Cloud Domains overview

This page provides an overview of Cloud Domains features and capabilities. Cloud Domains lets you register and configure a domain in Google Cloud.

Cloud Domains is available in all the countries where Google Cloud is available.

Benefits of using Cloud Domains

Cloud Domains provides the following benefits:

  • Lets you register a domain through Google Cloud and seamlessly attach it to any application. You can perform these steps by calling the Cloud Domains API or by using the Google Cloud CLI or the Google Cloud console.

  • Bills your domains through the same Cloud Billing account that you already have. Cloud Domains also lets you automatically review your registered domain as long as your Cloud Billing account stays active.

  • Is available in all locations where Google Cloud is available.

  • Lets you manage domain registrations per project, not per individual. You can manage one or more of your domains in Cloud Domains as part of a single project. Cloud Domains allows team collaboration because the domain is associated with the project. You can use Identity and Access Management (IAM) to manage all permissions in one place.

  • Supports programmatic access to domain registration, letting you integrate your systems. You can control access to the API by using standard Google Cloud permissions and quotas.

  • For detailed pricing information, see Pricing.

    If you use Cloud DNS to configure your domain name servers, Cloud DNS bills you separately.

Supported use cases

You can use Cloud Domains to do the following:

  • Search for available domains.
  • Buy a domain name.
  • Manage your registration.
  • Optional: Transfer your domain from Cloud Domains to another registrar.

DNS providers

Name servers identify the location of your domain on the internet and define your domain's DNS providers. When you register a domain with Cloud Domains, you must choose a DNS provider for the domain. The following table summarizes the DNS provider options in Cloud Domains.

DNS provider Description Cost
Cloud DNS Google recommends that you use Cloud DNS as your DNS provider for all your name servers. Additional Cloud DNS charges apply. For details, see the Cloud DNS pricing page.
Custom name servers If you choose this option, you can use Cloud Domains to configure your name servers, and then use a third-party DNS provider to configure your DNS resource records. Check with your DNS provider.

For instructions about registering a domain, see Register a domain.

Supported domain endings (TLDs)

Cloud Domains supports all the domain endings listed in the Pricing table. Any domain ending that is not listed on the Cloud Domains pricing page is not supported.

Automatic renewal

After you set up Cloud Billing and complete your domain registration, Cloud Domains automatically sets up the registration to renew every year. Automatic renewal helps you keep ownership of your domain by not missing a payment. You can turn off automatic renewal after you've registered your domain. For more information, see Turn off automatic renewal for a domain name.

If your domain expired within the past 30 days, you can renew it using the Google Cloud CLI or the Cloud Domains API. The domain's new expiry date is one year after the previous expiry date, and you are charged the yearly price for renewal. For more information, see Renew a recently expired domain.

Pricing

During the registration process, the price for each domain is available. The total cost is calculated on the registration page as you add domains to your cart. Prices vary based on TLDs. For example, if you buy example.com, example.blog, and example.art, the cost of each of these domains might be different because the TLDs .com, .blog, and .art have different costs.

For detailed pricing information, see Pricing. For billing, see Billing questions.

DNS security (DNSSEC)

Cloud Domains supports DNSSEC, which protects your domains from spoofing and cache poisoning attacks. When you use a validating resolver like Google Public DNS, DNSSEC provides strong authentication (but not encryption) of domain lookups. For more information about DNSSEC, see the DNSSEC overview.

If you use Cloud DNS to provide name servers for Cloud Domains, you can enable or disable managed DNSSEC when you create a public zone for your domain. For instructions, see Create a public zone.

Contact information

When you register a domain, you must submit contact information for that domain. There are three types of contact information:

  • Registrant: owner of the domain
  • Admin: person responsible for administrative decisions about the domain
  • Technical: person responsible for technical changes to the domain

You can choose to enter the same information for all three types of contacts for a domain or choose to enter different contact details for each type of contact. You can also modify the settings as needed.

Accurate contact information is key because the registrant is the rightful owner of the domain. Access to the registrant's contact information, including email, phone number, or mailing address, can be used to gain management access to the domain.

Your contact information also enables ICANN to reach you in case of any problems. This information becomes the public contact information for your domain in the WHOIS database. You can control the amount of information available to the public by choosing the appropriate privacy protection settings.

Privacy protection

When you register a domain, ICANN requires Cloud Domains to publish the registrant's name and other contact information in the WHOIS database. The WHOIS database is open to the public, which means that published contact information is available to anyone at any time.

Cloud Domains provides three privacy-protection options for most domain suffixes (for example, .com, .net) that let you make some, none, or all of your information private.

Privacy option Description
Privacy protection on

Choosing this option ensures that your contact information is not available to the public. To help protect your contact information and prevent spam, a third party provides alternate (proxy) contact information for your domain in the public directory. The third-party provider forwards all messages that are sent to your proxy contact information to the actual private contact information.

Cloud Domains does not offer privacy protection for all domain endings or top-level domains (TLDs). Registries, the organizations that manage domain endings, have policies prohibiting the use of privacy protection for certain TLDs.

Limit your info available to the public Choosing this option makes limited non-identifying information available to the public. The actual information available publicly depends on the domain that you have chosen. If you provide an organization name, it might be publicly visible.
Make all contact info public Choosing this option makes all your contact information available to the public through the WHOIS database.

For information about how to use contact privacy, see the ContactPrivacy section in the reference documentation.

Access control

Google Cloud offers IAM, which lets you assign access to specific Google Cloud resources and prevents unwanted access to other resources.

For details about access control and how to manage access for Cloud Domains, see Roles and permissions.

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