Cheapest way to buy/preserve a domain name?

One of my old businesses had a rather unique name which I may or may not revive in the future.

Currently the domain name is available and since it can be somewhat rare, these days, to have your business name as your domain name (without any abbreviations or extra characters), I've been thinking of 'preserving' it.

As there's every chance I might not use the name again (certainly not for a long time, at least), I'm curious as to what would be the cheapest way to do this.

Is it cheaper if you don't require an accompanying email

address and actual website hosting?

You'll have to forgive my ignorance on the matter, as in the past I've had a chap who used to do this stuff for me

You can just register a domain name without website/e-mail/etc.

Be careful of the really cheap registrars, as they'll often let you have a domain cheap or even free then charge over the odds in subsequent years and also charge you a transfer fee if you want to move it away.

I'd recommend namecheap (£8.29 a year for a .com/£5.73 per year for a co.uk).

I use TSOHOST (formerly vidahost)

you can register for up to 5 years usually, some offer up to 10, and then have to re-new it...

even if you don't actually use it, or point it to a website etc... it doesn't matter...

Please note, that when you register a domain, you don't OWN it, you are only registering as it's current user...

its dead easy, actually, all you need is a domain registrar to do the transaction for you - I use 123Reg for domains and TSO for hosting, avoid GoDaddy et al they are rubbish - then you pay a kind of rent, longer term periods (eg 5 years) can be cheaper, just set up a Direct Debit. Things like .com can be dearer than .co.uk but its not hard to find out who has decent prices

Not sure if its still true but I used to be able to set it up that if someone emailed the domain (hello@myamazingdomain.com) it was forwarded by the registrar to my gmail for free (with 123Reg?) but that seems to have changed - if that would be useful might be worth seeking out

If its a good one and available I would say grab it, our business website is on a co.uk and the .com went bust in USA, when I tried to buy the domain a reseller had grabbed it and wanted $12000!! 6 months later they still havent sold it to anyone else but the price is now still $4000 - there are lots of conmen like this out there, but who knows if it s good domain you could trade it on for a sensible price and a bit of profit

There are places you can value / trade domains too if you are interested

Not sure if its still true but I used to be able to set it up that if someone emailed the domain (hello@myamazingdomain.com) it was forwarded by the registrar to my gmail for free (with 123Reg?) but that seems to have changed - if that would be useful might be worth seeking out

123reg still offer free domain email and email redirection... I use 123reg and while I don't really have a website atm, my email still works... and is the only reason I still get the domain atm...

I use 123reg.co.uk and GoDaddy. Namecheap sounds good value though.

If you have a domain name in mind though, do not search for it's availability on a domain registrar site. Have done that before, domain was available, tried again a few days later, and it had been bought or reserved by the registrar; still available to buy at a much increased price.

As above - 123reg. Paid a nominal amount for a couple of domain names I was planning on using, which 5 years later Im actually going to start to use.