andrewgoulding.info - free-domain-names

Domain Names

FREE domain names aren't so much FREE as an integrated part of a web hosting package, usually only available with a 12 or 24 month contract for web hosting. Many of the web hosts will advertise that you get a domain name FREE for life but all that means is that you won't have to pay domain registration fees if you continue your hosting contract with them.

That also means that you should only use those domain names for sites that you're not expecting to have a life much more than a few years, never for your main business or personal site, as you never want to have your domain name controlled by anybody else other than you.

The best deal that I've seen so far is with IX hosting, which offers 2 FREE domain names if you take a 12 month web hosting contract at $4.95m and decreases to $3.95 for a 24 month contract. The math goes something like this:

cost of IX web hosting = $3.95 X 24m = $94.80

savings on domain costs = $8.95 x 2 x 2(yrs) = $35.80

total cost for 24m of IX web hosting with savings from 2 domains = $59

monthly cost for 24m of IX web hosting with savings from 2 domains = $2.45m

FREE Domain Names from Dot.tk

There is another way to get a FREE domain name and I wouldn't recommend it for a site you intend to nurture but it's certainly worth checking out. Dot.tk is the government-owned domain name registrar from the South Pacific island of Tokelau, which has created a small money-spinner by giving away FREE domain names that folks must sometimes upgrade. There are certain conditions, though:

You can't register more than three FREE domain names with them

While they are FREE, you can't sell them, the ownership remains with Dot.tk. If the domain names have been upgraded, you can do with them as you like

Dot.tk insist that your site receives at least 25 visitors within the first 90 days or the FREE domain name registration is cancelled.

I haven't used Dot.tk but if a FREE domain name is what you need, it's there.