Two scenes that many small businesses live through.
The first: a tradesperson wants to switch web agency. He discovers that his domain name, his site's address for six years, is registered in the agency's name. To get it back, he depends entirely on the goodwill of a provider he's in the middle of leaving.
The second: a freshly redone storefront, a smart branded van, and on it... an @gmail.com address. All the professionalism invested in the image stops at the email address.
The domain name and professional email are the foundations of your online presence. They cost a handful of euros, and yet this is where the worst dependencies and the most common scams play out. Let's lay the groundwork.
What exactly is a domain name?
Your domain name is your address on the internet: yourbusiness.fr. It carries two essential things: your website, and your email addresses (contact@yourbusiness.fr).
It's not a technical detail. ANSSI, France's national cybersecurity agency, classes it among a company's assets, on a par with its working tools. And it's hugely widespread: Afnic, the body that manages the .fr, counts more than 4.2 million .fr domains at the end of 2024.
A domain is rented by the year from a registrar: that's the name for the provider it's registered with, not to be confused with your host (which stores the site) or your agency (which builds it). The three can be different players, and that's perfectly fine.
An asset is something you own, maintain and protect. That's exactly what this article is about.
Rule no. 1: the domain in YOUR name
If there's only one thing to remember, it's this: the registrant of the domain name must be your business (or you), never your provider.
The distinction is simple to grasp. Your agency or freelancer can perfectly well manage the domain technically for you: it's even common and convenient. But in the registration contract, the official owner has to be you. Otherwise, the day you want to change provider, or in the event of a dispute, you discover that your internet address doesn't belong to you.
Three concrete checks:
- The registrant is you. Ask for it in black and white in the quote, then verify it in the registrar's interface.
- The account access for the registrar (username, password) is known to you and kept somewhere safe, with two-factor authentication enabled if possible.
- The provider can be the technical contact, that's their role; they just mustn't be the owner.
At Pixel Prisme, it's a baseline commitment: the domain is registered in your name, and your access credentials are handed over to you. It's written into our plans, and we've explained why in how a website project unfolds: if you leave one day, you leave with everything.
You don't know who owns your domain? Check in two minutes
This is the case for many business owners, and it's easy to check.
For a .fr domain, Afnic offers a free public directory: search for "annuaire Afnic" and type in your domain. You'll see the registrant (you, or... your provider) and the registrar it's registered with. For a .com and most other extensions, the same service is called "Whois": a search for "whois lookup" plus your domain gives the same information.
Two other simple leads: your old invoices (the registrar's name is on them if you're the one paying), and the direct question to your provider: "which registrar is my domain with, and who is the registrant?" An honest professional answers without dodging.
And if the domain is in your provider's name? Don't panic, it can be fixed. Ask them in writing for a change of registrant in your favour (it's a standard operation at every registrar) or, if you're changing provider, the domain's transfer code. In the vast majority of cases, it's settled amicably. If you hit a wall on a .fr, dispute-resolution procedures exist through Afnic; keep your written exchanges, they'll come in handy. And good news: a change of registrant or a well-handled transfer cuts off neither the site nor the emails.
.fr, .com or something else?
Choosing the extension (the end of the address) is simpler than it looks.
For a French business, the .fr is the natural choice. According to Afnic, it accounts for 40.4% of domain names in France in 2024, a record, ahead of a slightly declining .com. To your customers, the .fr says "French business": exactly the message a local small business wants to send.
The .com as a complement, if needed. If you're targeting international markets, or if you simply want to stop a competitor (or an opportunist) from registering your name as a .com, taking it as well costs around ten euros a year. It will redirect to your main site.
Be wary of exotic extensions. The .io, .boutique and others can cost five to ten times more a year, and the general public barely knows them.
And for the name itself: short, easy to spell out over the phone, with no multiple hyphens or pointless numbers. Ideally your trading name. Before buying, a quick search of the INPI trademark database (data.inpi.fr, free) avoids choosing a name already registered in your sector, a source of costly disputes.
How much it costs, and how never to lose it
Good news: it's one of the cheapest items in your online presence. A .fr generally costs between €5 and €12 a year, a .com between €9 and €15. One classic trap, though: first years slashed to €1. Always look at the renewal price, that's what you'll pay every year afterwards.
A forgotten renewal, on the other hand, is costly: the site and the emails stop overnight. You usually have a short grace period to renew at the normal price, then recovery is often billed at several tens of euros, and in the end the domain can be bought by someone else, for good.
Three habits to make sure it never comes to that:
- Turn on auto-renewal with your registrar.
- Register for several years (2 or 3) if your cash flow allows: fewer deadlines, fewer risks.
- Add a backup email address to your registrar account, one that doesn't depend on the domain (your personal Gmail does the job nicely here): if the domain goes down, your emails go down with it, including the ones warning you of the problem.
Professional email: far more than a matter of image
On to the second foundation: contact@yourbusiness.fr rather than yourbusiness31@gmail.com.
Image, first. According to a survey by the registrar GoDaddy (an industry player, to be taken as a ballpark figure), three-quarters of consumers trust a business more when its email carries its own domain name. The figure matches intuition: the professional address appears on your quotes, your invoices, your Google profile, your van. It says "established business" where the free address says "making do".
The technical side, next, and this is the point everyone misses. Let's be precise: for messages you type one by one from Gmail, no worries, Google authenticates them itself. The matter gets serious as soon as emails go out automatically in your name: a newsletter, order confirmations from your store, the messages sent by your site's form. Since 2024, Gmail and Yahoo have tightened their rules: these emails must be authenticated, or they end up in the spam folder.
Authentication means three settings with forbidding names (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) that prove one simple thing: the emails sent in your name really do come from you, and no one can impersonate your address. And these settings are only possible on a domain you control. With a free address, you have no say. Rest assured, you won't have to configure them yourself: your email host provides them, and a serious web provider sets them up when the site launches.
The cost, finally: minimal. A professional mailbox rents from around €1 to €3 a month with hosting providers. Full suites (email + calendar + video calls + storage, like Google Workspace or Microsoft 365) run at about €6 to €8 a month per person. For a sole trader, domain + professional email come to a few tens of euros a year, all in.
And switching over from Gmail? Simpler than you'd fear. Your old messages don't disappear: the old mailbox stays accessible, and its contents can be imported into the new one. The transition is smooth: a signature and a message announcing the new address, the old one kept in parallel for a few months (it will then serve as a backup address), and your contacts follow along without losing anything.
This is exactly the kind of switch Pixel Prisme prepares when launching a turnkey website: domain in your name, a professional address configured and authenticated, the transition organised.
The scams to know about (they target small businesses specifically)
The domain name attracts well-honed scams that exploit one thing: most business owners don't know exactly which registrar their domain is with.
The fake renewal ("slamming"). You get an urgent email that looks like an invoice: "your domain is expiring, renew now". Except it doesn't come from your registrar. By paying, you actually trigger a transfer to another provider at an inflated price, or you simply hand your bank details to a fraudster. The absolute rule: a renewal happens only with YOUR registrar. If in any doubt, don't click anything and log in directly to your usual account to check the real expiry date.
High-pressure selling of "similar" domains. A cold caller warns you: someone is "about to" register your name as a .com or .net, but they can reserve them for you urgently. It's almost always hot air, designed to sell you useless domains at a high price. If protection seems worthwhile, calmly buy the key variant or two with your own registrar, for around ten euros.
Classic phishing. Fake emails from banks, suppliers or government bodies: phishing remains the number-one threat to businesses according to Cybermalveillance.gouv.fr. Check the sender's real address, hover over links before clicking, and if something goes wrong (a hacked account, a fraudulent payment), the public service 17Cyber (17cyber.gouv.fr) offers a free diagnosis and support, online, 24/7.
In short
Your domain name is an asset: register it in your name (never the provider's), keep the access credentials, turn on auto-renewal. For a French business, the .fr is the obvious pick, possibly paired with a protective .com, for €10 to €25 a year all together. Plug in a professional email address: it lends credibility to every quote and, properly configured, it gets your messages to their destination, something the big providers increasingly require. And faced with urgent renewal emails: your registrar, and only your registrar.
At Pixel Prisme, these foundations are part of every project: domain in your name, professional email configured, access credentials handed over. Whether you're starting your online presence or want to put yours back on solid ground, let's talk it through for 30 minutes, no strings attached.