So, I had a frustrating experience with Namecheap. They simply tripled the renewal price of my .com domain. I thought about transferring the domain and buying another one I need at Porkbun, but do they also have this kind of trick? Will they suddenly raise the price 3, 4, or 10 times? In my case, the price tripled in 1 year. Or is it better to just go with Cloudflare?

If anyone has experience with these domain registration sites, please clear this doubt for me.

Just got a message from Namecheap. Might have to drop some domains. Anyone else see these increases?

Currently pay 22 a year for godaddy. If I transfer it to porkbun and they seem to selling domains for like 10 bucks a years, will I get that rate or something else? How does it work?

Hey, I am interested in buying a domain that costs 75$ on porkbun. I do not mind to pay this price but will the renewal price be higher because of that?

I know that regular domains renewal rates are 9.13$/year, but there is no information about it when I checkout.

Appreciate all help

I want to purchase a domain for a long term to avoid expiration issues. If you have information about which domain is the cheapest for a 10-year registration, please tell me along with the provider that sells it.

Porkbun has published a list of upcoming TLD price increases.

The registry behind a huge portfolio of domains (called TLDs — but you knew that already, right?) is increasing pricing industry-wide for 233 different domain extensions at 17:00 UTC on 6 October 2025. This change affects every registrar that offers these domains, not just us, and includes registrations, renewals, and transfers.

Link to List

The culprit behind the increase is Identity Digital. https://www.identity.digital/

I've been struggling to decide between namecheap, porkbun and hover as a domain registrar. I'm setting up a shopify store for e-commerce. There are so many pros and cons, hundreds of YouTube videos, most of which are repeating the identical script they probably found from chat GPT. And my head is genuinely tarting to physically hurt. I'm so overwhelmed.

Which one should I go for. I don't know much about web development at all. But from what I've heard this is what I need.

1. SSL certificates - the thing that makes my website safe and not look sketchy I guess??

2. Custom email hosting - so I can have my own custom email @ which is very professional and very cool.

3. Email forwarding so may all goes to my personal email?? (I guess this is good but I don't really know if I want that. I'd rather just log into my business email every time I want to respond to customers) - this just seems like it would inconvenience me and getting my way.

4. Domain forwarding could be very useful, so even if someone types the wrong domain, they would still end up on my website. (But not a necessity I suppose idk)

5. I barely even know what a sub domain is, but I think I need this. (Yes I will continue researching these things)

6. DNS management - the most important of all I reckon. From what I've learnt this is the thing that ensures that there are no connectivity issues. When people type in my website name they actually end up on my site + with no slow loading time etc)

The lower the price the better, but not if it means I'm going to have a headache running this business. I see the extra prices as a way of delegating the hard work to somebody who isn't me. You're very important for someone running their first business on their own.

I tried asking chat GPT, I did it for hours actually. But it kept giving me false info, I was incredibly biased for some strange reason, telling me the price per month for certain companies but the price per year for other companies. When I calculated the numbers they were all wrong. And even I barely know anything I had to correct it, it would agree and explain again, still getting things wrong. So I'm overwhelmed and coming to Reddit for help.

I won't get it from shopify in case I feel like I need to transfer it later. I'd rather own the domain individually, so shopify won't be an option.

Thank you in advance.

Let's use Porkbun. They have a .com for $8.58 (regular price).

So let's use the limit, if I buy a domain and do it for multiple years...apparently the limit is 10 years.

So if I go on Porkbun...$85.80.........So from 2021 to 2031. What happens if Porkbun decides in 2027 to raise .com to $20. That is $11.42 higher. Would I have to pay $11.42 extra in 2027 to 2031 each year or nothing no matter how much they raise their prices, paying new renewal price only in 2031?

I have never purchased a domain or renewed a domain for multiple years but I am thinking about it.

I've heard great things and horror stories from Porkbun and I'm wondering if it's worth biting the bullet. I'm not interested in doing ID verification but that's the main downside I'm seeing. I don't own many domains (I use every domain I own for personal projects) so I would only save ~$10 a year. If anyone could give some advice/suggestions that would be much appreciated. Thanks!

My domain fees on .pw are doubling.

I just need a cheap domain. Nothing fancy. self hosting; mostly just for myself.

Just wanted to say this isnt Porkbun-I didnt completely understand the backend and based on this post and all the research I did to understand what is going showed me that most people do not know either and even AI wasnt giving me straight answers but I want to clarify this is not a porkbun issue, this is the big corp inflouence controlling the scenerio.

Reddit Post Update – What I Learned About Domain Pricing (And Why It's Not Porkbun's Fault)

Hey all, I wanted to share a breakdown after digging into what I thought was Porkbun jacking up renewal prices. Turns out, it's way deeper than that — and Porkbun isn’t the bad guy here ( as far as I know because i not know who the 3rd entity that owns it but is not listed as owner ) only Porkbun can give us that answer and its not the registry. This applies to Verisign-owned registries only. Here’s what I learned:

💡 What Actually Determines Domain Prices?

There are two main players:

• Registry: Owns and manages each TLD (.com = Verisign, .ai = Anguilla, .bio = Identity Digital). They set the base price and control “premium” designations.

• Registrar: Retailers like Porkbun, Cloudflare, GoDaddy — they sell domains to the public, often at or near cost.

Most registrars don’t control renewal pricing. If a domain is marked "premium," it’s almost always set by the registry, not the registrar.

💰 Why Are Some Domains So Expensive?

• Premium domains are specific names the registry flags as valuable — think single-word, short, or brandable.

• Some TLDs (like .store, .tech, .bio) use a low first-year price (like $1–$5) to hook you, then renew at $30–$500+.

• If you see a .com for $20 first year and $500 renewal — it was likely tagged “premium” by Verisign.

🔄 Can I Avoid This?

• Cloudflare is the only registrar that won’t sell premium domains and only offers domains at cost — no markups, no upsells.

• Porkbun shows premium domains in search results and passes on whatever the registry charges — they’re not profiting on this.

• Transferring registrars won’t solve the problem if the domain is marked premium at the registry level. Everyone has to honor that price.

🕵️‍♂️ WHOIS Isn’t Reliable Anymore

A domain can look “unregistered” but still be:

• Privately owned with WHOIS privacy

• Flagged as premium and technically unowned, but priced high by the registry

That’s why it might look “available” on WHOIS but cost hundreds or thousands when you try to buy it.

🏛️ Who Really Profits?

If you register a premium domain:

• You’re still leasing it, not owning it outright.

• The registry (like Verisign) continues to profit from the renewal price — even if the registrar doesn’t.

• Premium prices can go up over time, unless locked in (only possible on certain TLDs).

🏴‍☠️ Squatting Laws Gutted Domain Investing

Laws like the Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA) were designed to stop people from holding domains like mazda.com hostage.

BUT the side effect is:

• Individuals are penalized, even for investing in generic names

• Corporations and registries now squat instead — tagging names as “premium” and profiting

It didn’t stop squatting — it just shifted the power from individuals to institutions.

🌍 Who Owns What?

• Verisign runs .com, .net, and a few others — they’re a near-monopoly, approved by ICANN to raise prices.

• Identity Digital owns over 270 TLDs (.bio, .app, .life) and controls all pricing.

• .ai is run by the Anguilla government — they profit directly from every registration.

All these registries can tag domains as premium and price them however they want — there’s no real regulation against it.

🧠 Final Thoughts

The dream of finding a great, cheap .com and flipping it is largely gone — the system now favors registries and corporations. Most good names are either premium-priced or already bought.

It’s not just about domains — it reflects a larger pattern:

• Consolidation of power

• Wealth flowing to a handful of players

• Less room for small entrepreneurs to thrive

TL;DR: Porkbun isn’t price gouging — the registry is. We’re not buying domains; we’re renting them from monopolies. And the system is built to favor corporations over individuals.

🎬 Fiction That Mirrors This:

• Ready Player One – corporate control of virtual space

• Elysium – rich vs poor divide

• The Circle – surveillance & digital monopolies

• Snowpiercer – the elites control the track

Hope this helps others avoid the same confusion I had — and keeps the blame pointed where it belongs.. This corporate greed is huge in current

Hey guys just wanted to get the communities consensus on Porkbun vs Cloudflare?

EDIT: Afer reading the stories from user billhartzer of Cloudflare domains getting hacked (see comments below), I'll be sticking with Porkbun for the time being.

I've been using Porkbun them for the past 5 years and have only had good experiences with them but am interested to hear your experience vs Cloudflare?

It looks like Cloudflare has really good domain rates as .com renewals are $10.45/yr at the time of writing this. Porkbun renewal rates for .com domains are currently $11.06/yr.

In total I've been purchasing my domains with Porkbun then for web hosting I've been using Cloudways along with WordPress to build my websites as I believe it's the best web hosting provider.

If you're looking to do this same this tutorial will walk you through the process.

Anyways, in the past I used to use Namecheap but ever since they've increased their prices I've stayed away from them as they've significantly increased their domain rates and most definitely NOT cheap.

Overall across the board, it appears domain registrars have increased their pricing, even just a few years ago you could get a .com domain with Porkbun for ~$9/yr but that has since changed to ~11/yr.

This still wildly beats GoDaddy and Namecheap, their .com renewal rates are $22/yr and Namecheaps are $17/yr.

I always tell people to stay away from GoDaddy. Namecheap isn't bad but they're just more expensive. Most people haven't heard of Porkbun and find the brand amusing (I love it tbh). Cloudflare on the other hand is more well known especially amongst the tech literate crowd. I'm interested to hear your guys' thoughts on Cloudflare since I haven't used them in particular.

Thoughts?

Hey All - My Google Domains started getting moved over to Squarespace this past week, and it's been a less than stellar experience. Not only do I not to control what account these domains end up in, managing domains in Squarespace is not what I'd call straight forward.

As a result, I went to the Interwebs and Reddit to see what was recommended. The same 3 kept getting recommended: Cloudflare, Porkbun, Namecheap

The trend on Namecheap - which I used a decade ago - is that it is no longer actually cheap, with constant price hikes & advertisements, so I ruled them out and decided to split my domains between Cloudflare & Porkbun, to see how the experience was. Worst case, I move the domains again in 60 days, if one is really horrible (yes, I would need to pay the cost to extend one more year).

Since there have been a few threads on this topic, I figured I'd share where I fell out - with details, in case it helps you make your decision:

• Cloudflare

  • Pros

    • Has every enterprise level feature & customization you could want, within policy (see below), although many of these are upsells

    • The transfer process is done in a way where it's very hard to screw up the DNS settings post-transfer (e.g. you need to move the NS over before you can initiate transfer)

    • Cheapest domains out there

    • Been around for a very long time, and relies on other revenue, so not likely to go out of business

  • Cons

    • The interface is very "heavy"; It's clearly built for Enterprises, not prosumers, and so it can take a bit of searching to find the thing you want

    • It feels like Cloudflare takes positions on the "right" way to do things, and for those things, there is no workaround. Examples include:

    • Not all ccTLDs supported yet (but the ~200 they cover were all I needed)

• Porkbun

  • Pros

    • Simple & straightforward, albeit quirky, interface

    • You can pretty much do whatever you want, including domain masking & email forwarding without pre-approval (this could also be abused)

    • Probably the 2nd cheapest domains

    • Other redditors have commented that their customer service is fast & friendly

    • I didn't count but their supported domain list seems much longer than CloudFlare's

  • Cons

    • Been around as long as Google Domains, so unclear if this business model is sustainable

    • UI is not the prettiest, or the best laid out, but it's so simple that's it's pretty easy to figure out

    • Because you can do anything you want, you could transfer your domain and lose all your previous settings, which would mean you would need to figure out what those records would need to be/reverify your domain

A good example of the experience between these two is SSL.

• Cloudflare: Since you had to have CF NS in order to transfer, CF automatically enables SSL (great!). To find that they did this, you would go to your domain, click on the SSL section, and see in the Overview that you have "Flexible" SSL on by default vs Full vs Full (strict) ... or off. Now they use diagrams to explain what each of these is, but you need to dig to understand what the difference is here vs a standard LetsEncrypt cert on a server. It turns out LE certs are equivalent to "full" (to my best understanding) and that "flexible" means just the connection between browser and CF is encrypted. So you can go and switch it to full ... for every domain you have.

• Porkbun: They have a simple listing of your domains, where you click details. One section is "SSL". If you click the small edit button, it will tell you that they can only generate SSL for you if you use their NameServers, and they give you a single click button to make the switch. You push the button, they update, and tell you that a cert is being generated using LetsEncrypt. You need to check back to see status switch from "Nothing yet" to "Have certificate" in green. This takes 10-20 minutes. You could do this rapidly for all domains, as they are all listed in a flat list. If you switched to their NameServers during transfer, this step is automatically done.

For me, while Porkbun is a bit fast and loose (and doesn't have as many options as Cloudflare), it's been a more enjoyable experience. I also didn't like that Cloudflare prohibits me from masking, and I'm worried about what else they will prevent me from doing in the future. While I understand some of these settings can be abused, they also can allow me to provide a more pleasant experience for simple things, like not showing an "ugly" URL.

If I was running an enterprise site, where I needed to tweak the hell out of everything to ensure optimal load times, while fending off DOS attacks, and needed workers to handle different end points with different situations, Cloudflare would be a great fit. I'm not doing that though.

I'll probably let these domains sit on both of these registrars for another 6 months to see if anything really breaks (I still have to see how the Sites redirects land). If something major pops up, I'll update the post.

I hope someone finds this helpful. :)

UPDATE (2024.07): I'm all in on Porkbun. Cloudflare made basic changes complicated and Porkbun support is absolutely phenomenal.