Cheapest Domain Registrars in 2026: What a .com Costs Over Five Years
For one .com kept five years, billed yearly at listed prices on 19 Oct 2026, Spaceship is the cheapest of the nine registrars that print a .com price: $48.80, then Dynadot at $54.40 and Porkbun at $55.40. GoDaddy's $2.99 first year needs a code and renews at $22.99, so five years with it come to $94.95.
Dupple data: we read 10 vendor pricing pages on 19 Oct 2026, and 9 publish a .com price on them. Of those 9, 6 advertise a first-year price or code below their renewal price, and the widest gap is Gandi's $27.38 a year.
| Registrar | Year 1, .com | Renewal per year | WHOIS privacy | 5 years, 1 name | 5 years, 10 names | Hidden costs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spaceship | $8.88 (sale) | $9.98 | Free | $48.80 | $488.00 | ICANN fee added at checkout; price follows its costs |
| Dynadot | $10.88 | $10.88 | Free | $54.40 | $544.00 | Code 899COM gives $8.99 in year one (limited supply), $52.51 over five years; $100.92 to restore a lapsed name |
| Porkbun | $11.08 | $11.08 | Free | $55.40 | $554.00 | $200 restoration fee on top of the renewal |
| Namecheap | $11.28 (sale) | $18.48 | Free | $85.20 | $852.00 | Code price $6.48 is for new customers, $80.40 over five years |
| Hover | $18.99 | $18.99 | Free | $94.95 | $949.50 | Says renewals get cheaper from ten names, prints no rate |
| Squarespace Domains | $20.00 | $20.00 | Free | $100.00 | $1,000.00 | Stated in a help article, not in a price table |
| Name.com | $12.99 (sale) | $19.99, then $21.99 from 31 Oct 2026 | Free | $100.95 | $1,009.50 | Renewal rises $2.00 a year; $120.00 to restore |
| GoDaddy | $22.99 (standard) | $22.99 | Free | $114.95 | $1,149.50 | Code GDWELCOME: year one $2.99 for one new-customer name, $94.95 over five years; ICANN fee added at checkout |
| Gandi | $11.00 | $38.38 | Free | $164.52 | $1,645.20 | Renewal is $27.38 above year one; $55.00 to restore |
| Cloudflare Registrar | Not on product page | Not on product page | Free | No total | No total | Must use Cloudflare nameservers |
Each total is year one plus four renewals for one .com at the prices the vendor lists, and the ten-name column multiplies it by ten. Year one is the registration price any visitor sees, with code-only offers noted beside it. Rows run from the lowest five-year total to the highest, and Cloudflare, which states no .com price, closes the list. Figures are in US dollars.
Why the year-two invoice decides the ranking
The first-year price is a promotion, and the renewal is what you keep paying. GoDaddy's code price covers one domain, one year and new customers, and the next invoice is the standard rate, more than seven times higher. Gandi shows the same shape with no code at all, because it charges $27.38 more to renew than to register.
Four registrars avoid the jump by printing the same price for registration and renewal: Porkbun, Dynadot, Hover and Squarespace. For them the five-year total is five times the sticker price, which is how Hover's flat rate ends level with GoDaddy's coded start at listed prices, before GoDaddy's separately listed ICANN fee, once the fifth year is paid. Dynadot also runs a first-year code.
Where the order flips
A one-year buyer should use a code, because GoDaddy's $2.99 and Namecheap's $6.48 both beat Spaceship's $8.88. By the end of year two Spaceship's $18.86 is below the two coded totals of $25.98 and $24.96, and the gap widens every year after.
Registering the full term at once changes Gandi most. Its page prints $11.00 a year for terms of 1 to 10 years, so five years at that rate is $55.00 instead of $164.52, although the page shows no five-year cart. Extensions differ too: Namecheap's .com renewal is below Hover's, but on .io its $75.98 renewal is above Hover's flat $74.99.
What is a domain registrar?
A domain registrar is an accredited company that sells and renews domain names. For .com the registry is Verisign, and registrars set their own retail prices around the registry's charge, which is why renewals span a wide range.
How we priced it
This is a price comparison built from each registrar's own pages, checked on 19 Oct 2026, and not a test of the services. Renewal means the printed price of a one-year renewal. ICANN's $0.20 yearly fee is inside the prices of Porkbun and Dynadot (Dynadot's help page says nothing is added on top), is listed as an extra $0.20 a year by GoDaddy and added at purchase by Spaceship, and is described by Namecheap as added to some listed prices, so the totals for Spaceship, GoDaddy and Namecheap can run up to $1.00 higher over five years. Hover, Name.com, Squarespace and Gandi say nothing about it on the pages read.
Spaceship: the lowest five-year total in this table
Spaceship's .com page prints $8.88 to register, $9.98 to renew and $9.48 to transfer, each per year. Year one and the transfer are sale prices, and its domains page shows $9.66 as the regular registration price. Its home page says it sells domains at cost with no markup and that prices may change if its costs change. WHOIS privacy is free with every eligible registration or transfer, and you can point the name at any DNS provider.
The catch: ICANN's mandatory $0.20 a year is added at checkout for .com, which lifts five years to $49.80, and a price that follows cost can also rise. The footer says it has served customers since 2022, a short track record.
Pick it if you will keep the name two years or more. Registering all five years at once is listed at $47.52, while a one-year buyer is better served by a coded first year elsewhere.
Dynadot: one flat price on every line
Dynadot's price table lists .com at $10.88 per year for registration, renewal and transfer, and every domain includes free privacy. Its .com page also shows the code 899COM, and Dynadot's promotion help article says it makes year one $8.99 (limited supply, and the name cannot be renewed in the first 60 days), which brings five years to $52.51; year two is $10.88 either way.
The catch: restoring a lapsed .com costs $100.92 on the same row, and the page warns that prices may vary with currency exchange rates.
Pick it for a predictable bill. One name sits $1.00 below Porkbun over five years, and ten names come to $544.00.
Porkbun: flat pricing with the extras included
Porkbun's domain list shows .com at $11.08 for registration, renewal and transfer, and states that all prices on the page include ICANN and other fees. WHOIS privacy and a Let's Encrypt SSL certificate are free, and so are up to 20 email forwards. A transfer in includes one year of renewal.
The catch: a name that falls into the redemption grace period adds a $200 restoration fee on top of the normal renewal.
Pick it when you want privacy, SSL and fees inside one flat price. It costs $6.60 more than Spaceship over five years at list prices.
Namecheap: a cheap sale price, then a higher renewal
Namecheap's registration page lists .com at $11.28 on sale with a renewal of $18.48, and a banner offers $6.48 with the code NEWCOM648 for new customers only. Domain privacy is free for life. Its .com page prints transfer at $11.48 on sale, against a regular $14.98.
The catch: $14.98 is the regular first-year price struck through beside the sale, and the renewal is a separate $18.48, which the totals use. A footnote adds that an ICANN fee of $0.20 is added to some listed prices.
Pick it if you already have an account. For a new buyer the code is the second-lowest first year here, but every later year costs more than at Spaceship, Dynadot or Porkbun.
Hover: the same price every year
Hover's pricing page lists .com at $18.99 per year, in US dollars, for registration, renewal and transfer. Free WHOIS privacy is included on eligible domains, and Hover's WHOIS privacy page names .COM among the supported extensions.
The catch is the level, not a trap. Hover says renewal savings start at ten domains but prints no discounted rate, so the ten-name total uses the list price.
Pick it for the same bill every year. Five years ties GoDaddy's coded total at listed prices, before GoDaddy's separately listed ICANN fee, and it runs $46.15 above Spaceship.
Squarespace Domains: one flat price, taxes included
Squarespace's domains FAQ puts common extensions such as .com at $20 per year and says a free domain renews at that price after its first year. The Squarespace Domains home page says the price shown includes taxes and fees, and it lists WHOIS privacy as included. That page also advertises a $10 domain without naming the extension, so I priced .com at the FAQ's figure.
Squarespace's annual website plans include a free domain for the first year, as our website builders comparison notes, and the FAQ says that domain then renews at the same price.
The catch: the .com price comes from a help article rather than a price table.
Pick it if your website already runs on Squarespace. Five years is $51.20 above Spaceship.
Name.com: $12.99 on sale, with a renewal about to rise
Name.com's pricing page shows .com on sale at $12.99, against a regular $17.99, with a $19.99 renewal, a $17.99 transfer and a $120.00 restoration fee. A note on the renewal cell says it changes to $21.99 on 31 Oct 2026, and the five-year total uses that figure. Its free Domain Safe tier includes WHOIS privacy, and Pro is $7.99 a year.
The catch: the rise is $2.00 a year, $8.00 across four renewals. At the current $19.99 the five-year total would be $92.95.
Pick it if the sale price suits you and you will review the name before the first renewal.
GoDaddy: a code-priced start and the standard follow-up
GoDaddy's domains page offers a .com for $2.99 with the code GDWELCOME, valid for one domain, a 1-year term and new customers. Its domain cost guide, with a visible date of 11 June 2026, lists the standard .com at $22.99 a year, adds a $0.20 yearly ICANN fee and lists incoming transfers from $11.99, including one free year. Its registrar guide lists $21.99 in one table and the higher figure in another. WHOIS privacy is free.
The catch: the cost guide also lists a $0.01 first year that requires a 3-year registration, so GoDaddy's lowest headline price is a three-year commitment.
Pick it for a name you need for one year. For a name you keep, five years with the code still end $46.15 above Spaceship.
Gandi: a low start and the highest renewal
Gandi's .com page prints US prices without taxes: $11.00 per year to register for terms of 1 to 10 years or to transfer, and $38.38 to renew for 1 to 9 years, or $34.54 a year when renewing 2 to 9 years at once. Restoring costs $55.00. Gandi's privacy documentation calls its WHOIS privacy free and automatic.
The catch: renewing yearly gives the highest total here, and renewing four years at once would still bring five years to $149.16.
Pick it if you register the whole term up front, and skip it if you plan to renew yearly, since that route is $115.72 above Spaceship.
Cloudflare Registrar: does not publish a .com price
Cloudflare Registrar's page says registration, transfer and renewal prices are always at or below what registries and ICANN charge it, and that it does not mark prices up. Neither that page nor the registrar FAQ states a dollar price for .com. A name search in its tool quotes a price per name, so there is no total for it here. WHOIS redaction is free.
The catch: the FAQ says every domain registered there uses Cloudflare's nameservers, a transfer needs the domain active on Cloudflare first, and renewals are final with no refunds.
Pick it if your DNS already runs on Cloudflare, and get the quote for your own name before comparing.
How to choose
- One name for five years or more: Spaceship, Dynadot or Porkbun. The three sit within $6.60 of each other, so privacy terms and restoration fees matter more than the last dollar.
- A one-year project: take a new-customer code from GoDaddy or Namecheap, and set a reminder for the renewal.
- Ten or more names: compare renewals, not year one. Ten renewals a year cost $99.80 at Spaceship, $108.80 at Dynadot and $229.90 at GoDaddy.
- Building a site: a domain is one line of the bill, and our comparison of web hosting providers prices the hosting line. PrestaShop Classic, in our ecommerce platforms ranking, leaves hosting and a domain to you, so the registrar price joins the build cost.
Common mistakes
- Reading year one as the price. GoDaddy's code year is followed by a standard-rate renewal, and Gandi's renewal is $27.38 above its registration price.
- Treating a bundled free domain as free. Wix's Light plan and WordPress.com's Personal plan both include a free domain for the first year, per our free website builders comparison, so price the second year before you accept one.
- Missing a scheduled rise. Name.com's renewal goes from $19.99 to $21.99 on 31 Oct 2026, which is $8.00 more across four renewals.
- Letting a name lapse. Restoration is $200 at Porkbun on top of the renewal, $120.00 at Name.com and $100.92 at Dynadot, so one missed renewal can cost several years of the flat price.
- Pricing ten names like one. Ten GoDaddy renewals cost $130.10 a year more than ten at Spaceship.
FAQ
What is the cheapest domain registrar for a .com in 2026?
For one .com held five years and billed yearly, Spaceship is the cheapest of the nine registrars that print a .com price, at $48.80, ahead of Dynadot and Porkbun. A one-year buyer can start lower with a new-customer code from GoDaddy or Namecheap.
How much does a .com domain cost per year?
Among the nine registrars that print a .com price, renewal runs from $9.98 at Spaceship to $38.38 at Gandi. Porkbun, Hover and Squarespace charge the same in year two as in year one. Dynadot does too apart from its first-year code, and the other five advertise a first year below their renewal price.
Is WHOIS privacy free?
Yes, at all ten. Each registrar states that WHOIS privacy or redaction costs nothing on .com, although Namecheap, Spaceship, Squarespace and Hover word it as supported or eligible domains. Name.com's free Domain Safe tier includes it.
Which has no renewal markup: Namecheap, Porkbun or Cloudflare?
Porkbun charges the same on registration and renewal, while Namecheap's renewal is $7.20 above its sale price. Cloudflare says it adds no markup but states no .com price, so compare it with a quote for your name.
What is the cheapest place to transfer a .com?
Among the eight registrars that print a transfer price (Squarespace and Cloudflare print none on the pages read): Spaceship at $9.48 on sale, then Dynadot at $10.88, Gandi at $11.00, Porkbun at $11.08 and Namecheap at $11.48 on sale, with GoDaddy from $11.99, Name.com at $17.99 and Hover at $18.99. Spaceship, Gandi, Porkbun and GoDaddy say the transfer fee includes a renewal.
Bottom line
Choose Spaceship, Dynadot or Porkbun for a name you will keep, and judge any promotion by its year-two invoice. Take a GoDaddy or Namecheap code only for a short project. Read the row for your own extension, register the longest term you are sure of, and set a renewal reminder, because restoration fees in the tables above run from $55.00 at Gandi to $200 at Porkbun.
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