Every site here comes with an address of the form
yourname.names.legal, included, working from the first minute. You
can also connect a domain of your own. Both are real answers, and the choice is
less dramatic than it looks — because you can change your mind later without
rebuilding anything.
The subdomain is enough when…
- You are testing the water, or you want to be online this week.
- Most of your clients arrive by word of mouth and will type your name into a search engine rather than an address bar.
- You do not yet need email on your own name.
It costs nothing, it is secured automatically, and it is a perfectly respectable address to put on a van or a quote.
Your own domain is worth it when…
- You want professional email. This is the most common reason, and the most solid one. Mailboxes live on a domain.
- You print the address. On a vehicle, a sign or a leaflet, an address you own is one you will never have to reprint.
- The name matters commercially. A trade name you have built up deserves the matching domain, if only so that nobody else takes it.
What changing later actually costs
Nothing, on your side. Adding a domain does not move your content, does not change your pages and does not interrupt the site. The subdomain keeps working alongside it. The only real deadline is email: you cannot have an address on a domain you have not bought yet.
Choosing the name itself
Short, sayable over the phone, and free of hyphens if you can manage it —
because you will read it aloud far more often than you will type it. In
Switzerland a .ch extension reassures local clients; if your name
is taken, adding your trade («dupont-menuiserie.ch») usually beats adding a
number.