WHOIS privacy, your personal name, address, and phone number are publicly searchable. This is not a hypothetical risk — domain registrants receive spam calls and emails within days.

Buying too many domains. It is tempting to buy domains for every idea you have. Resist this. Domains cost money every year, and most ideas never become products. Buy a domain when you are ready to build, not when you have an idea in the shower.

Over-complicating DNS. If your hosting provider says "add this A record and this CNAME record," just add those two records. Do not add extra records, do not modify existing ones, and do not change nameservers unless specifically instructed to. DNS problems are almost always caused by adding things that should not be there.

Panicking about propagation time. After updating DNS records, your site might not load for a few hours. This is normal. DNS propagation takes time. Do not start changing records because you think something is wrong after 15 minutes. Wait at least an hour before troubleshooting.

What to Do After Setup

With your domain registered, hosting chosen, and DNS configured, you are ready to start building. Here is the recommended path forward:

1. Build your first page. Start with a simple landing page or single-page app. Follow our Build Your First App guide for step-by-step instructions.
2. Deploy it. Push your code to GitHub and connect the repository to Vercel or Netlify. Your site goes live in minutes. See our Ship It guide.
3. Add analytics. Install Google Analytics or Plausible so you can see if anyone visits. Do this from day one.
4. Tell people about it. Share it on Product Hunt, Reddit, Indie Hackers, or Hacker News. The sooner you get real users, the sooner you learn what to build next.

The domain and hosting setup is the unglamorous prerequisite that separates "I have a project on my laptop" from "I have a website people can visit." It takes thirty minutes. Do it first, then start vibe coding.

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