đź’ˇ Quick conclusion: If you plan on going with a .com then pick Namecheap if you want the domain for a test project, Cloudflare to get it for the long term, and Bluehost if you want to get web hosting alongside.
Cheapest domain registrars in 2024
Without further ado, after searching the four corners of the internet, here are the seven cheapest domain registrars. Learn what makes them stand out, why they made the cut, what are some of the popular domain extensions that they offer, as well as possible reasons why you might want to skip them and consider a different option.
🤔 Level up your knowledge: What exactly is a ‘cheap’ domain?
You’ll be surprised, but there’s actually a baseline set by an organization called ICANN. This is the organization that sells all domains at wholesale prices to the individual domain registrars. Then those registrars add their markup and sell the domain to you. They are the middlemen between you and ICANN. So when we discuss cheap domains, it’s not so much about a specific dollar amount, but more about the difference between the wholesale ICANN price, and the marked-up registrar price. Sometimes you will also see promotional prices that are lower than the wholesale price. Registrars intentionally take a loss on these in the hopes that they’ll make it up later. However, you can take advantage of this if you play it smart. I’ll explain this more in the domain buying strategies section.
Cloudflare Registrar
Best for
- The lowest possible price over the long-term.
- Number of TLDs offered: ~350
- Registration / renewal for .com: $9.15 / $9.15
- Free domain privacy: âś…
- Hosting offered: Does not offer traditional web hosting, but the Cloudflare Pages service lets you deploy static sites
Cloudflare is a very versatile company that offers lots of different services to internet users, with one of those services being domain name registration. I chose to feature it first for a very compelling reason, and it has to do with their mark-up. I purposely stated that most – but not all – registrars mark up the wholesale ICANN prices of domains. That’s because Cloudflare is a notable exception to this.
You read that correctly. Cloudflare sells domains at cost, which means that if you choose to buy a domain from them, you will get the cheapest possible long-term price for every available TLD that they sell.
In practice, because Cloudflare does not mark up their prices, they don’t offer promotional discounts either. What you see is what you get – whether it’s your first year with them, or your tenth year. If you’re a true red-blooded bargain hunter then you might not appreciate that, but the flip side is that you don’t need to remember anything or make any adjustments to your budget starting in year two. The price is the price and that’s it.
Additional features
- Automatic domain renewal
- DNSSEC
- Two-factor authentication
- Domain locking
- Developer-friendly API
At this point, you might be thinking to yourself that this all sounds amazing and why should you even continue reading the rest of the article? Cloudflare it is, right? Well, as I said, I put it at the top of the list for a reason, but that doesn’t make it completely flawless. Every registrar is going to have some downsides.
Why you might want to skip Cloudflare
One potential drawback with Cloudflare is that they force you to use their nameservers if you register a domain with them. This limits your flexibility and choice, and it essentially locks you into their ecosystem.
The ripple effects from that include not being able to access specialized DNS features, certain pricing models, or simpler management options that other providers might offer.
To be fair, Cloudflare does have strong security and performance – even on their free tier. However, it still might not align with your specific needs if you’re after functionalities or integrations that are simply not available with Cloudflare.
A sample of TLDs offered by Cloudflare
Before we move on, I wanted to quickly share with you a rundown of some popular extensions and their prices – just in case you’re thinking about any of these for your own site.
