I signed up for a new web hosting recently and received a free domain as long as I stay with them. Everything was fine until when I realized the domain is not registered under my name. I contacted the hosting company to transfer domain under my name but they said under their policy I have to wait 6 months before they can transfer domain under my name. Another option is to pay $25 to have domain right now which you can see is highly overpriced. I intent to say with them long time but I am also a little hesitant to develop my site. You never know when my site will become million dollar site. My question is, do I have any legal right to that particular domain? Should I be worried about anything or this is a normal practice? thanks
No, the domain still legally belongs to the host company. Am sure in their TOS, they explained about the free domain. No one is going to give free domains away without some recompense.
Yes they did explain it in their TOS. I did not pay much attention. So you are saying I should buy that domain before build my site?
Many hosting services throw in a "free domain" which I never make use of. I want to control my own domain. Shannon
Check with the host company to make sure that you will have full ownership rights to the domain, including transferring it to another host. Some host companies may transfer into your name, but freeze it so you can not transfer to another host. If you do get full ownership rights and rights to transfer to another host, then build your site up and stick with the present host as long as you want. If not, choice is yours. Myself, I would go to namecheap and register the domain I want.