Buying a domain for your site

1. Do you need one

No. Your booking page works fully at the free Gaplessly link from day one. A custom domain is a nice-to-have, not a requirement.

2. What a domain actually is

A domain, like yourbusiness.com.au, is rented rather than owned outright. You pay a registrar, the company that sells and manages domains, for it each year, and that payment is what lets you decide where it points. Miss a renewal, and after a grace period someone else can register it instead.

3. Choosing a registrar

Any established registrar works. Connecting a domain to Gaplessly only needs the ability to add one DNS record (more on that in Connect your own domain), which every registrar supports.

• Namecheap, Cloudflare Registrar and GoDaddy are all established, widely used options.
• VentraIP and Crazy Domains are good Australia-based choices.
• An ordinary .com or .com.au domain commonly costs AUD $15 to $35 a year.
• .com.au and other .au domains need an eligible Australian connection, an ABN, or being an Australian citizen or resident, depending on the exact extension.

4. Picking a name

• Shorter is easier to say out loud, especially on a phone call.
• Avoid hyphens and numbers where you can.
• Your business name is usually the safest choice.
• If your exact name is taken as .com, a country extension like .com.au, or a close variant, is a reasonable fallback.

5. After you buy one

Buying a domain doesn't involve Gaplessly at all, it's a transaction between you and your registrar. Once it's yours, come back to the Website screen in your dashboard and follow Connect your own domain to point it at your site.