Rule: Always buy your domain directly!
Restated: Don’t let your web developer or anyone else buy your domain. They can absolutely refer you to a reputable domain registrar (I’m a fan of namecheap.com for domain registration) and ask you to then add you as an additional users or to access the account so they can walk you towards pointing your account to their current or new hosting account. That way, you own your domain, your brand name. It’s more important than controlling your hosting.
I’ve often seen a client who comes to me with a domain being held hostage by a current vendor who either has left the business and can’t bother to appropriately release their domain for transfer or who doesn’t want to release the domain.
