Where's the right place to buy contact lenses online?

I've used 1-800-Contacts, they were helpful and honest. However their prices weren't any better than the doctor's office. Plus you of course need to have a prescription from your doctor that is not out of date.

I've always had good luck with 1-800-contacts. They do send a lot of advertisements and e-mails to me now, though. Not sure if that matters to you. On the plus side, they were very helpful in contacting my eye doctor when something was wrong with the prescription and I got my contacts pretty quickly even with the issue, and they have good customer service. You might be able to find a coupon online, too.

Not online, but in the US many Costco and Walmart stores sell contacts, presumably at discounted prices.

1-800-Contacts, I was about to buy it from them, but I found out that I could get them cheaper from BJ's. They were pretty cool about me canceling my order because of that.

I have bought from 1800Contacts for about 10 years. No problems. Next day delivery, and they will take boxes back if your prescription changes (which mine does, relatively often). No reason to fear doing this online; they are 100% identical to the ones I get from the doctor and usually considerably cheaper. Furthermore, they will match the price of any competitor. For instance, my product of choice, Acuvue Oasys: https://www.1800contacts.com/lens/acuvue-oasys.htm http://www.opticontacts.com/webstore/CLAVOJJ.html?lens=Johnson-and-Johnson-Acuvue-Oasys-contact-lenses I bought 8 boxes from 1800Contacts for 98% of the OptiContacts.com price. And got the 1800Contacts customer service, free next-day shipping and the ability to return any unopened boxes at any time. Can't beat that with a stick.

Have you had contact lenses before? It might be a good idea to go to a store and be fitted for a trial pair of contact lenses. When you try a new brand of contacts, they'll give you a free trial pair to see how you like them. When you go for a fitting, the optician measures the curvature of your eye, among other things. You might have unusually flat or round eyes, which would be good to know before going ahead and buying contacts online. That info might be on the box. Then when you find a pair you like via free trials, then you can search for a good deal online.

Hard or soft and if the former, which type exactly (rigid or the rigid gas permeable)?

Just a note, if you have really bad vision, you may not be able to use 1800Contacts. For example, I can't, they just don't sell contacts in my prescription level. Sigh, being blind as a bat is never easy.

I'll nth 1800Contacts, they've been very helpful and even expedited my order (they sent things the moment they got confirmation of my prescription) with free shipping when I needed something in a hurry before a long trip.