Squarespace Domains is the registrar that absorbed Google Domains in 2023. It inherited Google's clean UI, the included free privacy and email forwarding, and the well-organized dashboard. It did not inherit the prices, which climbed. Use it if the polish matters and you're buying one or two; look elsewhere if you have many.
Google Domains was, for the years it existed, the registrar most developers quietly liked. The interface was clean. The price was reasonable. The privacy was free. Everything just worked. Then in 2023 Google decided domain registration wasn't a strategic business for them, sold the entire customer base to Squarespace, and shut the brand down. Existing accounts migrated automatically; the underlying tech kept running; the price tier didn't survive the transition.
What's at domains.squarespace.com today is recognizably the Google Domains UI, with Squarespace branding and adjusted pricing. .com renewals run around $20β25, which is meaningfully more than the budget tier and even slightly more than the friendly tier (Namecheap, Hover). The polish you're paying for is real β it's still the most pleasant domain dashboard most developers have used β but you're paying for it.
The honest pitch: if you have one or two domains, the price difference is small (~$10/year total) and the UX advantage is real. If you have a portfolio, the math stops working. The other registrars on this list are all functional; if you find them functional enough, save the money. If you don't, Squarespace Domains is the dashboard you've been wanting.
Squarespace's main pitch is its website builder. Domain registration is a side offering, found at domains.squarespace.com (the subdomain matters β the main site funnels you toward site building first).
If you already have a Squarespace account because of their other products, you can use it. Otherwise, sign up. A domain-only account works fine; you're not committing to anything else.
Search returns availability + price for many TLDs. The price is the same every year β no promo year. .com at the time of writing sits around $20β25; many other TLDs are in the $25β40 range. That's premium-tier pricing.
Skip the obvious comparison-shopping spiral. You're here because you want the clean UI, not the cheapest option. If you're not sure that trade is right for you, comparison-check Cloudflare or Porkbun on the exact TLD before continuing.
The cart shows the domain at its price. Free privacy. Free email forwarding (up to 100 addresses on Google Domains; Squarespace generally preserved this). No SSL upsell, no hosting upsell. The flow does mention Squarespace's website builder, but it's a side suggestion, not an aggressive cross-sell.
Confirm and pay. The domain is registered immediately.
This is what you're paying for. The dashboard is recognizably the Google Domains UI β clean cards for each domain, immediate access to DNS records, email forwarding settings, registration details, transfer status. Records are added with proper inline forms and validation that catches common mistakes.
The DNS panel groups synthetic record types ("Use a Squarespace site" / "Use a third-party site" / "Custom records") to onboard users who don't know the protocol. For developers, the "custom records" view gives you the standard list with all types β A, AAAA, CNAME, MX, TXT, SRV, CAA.
[email protected] arrives in your existing inbox (Gmail, etc.). For outbound β sending from your domain β you still need a real mailbox service. Squarespace pushes Google Workspace for this; you can pick anything.