Domains & DNS, in detail
Registrars differ less on the first year and more on renewals, upsells and DNS quality. The honest comparison is renewal price + what the bundled DNS actually does (Anycast, DNSSEC, API). GoDaddy's Jan 2025 FTC settlement over misrepresented security is worth knowing before defaulting there.
| Tool | Free tier | Entry price | Billing unit | Watch out for | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cloudflare | Free unmetered DNS | At-cost (.com ≈ $10/yr) | Wholesale + $0 markup | Registration requires Cloudflare nameservers — DNS lock-in | Cheapest honest renewals + fastest Anycast DNS |
| Porkbun | Free WHOIS privacy, DNS, SSL | .com ≈ $11/yr flat | Per domain-year | Few enterprise features (no registrar API SLAs) | Dev favorite for .dev/.io/.app side projects |
| Buddy Domains | DNS bundled with all plans | Registration at market rates | Part of the platform plan | Makes most sense when the site also deploys through Buddy | Domains + Anycast DNS + SSL managed by the deploying platform |
| Namecheap | Free basic DNS + WHOIS privacy | .com ≈ $6–7 yr 1, ≈ $17 renewal | Per domain-year | Renewal creep — multiple .com bumps 2023–2025 | First-year bargains across many TLDs |
| AWS Route 53 | None | $0.50/zone/mo + $0.40/M queries | Per zone + per query | No free tier; costs grow with zones and health checks | DNS as infrastructure-as-code inside AWS |
| GoDaddy | .com ≈ $12 yr 1, ≈ $22 renewal | Per domain-year | None meaningful | FTC settlement (Jan 2025) over security claims; aggressive upsells | Mainstream one-stop shop — devs mostly migrate away |
| deSEC | Free open-source DNS hosting | $0 (donation-funded) | Free | DNS only — no registrar; bring your domain | DNSSEC-first free DNS from a Berlin non-profit |
Pricing models and free tiers change often — check each vendor for current terms. Compiled July 2026; the most volatile figures verified on official pricing pages.
Official pages: Cloudflare · Porkbun · Namecheap · AWS Route 53 · GoDaddy · deSEC
Entry price at a glance
Typical .com price per year (registration/renewal). Hatched bars have no flat per-domain price.
Notes & recent changes
- Cloudflare Registrar charges the wholesale price with zero markup, but only works with Cloudflare nameservers — moving DNS away means moving the domain.
- The FTC's settlement with GoDaddy (announced Jan 2025, finalized May 2025) followed years of misrepresented security practices.
- Route 53 has no free tier since AWS moved new accounts to the credit-based free plan (Jul 2025).
Which one should you pick?
- Set-and-forget with honest renewals → Cloudflare (or Porkbun if you want registrar/DNS separation).
- Domain, DNS, SSL and deploys in one place → Buddy Domains.
- Everything in Terraform on AWS → Route 53.
- Free standards-obsessed DNS for a domain you already own → deSEC.