Is there a TLD that has a reasonable chance to stay low cost?
I just want a domain for hobby projects and I don’t really care which TLD as long as it’s short, but I don’t like having to guess which TLDs are trying to lure people with low prices, only to suddenly raise prices in the future (I’ve seen this happen a few times).
I’d also like to use a TLD that is unlikely to be bought by private equity (I vaguely recall this being attempted with a popular TLD; edit: it was .org, but the purchase got blocked after an outcry).
I just heard that .tk allows free registration, so that seems promising, but I doubt it will last since there are real costs involved.
For now, I’m sticking with .com because it’s the most popular and I’m hoping that, as such, price hikes will cause enough outrage to be addressed eventually, but I’m hoping there’s a better option!
I would say .com, .net, and .ca if you happen to live in Canada.
> I’d also like to use a TLD that is unlikely to be bought by private equity (I vaguely recall this being attempted with a popular TLD).
That was Ethos Capital and .org IIRC. They’ve managed to acquire two major registry operators [1]. A huge number of the new gTLDs are under that umbrella. The new gTLDs are a great idea, but (IMO) the poor management and greed that comes along with private equity makes them too risky to use.
I don’t know this for sure without looking it up, but I include .net because I think .net and .com are both using a legacy registry agreement. Everything else uses a new agreement that has fewer protections for registrants. For example, there are no price caps on the new gTLDs IIRC.
I'm not sure why, but the .uk domain was the cheapest option on Cloudflare when I bought a couple domains a few months ago. They were $4.30 per year, so I bought several years of two domains since they were so cheap. I don't live in the UK, but it seems like a no-brainer because it feels like that TLD wouldn't get rejected as a spam domain like the other cheap ones might.
> .tk allows free registration, so that seems promising, but I doubt it will last
.tk has been free for years and years. i think it's lasted ok. it won't be good for search engine results though, and probably isn't good to use for email. it's good if you have no money.. like those free1000.hostingforyou.net hosts. you can put together a warez site from the street!
That’s a shame that .tk is getting abused, but not surprising.
I guess, in addition to maintaining the database, a TLD probably needs to prevent abuse to be a good citizen. Add in fees and I have no idea what a reasonable price would be. Maybe I’ll stop complaining…
I just want a domain for hobby projects and I don’t really care which TLD as long as it’s short, but I don’t like having to guess which TLDs are trying to lure people with low prices, only to suddenly raise prices in the future (I’ve seen this happen a few times).
I’d also like to use a TLD that is unlikely to be bought by private equity (I vaguely recall this being attempted with a popular TLD; edit: it was .org, but the purchase got blocked after an outcry).
I just heard that .tk allows free registration, so that seems promising, but I doubt it will last since there are real costs involved.
For now, I’m sticking with .com because it’s the most popular and I’m hoping that, as such, price hikes will cause enough outrage to be addressed eventually, but I’m hoping there’s a better option!