Domain registrars

Porkbun vs Namecheap

Porkbun sells .com at $11.08 for registration and renewal alike; Namecheap discounts the first year to $10.98 (or $6.79 for new customers) but renews at $18.48, plus a $0.20 ICANN fee.

§1

The short answer

The gap is renewal. Porkbun lists .com at $11.08 to register, renew or transfer, including the ICANN fee, and expects about $11.81 after 1 November 2026. Namecheap lists $10.98 for the first year on sale ($14.98 list, $6.79 for new customers, one per household), then $18.48 a year, with a $0.20 ICANN fee added at checkout. From year two a Namecheap .com costs roughly $7 a year more.

The free extras overlap: both include WHOIS privacy, DNS with DNSSEC, URL forwarding and email forwarding. Porkbun adds free Let’s Encrypt SSL and runs its DNS on Cloudflare’s network; Namecheap sells PremiumDNS with DDoS protection and a 100% uptime guarantee for $4.88 a year.

Namecheap suits people who want hosting, email and SSL in the same account, a guided buying flow and 24/7 support. Porkbun offers phone support from 9am to 5pm Pacific every day, 24/7 email, and a JSON API for DNS and DNSSEC records. At either, check the renewal price of any extension other than .com.

Choose Porkbun if

You plan to keep a domain for years and want renewal to cost the same as the first year
You want to automate DNS records or ACME challenges through an API
You want free SSL certificates included with the domain

Choose Namecheap if

You are a new customer buying one domain and want the lowest first-year price
You want hosting, email and SSL in the same account
You want 24/7 chat support

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Side by side

	Porkbun	Namecheap
Stages	HobbyIndieStartupScale-upEnterprise	HobbyIndieStartupScale-upEnterprise
What it is	Domain registrar	Domain registrar
From	.com $11.08/yr, same at renewal	.com $10.98 first year (sale), renews $18.48
Free tier	None	None
.com year 1	$11.08	$10.98 sale ($14.98 list; $6.79 new customers)
.com renewal	$11.08 (about $11.81 from 1 Nov 2026)	$18.48
WHOIS privacy	Free WHOIS privacy	Free for life on eligible TLDs
DNS	Free DNS on Cloudflare; DNSSEC toggle	Free BasicDNS with DNSSEC; PremiumDNS $4.88/yr
Open source	No	No
Self-hostable	No	No
EU data residency	Not stated	Not stated
Compliance	Not stated	Not stated
Checked	28 Sept 2026	28 Sept 2026
Strengths	.com renewal is the same as the first-year price Free privacy, SSL, DNS, DNSSEC and forwarding with every domain You can point nameservers anywhere, unlike at-cost Cloudflare Registrar Phone support every day, 9am to 5pm Pacific, plus 24/7 email	Free lifetime privacy and DNSSEC on eligible domains Low first-year prices, especially for new customers Hosting, email and SSL available in the same account 24/7 support
Limitations	Many non-.com TLDs have first-year sale prices that renew higher Phone support hours are limited to 9am to 5pm Pacific Prices follow registry increases; .com is expected to rise to about $11.81 in November 2026	.com renews at $18.48, well above the first-year sale price A $0.20 ICANN fee is added on top of the listed price The new-customer .com offer is limited to one domain per household Some domains must be set to auto-renew days before expiry or they enter redemption

Sources: Porkbun pricing, Namecheap pricing. Full plans on each tool's page.

§3

Plans

Porkbun

.com Registration, renewal and transfer	$11.08/yr
.net Listed 'from' price	$12.52/yr
.org Listed 'from' price	$7.98/yr
.app First-year sale price	$8.75 first year, $14.93 renewal
.xyz First-year sale price	$2.04 first year, $14.21 renewal

Namecheap

.com registration Sale price, list $14.98; new customers $6.79 with a promo code, one per household	$10.98 first year
.com renewal Standard renewal rate	$18.48/yr
.com transfer Sale price, includes a year	$11.48
PremiumDNS DDoS-protected DNS with a 100% uptime guarantee	$4.88/yr
Private Email One-month trial, then paid	Free trial

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