this post was submitted on 24 Jan 2026

141 points (98.6% liked)

Selfhosted

60177 readers

913 users here now

A place to share alternatives to popular online services that can be self-hosted without giving up privacy or locking you into a service you don't control.

Rules:

Detailed Rules Post

Be civil.
No spam.
Posts are to be related to self-hosting.
Don't duplicate the full text of your blog or readme if you're providing a link.
Submission headline should match the article title.
No trolling.
Promotion posts require active participation, with an account that is at least 30 days old. F/LOSS without a paywall has exceptions, with requirements. See the rules link for details.

Resources:

selfh.st Newsletter and index of selfhosted software and apps
awesome-selfhosted software
awesome-sysadmin resources
Self-Hosted Podcast from Jupiter Broadcasting

Any issues on the community? Report it using the report flag.

Questions? DM the mods!

founded 3 years ago

MODERATORS

curbstickle@anarchist.nexus

curbstickle_lw@lemmy.world

141

If you have one, how much do you pay for a domain name? Any cheap registrar recommendations? (lemmy.sdf.org)

submitted 5 months ago by user224@lemmy.sdf.org to c/selfhosted@lemmy.world

98 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Domain names seem expensive in comparison. The cheaper VPS that I use for playing around is just $10.29/year.
I thought I'd get a domain name from RackNerd as well, but they're $24.95/year + I think $4.99 for privacy.

I've checked Namecheap, and that seemed great, until I found that renewal prices are often through the roof.

I don't really care about it being nice. For now, mostly I just want to use the VPS as image host for Lemmy, since Imgur and Catbox are both a bit problematic.
And without a domain name, the images only show as link posts in the default LemmyUI (though it seems to work elsewhere). Plus it makes migration impossible.

(page 2) 50 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[–] ryper@lemmy.ca 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

$24.95/yr seems high. Are you looking at a specialty TLD? I paid around 10 USD/yr for a .com with Cloudflare, and 12 CAD/yr for a .ca with Canspace.

[–] user224@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 5 months ago

Not at all. And that's without whois privacy.
.com .net .org .us .me are $24.95/year
.meme is $24.99/year
.io is whopping $69.00/year

[–] OfficeMonkey@lemmy.today 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I have entirely too many domains at namesilo.com. Privacy is included for free in the majority of circumstances -- not for .org. .com renewals for me are down to $8.85 year because of the aforemented "too many." I also have some .social and other newer TLDs and those are stupidly expensive.

I use nothing else from namesilo. For domains I use I don't even use their nameservers. But for what I need, their UI is sometimes awful, but it does what I need.

load more comments (1 replies)

[–] lukecyca@lemmy.ca 3 points 5 months ago

Hover.com is my favorite. Good prices and no shenanigans.

[–] SqueakyBeaver@piefed.blahaj.zone 3 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

I have a 9-digit .xyz domain through cloudflare and I think I pay like ~~$1-2~~ $0.87 a year for it

[–] Bazoogle@lemmy.world 3 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

Should be 87 cents USD. It is a 1.111B class domain https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.xyz

[–] SqueakyBeaver@piefed.blahaj.zone 1 points 5 months ago

That sounds right. I just remembered incorrectly

[–] AbsolutePain@lemmy.world 3 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Wait here are you getting a $10/year VPS?

[–] lka1988@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 5 months ago

Seriously, my ISP (XMission - local and fucking awesome) charges $27/mo minimum for a VPS

load more comments (1 replies)

[–] witness_me@lemmy.ml 2 points 5 months ago

Formerly Google domains, now owned by squarespace. It costs $13 a year for a .rocks domain.

[–] vividspecter@aussie.zone 2 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Some will let you pay for up to 10 years at the 1 year price, so if you get a deal on a particular tld (as long as it's not an abused one like .xyz) you can pay upfront and save a decent amount of money.

From memory you should try and avoid 10 year renewals since you can't transfer to a new registrar for the first year of the new renewal.

You'll probably want WHOIS privacy support, so make sure the tld supports it.

[–] jjlinux@lemmy.zip 2 points 5 months ago

I use Cloudflare as registrar, and I am currently paying for 2 .com and 1 .co domains, US$100 each for 10 years.

[–] Bluefruit@lemmy.world 2 points 5 months ago

I use cloudflare for both my domains. $17 or so each.

Honestly you can spend as little as a couple bucks if you dont care about a name. I like cloudflare but almost any registrar is fine as long as you pay for the domain.

[–] alt_xa_23@lemmy.world 2 points 5 months ago

My namecheap domain (.net) is around 15 USD annually, with basic privacy protection included

[–] foggy@lemmy.world 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I have a .com for like $19.99 but pay to have my info redacted from whois stuff, an email address, all cones to like $42.99

I have a bullshit domain with some nonsense tld and domain name that I pay $0.99/yr for that's on a vps I pay like $150/yr for all told (it's doing stuff).

All told I keep it below $20/month.

[–] Zak@lemmy.world 3 points 5 months ago

I have a .com for like $19.99 but pay to have my info redacted from whois stuff, an email address, all cones to like $42.99

Porkbun charges $11.08 for a .com with whois privacy. $30/year for email hosting might be worth it if you're getting very good service, but I think you're overpaying.

[–] Auster@thebrainbin.org 2 points 5 months ago

Dunno your region, but Registro.br's domains are rather cheap imo. However, I need to check again, but afaik it's only for people with CPF or CNPJ, the Brazilian equivalents of person and company identification numbers.

[–] princeofspace@lemmy.world 2 points 5 months ago

If you’re at all into credit card churning Amex business gold has a new $150 square space credit that can be used for domains. You can prepay for up to 10 years. Their rates are high ($20 for .com) but it’s fake money.

[–] irmadlad@lemmy.world 2 points 5 months ago

I pay 0.04 USD per day with NamesCheap privacy included.

[–] bootleg@sh.itjust.works 1 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

What website do you get your VPS from?

[–] user224@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 5 months ago

https://racknerdtracker.com/ keeps all the deals that don't expire.

[–] uid0gid0@lemmy.world 1 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

I got an .org domain from hover.com for $16/yr. They knock $5 off for the first year. They price domains based on popularity of the tld so that can get expensive. Whois privacy is standard and you can buy additional add-ons

[–] Peter1986C@piefed.europe.pub 1 points 5 months ago

I am not renting a VPS from them (only domain registration, an e-mailadres and whois privacy), but have you looked into the offerings from Infomaniak? Mind you, things like the TLD influence the price a lot (reg and/or renewal), and hosting related services can increase costs as well.

[–] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 5 months ago

https://njal.la/

Not the cheapest, but I quite like Njalla.

[–] Tiefkuehlkost@feddit.org 1 points 5 months ago

I did buy a 10 letter(not random) .cc domain on Namecheap 30€ for the next decade.

[–] captcha_incorrect@lemmy.world 1 points 5 months ago

https://www.loopia.com/ - ~10 euro/year for only DNS and ~100 euro/year for DNS, e-mail and web hosting.

[–] glitchdx@lemmy.world 0 points 5 months ago

I've got one through name.com and I pay I think $15/year for. Not really sure what extra features I'm getting, I don't do much with it.

load more comments