Available domain names

A domain name is your image on the internet. It is directly attached to your IP address to redirect visitors to your website. For example, “www.ovhcloud.com” is our company’s URL. It consists of three elements: the domain, subdomain and extension. Here, “www” is the subdomain: a flexible element that you can optimise to point to other parts of your site. For example, we have created a subdomain called careers.ovhcloud.com, for job vacancies. Next, “ovhcloud” is the primary domain. Finally, the “.com” part is a generic top-level domain (gTLD). Some TLDs have specific features; for example, some can refer to a country (country code TLD), as in the case of a national domain name.

This is an organisation that owns different domain names. In France, for example, AFNIC is the registry for the .fr extension. Another example is Verisign, which owns .com. Their role is to monitor the distribution of domain names under their responsibility. Each registry operates according to its own rules. There are associations like AFNIC, along with for-profit companies, like VeriSign. Generally, they have administrative data associated with the domains they manage. To do this, they create a zone file that contains the addresses of the server names linked to these domain names. Registries are supervised by ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), which embodies the authority over domain names.

A registrar takes care of all administrative procedures relating to domain names (creation, renewal, transfer, change of owner or deletion). OVHcloud is a registrar. We are accredited by AFNIC to provide you with a hosting service and to create domain names. In short, we act as an intermediary between you and the registry.

Generally, you will need to confirm this with the registry that manages it. For example, if you create a website named www.monsite.fr, it will be registered by AFNIC. As a registrar, OVHcloud facilitates all of the steps and operations required for registering your domain.

By using our WHOIS service, you can access a range of information about the domain name holder. Simply enter the domain name you are interested in. Please note that some information may be hidden at the request of the owner. They must do so in compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Once you have entered your domain name in the search bar, select the one that suits you best. Our tool can offer you several combinations with different extensions (e.g. mysite.com, mysite.fr, mysite.info, etc.). Once you have chosen, you can place your order directly via the OVHcloud Control Panel.

You must have a web hosting plan in order to perform this action. If you do, simply select a web hosting plan from our solutions, and link your domain name to it in your control panel.

If you would like to change your identity online, you need to contact the registry that manages your domain name. This action is usually performed via your domain name registrar. However, once you have done this, your domain name will no longer belong to you and will be publicly available again.

It is an optimised domain name that is suitable for a business or industry. It has the potential to be more popular thanks to its simple and easily memorable structure, giving it an interesting strategic advantage for domain name buyers. However, their price is generally higher, which may be justified by the visibility potential they represent.

Buying a domain name at OVHcloud brings you many advantages:

• more than 800 extensions to customise your image online
• protection against theft or improper transfers;
• an initial 10 MB of free web hosting with your domain name*
• anti-DDoS protection on the hosting plans linked to your domain name.

* This benefit is not available to our CAFR/CAEN/WWEN/WWES/ASIA/SG/AU customers.