Hey guys!
I know this may sound completely stupid, but does anybody know of any site that provides free domain names?
I’m talking about .com domain names, not those free crappy DMs some websites provide…
Thank you!
Why would anyone provide a domain name to you at no charge when Verisign is charging them close to $7 for it?
The only places I have seen to offer “free” .com domains are those hosting providers that include the cost of the domain in what they charge for their hosting.
As @felgall said - ICANN charges everyone about $7 to register a .com domain - so anyone offering a free .com is either bundling that $7 cost into a yearly hosting plan (or other subscription( or they are trying to trick you some other way such as making it difficult to move the domain to another registrar and/or charge $20+ for renewal when it comes up.
From personal experience it is always better to keep your domains and hosting separate.
I prefer Namecheap, but Godaddy are also good for domains.
There are numerous options for hosting too - Innohosting, HostNine, DowntownHost, Hostgator, etc…
It’s not likely to get free .com domain names unless they include it in their paid hosting plan. I suggest you just buy a .com domain which is available for around $12-13 for a year.
The domain name is your sites permanent address. “Free” would almost surely mean “free usage”, but the provider would retain “ownership”.
I would really not want that kind of situation with a site that I put effort into developing. Get your own domain name, from a reputable provider. It’s the wisest ~$11 you can spend for your site. That, and a recent backup of your site’s content, ensure that you can always restore your site on another server if and when necessary.
Well I started a thread also like yours… I found a cu.cc domain name but I learned that co.cc is banned in google for abuse of usage. so might as well listen to the responses of the guys before me cause sooner or later… cu.cc will also be banned… with the rest of the free domain names…
Free domains are always potentially open to abuse because it isn’t costing the person anything to abuse a few thousand of those domains.
ive never seen or heard of a free .com domain name but namecheap.com you can buy one there for about $10 as cheap as i could find
Dynadot have .com domains at $9.75 - that’s 23 cents cheaper than Namecheap’s $9.98
exactly felgall, thank you!
You can usually get a domain at no charge with a shared hosting plan but free domains to use else where are really unheard of. I recommend you look into this option.