Do I need t stay with the company that I purchase my domain name from?

[Zomanda]

So I'm purchasing several domain names using popular search terms for my profession. Early I on purchased a domain name from a company that would not release it for 60 days after purchasing through their company (or pay them $99). My question is... Is this industry standard practice? -Sub question- Cost fluctuates from company to company so much from 50 cents up, I understand having to pay more for premium names but why oes company A charge so much more that company B? And this is just for name purchase no other services.

[Jake]

A 60 day hold before you can transfer a name is commonplace, beyond a base cost every registrar has their markup might have to do with the level of service they offer. Generally domain names bundled with hosting accounts are a pain or expensive to transfer.

Godaddy or namecheap.com are popular with the people I know, I just got a 32 day expired name renewed by namecheap with no extra charge, while Godaddy would have charged an $80+ service fee for that. Some discount volume (100+ ?) purchases.