Top 5 Tools for Domain naming (2024)

Mark Barsoum

Published in

Tools for Information Designers

A website allows for information to be accessed by consumers at any time and anywhere. This is a great way of keeping in touch with your consumers but also keeping them informed about the business.

Now for users to reach this website they would need to browse the internet and find an address to that website, back in the day an internet address was a massive string of binary code which isn’t very memorable or distinctive but rather inconvenient.

To fix this problem we created domains, essentially domains are names that we have given to web addresses to make them more convenient and usable for everyone. Therefore now we know the importance of distinctive names. Coming up with these names can be very challenging, and that’s why people have created and invested in domain name generators.

These tools generate domain names based on keywords placed by the user but also show their availability as there can’t be any duplicate domains. Through this post, we’re going to be looking at five of these tools and comparing and analyzing everything about them to conclude which ones are the best and the worst.

The first tool that we are going to be analyzing is called Nameboy. Nameboy is a name generator website, considered to be the original domain name generator, and is one of the most popular ones. The website’s appearance is very simple and user-friendly which is incredibly important for new users.

As well as being user-friendly, Nameboy still does a great job at its main purpose, to provide users with great and unique suggestions which are incredibly important when trying to stand out. The tool also does an incredible job providing users with popular top-level domains which is something that not every domain name generator has but can be very useful when creating websites, especially for large businesses. Since this is a searching and generating tool the website needs to have a reliable search engine, which is very useful when working with Nameboy.

This tool also provides many options that are not available in other name-generating tools. One that stood out to me is the ability to purchase pre-owned or pre-registered domains. As domains can’t be duplicated, having a unique domain is hard but having the opportunity and option of purchasing them is the great luxury provided by this tool.

Another great feature provided by Nameboy is the ability to bring those purchased domains into life, by working with website building platforms they allow you to automatically start building your website immediately.

That being said Nameboy is not perfect, it has a lot of great features but there are little things that can be improved, one being the filter options, as this is a search and generating tool having decent filter options could be very beneficial to users.

Domainr is the second tool that we’re going to be looking at, like Nameboy, Domainr allows you to automatically retrieve domain search results and availability status. Very similar to Nameboy Domainr has a very simplistic appearance to the website that can be understood and used by everyone. Additionally, if I had to choose between Nameboy and Domainr for appearance and usability, Domainr slightly edges it for me because it is very easy on the eye and also has a consistent theme throughout.

This tool doesn’t incredible job of providing users with results rapidly and efficiently, as well as giving the users many registrar options. Having these options allows the prices of the domain to vary, this can be beneficial for the user when working on a budget.

As well as Nameboy, Domainr provides the option of purchasing pre-owned and pre-registered domains. As explained before this is an incredible feature that many domain tools do not have.

Even though Dominar does a great job at helping users achieve their goals, some features can be improved. The one that stood out the most is the number of results, as compared to other tools the number of results provided by Domainr could be improved.

And again as this is a searching and generating tool I believe it would be greatly beneficial for the users to have the option of filtering out results.

The following tool that we’re going to look at is Dot-O-Mator. Dot-O-Mator does a great job providing users with unique and interesting domain names, this can be very useful as good domain names can be hard to find. Based on the many suggestions placed by the user Dot-O-Mator does a great job trying every combination to figure out different domain name possibilities.

Dot-O-Mator is also great as it gives the user most of the freedom, unlike the first two tools. It also encourages the user to provide many keywords. This allowed the combinations of keywords to be a lot more, therefore search results are in larger quantities. One thing that stood out to me on Dot-O-Mator is the “Domain Naming Tips” tab. This tab was filled with tips and tricks for naming domains, this can be very beneficial for new users who might not understand the importance of a good domain name and may not understand how to create or think of one.

I strongly believe that this tab should be on most if not all domain name generators. Surprisingly as well, Dot-O-Mator was the only tool to have an app, unfortunately, it was only available on IOS products, but having that option is still better than not.

The biggest problem that I saw with Dot-O-Mator was the inaccuracy, as domains are not repeatable, it is important to have accurate results when talking about the availability of a domain. This is a problem that needs to be fixed as having inaccurate results is a massive issue and may lead users to other tools.

Additionally, Dot-O-Mator is one of the worst when talking about appearance, it is very bland and looks unprofessional as well as very confusing. I highly doubt that unknowledgeable users would be able to intact and use the tool without having trouble.

Godaddy is the next tool we will be diving into. This is a very well-known brand and business it is mostly recognized for its website builder they also have a great domain naming tool. After using the tool and analyzing I found that GoDaddy was incredible when it came to user-friendliness. It was very open and clear with incredible communication that allowed users to interact and use the tool efficiently.

The website interface was very unique, accommodating, and had an incredible navigation system as well as features to help users reach their goals. Something that stood out to me was the search engine, when searching keywords it provided me with a great number of suggestions but also a great variety of suggestions in quality.

Even though for my search a lot of the top-level domains weren’t available the search results provided me with unique and interesting suggestions. According (google domain, 2022) “may help you stand out by being unique, which can also help create a more lasting impression” (para. 6) enforcing that it is a great feature to have.

GoDaddy also stood out from the five tools because it was the only one with its website builder. After purchasing a domain at Godaddy users can automatically start creating their website with the Godaddy website builder. This is a great feature because it allows customers to move forward with the project but also allows users to get familiar with the Godaddy system. Even though Godaddy is a great domain registrar and website builder there are a few things that I didn’t particularly enjoy.

Usually, when purchasing a domain name it is purchased yearly. Godaddy takes massive advantage of that as their starting prices are reasonable, the renewals are extreme, this can be a massive problem for people working on a budget as well as people just not willing to pay the extreme fee. This leads us perfectly into the up-selling that Godaddy does, anytime there is a chance for them to promote their product they don’t hesitate. This can become annoying and frustrating when you’re on the website with a specific goal in mind.

Finally, I found that the GoDaddy website is a little bit overwhelming and can be frustrating to use because I find that having tutorial videos can be a very beneficial feature for GoDaddy to employ in the future.

The fifth and final domain naming tool that we are going to analyze today is called Namecheap. It is known to let users search for domain names by using filters and then prioritizing the results to accommodate what the user is looking for. Namecheap has also used their domain naming tool to expand and create a whole experience where they have site hosting, site making, and even logo-making tools.

Now taking a deeper look at the domain naming tool, I found that it had an incredible search engine that allowed users to search information across many different spaces. Namecheap also takes great pride in having one of the best uptimes for a domain registrar, as a good uptime allows users to have their website running for the majority of the time. This should be the main priority for many domain registrars as having a domain that doesn’t work is incredibly useless.

A couple of other amazing things about NameCheap is that it has many popular top-level domains like some of the other tools we discussed today but it also has competitive prices which are important when working on a budget.

Having a low budget is a very common thing in a business strategy therefore having competitive prices and free promotions and services when registering is something that takes NameCheap to the next level. That being said, the competitive prices stop when it comes time to renew a domain. This seems very common among domain naming tools but is something that can be incredibly annoying or inconvenient when it comes time to renew.

My final thoughts after using, understanding, and analyzing all five of these tools is that they’re all very similar but each has unique features and accommodations that allow them to stand out and be used in different manners. For example, Nameboy is incredible for many things but is best suited for picking top-level domains and quickly moving on to starting a website but Dot-O-Mator on the other hand is great if you are starting with a theme or have a lot of keywords to work with. In conclusion, out of these five tools, my recommendation for a domain naming tool would have to be Nameboy as it has many popular top-level domains at reasonable prices but also a great search engine. That being said, Namecheap is a very close second and could easily be the best if you are looking for a whole experience where there are tools like website builders, website hosting, logo makers, and domain naming tools.

Now that we know the importance of having a memorable, meaningful, readable, and distinctive domain name. As well as having many different tools that can help generate ideas and show domain availability we can make a domain name and start creating websites.

Resources

Nameboy. (2022). Nameboy.com. https://www.nameboy.com/

Domainr: fast, free, domain name search, short URLs, new gTLDs, whois. (2022). Domainr.com. https://domainr.com/

Dot-o-mator: Domain Name Generator. (2022). Dotomator.com. https://www.dotomator.com/

Make Your Own Way | GoDaddy CA. (2013). GoDaddy. https://www.godaddy.com/en-ca

Domain Name Prices | Domain Registration Costs — Namecheap. (2018). Namecheap.com. https://www.namecheap.com/domains/

What’s in a (brand) name? — Do More Good. (2021). Domoregood.org. https://domoregood.org/whats-in-a-brand-name/?gclid=CjwKCAiAyPyQBhB6EiwAFUuakr9RrLWu-U9G8RQalODwPA7PR_lLEIA6VlnFu4wKJS-ZshyVh1VtaBoCMhQQAvD_BwE

Evolve Creative. (2019, January 17). Why Your Brand Name is Important and Reflects Who You Are — Evolve Creative. Evolve Creative. https://www.evolvecreative.com/why-your-brand-name-is-important-and-reflects-who-you-are/#:~:text=It’s%20vital%20that%20the%20name,relevant%20as%20your%20company%20evolves.

How to choose: traditional vs. new domain endings — Google Domains. (2022). Google Domains. https://domains.google/intl/en_ca/learn/how-to-choose-traditional-vs-new-domain-endings/#:~:text=A%20new%20TLD%20may%20help,remember%20with%20a%20new%20ending.&text=Many%20prominent%20businesses%20are%20adopting,are%20both%20popular%20and%20legitimate.