Domain registration and hosting

Congratulations on taking the leap. It's one you won't regret.

1. It matters to the point where you want to make sure the company is reputable and has a good history. Other than that, it usually comes down to personal choice and price. But I like to use registrars that allow payment via PayPal as that is my own option of payment for now.

2. It is recommended that you get your domain and hosting from different companies and the reason for this is if you have your hosting with the same company as your domain and the server that hosts them goes down for any length of time will effect your site. If you have the hosting with someone else, then if the domain server goes down it won't effect your site.

3. I have used a few hosting providers but I always use and recommend HostGator for hosting. They have a great price with incredible plans. Probably the best customer service, and payment via PayPal either yearly or monthly.

In regards to a domain registrar I use GoDaddy and they are fine. I have used NameCheap and they are fine also, but I do not like their Control Panel. GoDaddy's CP is much easier to navigate.

I hope I have helped.

Thanks for the advice.

I forgot to ask though, do I need hosting before domain, or vice-versa? Or does it matter?

It's preferable to buy the domain name first so when you go to purchase a hosting package they ask which domain you will have the site on.

Ok, that's what I thought.

Thanks again.

As Mike said buy the domain separately, at a place only you control.
If someday you are unhappy with your webhosting company you can easily change. Otherwise they may held your domain, believe me this has happened.

I would go with Namecheap registrar and Hostgator hosting. I use GoDaddy also for domains and sometimes they have some very good coupon codes.

Never register the domain at the same place that you host. You want to keep control over your domain. Should your host fail or suspend you or something, you still have the domain.

For the domain it doesnt matter that much but for hosting, it does as a webmaster, you need your sites to be up all the time and it requires good support.

I personally recommend JustHost because they are cheap and will throw in a free domain if you sign up for 6 months or more (worth it to lock in the low intro rate)

So that will get you started. Then, you can get new domains from wherever you want. The most popular tends to be GoDaddy or Namecheap (what I use)

I have hostgator in addition to justhost, and I don't see any advantage over Justhost. It costs me 3 times as much and they don't include a domain name. I would get rid of it but I'm too lazy to switch all my sites over.

I'll go with godaddy or namecheap for domain registration and...

hostgator or mediatemple for web hosting.

I prefer namecheap for domain registrations but godaddy is fine for that. Hosting I prefer HostGator but if you want a lower price check out WebHostingHub or BlueHost. Best of luck to you!