What is a domain name (and do I need one)?

A domain name is the human-readable address people type to reach your site or send you email — "yourcompany.com" instead of a string of numbers. You don't strictly need one to use Turtini (every Builder site gets a free yourname.turtini.com subdomain), but you'll want one as soon as you start handing out a URL on business cards, in email signatures, or to customers — your own domain makes you look like a real business and is the only way to send email from "[email protected]" instead of a Gmail address.

Anatomy of a domain:
• Apex (or "root"): example.com — what you actually register
• Subdomain: shop.example.com, blog.example.com — free, unlimited, you create them on top of the apex
• TLD ("top-level domain"): the .com / .net / .io / .co / etc. ending
• "www" is just a conventional subdomain — Turtini auto-wires both www.example.com and the bare example.com to your site so visitors get the same place either way

What you actually own when you "buy a domain":
You're paying for the exclusive right to use that name for the registration term (1–10 years, your choice). You don't own it forever — if you stop renewing, after a grace period it goes back on the market and anyone can pick it up. Auto-renew is on by default for domains bought through Turtini so this doesn't happen by accident.

Most non-technical buyers don't need to understand DNS, nameservers, or WHOIS to use a domain — Turtini handles all of that automatically. Go to Account → Domains, type the name you want, click Buy, and within ~30 seconds you have a working domain attached to your Turtini sites.