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Domain Names

Domain registrars compared on the price you actually pay (the renewal, not the first-year promo), plus WHOIS privacy, DNS freedom, transfer-out policy and whether you can reach a human in the UK.

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1TOP PICK
NamecheapThe registrar we trust every client domain to: free WHOIS privacy for life, free DNS with DNSSEC, hardware-key 2FA, an API and a clean transfer-out, with the renewal price shown openly next to the sale price (.com £8.12 first year, £13.66 to renew, .co.uk £7.38 a year).
4.5/ 5
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2
PorkbunThe honest-pricing benchmark: .com costs $11.08 to register, renew and transfer alike, WHOIS privacy, DNS, SSL and email forwarding are all free, there is a public API and the only first-party MCP server in the category, but support is US-hours only and you pay in dollars.
4.2/ 5
Full review
3
Cloudflare RegistrarThe cheapest .com you can buy (registry cost plus the ICANN fee, no markup, ever), with free privacy, DNSSEC and hardware-key 2FA; but your domain must live on Cloudflare's nameservers for as long as it is registered there, and from 15 September 2026 Cloudflare blocks AI agents by default on the sites it fronts.
3.5/ 5
Full review
4
HoverTucows' retail registrar: flat, honest pricing (.com $18.99 to register and renew, .co.uk $10.99), free WHOIS privacy and mandatory two-step login, but at a premium price, with no API, paid email forwarding, and a small, angry Trustpilot profile the company does not answer.
3.3/ 5
Full review
5
GandiThe French "no bullshit" registrar of the 2000s is now the most expensive .com renewal in this comparison (£9 in year one, £31.98 ex VAT to renew, a 255% jump) after the 2023 Your.Online takeover; still a strong engineering product with a full API, free LiveDNS with DNSSEC, mandatory MFA and auto-renew off by default.
3.0/ 5
Full review
6
Squarespace DomainsWhere ten million Google Domains customers were sent in 2023–24: free privacy, DNSSEC and 100 email forwards, but a renewal price that is not shown before checkout (.com £8 on sale, £16 presumed to renew), no API, no phone support, and a 2024 migration-account hijack on the record.
2.9/ 5
Full review
7
123-RegThe UK household name is GoDaddy's UK brand on GoDaddy's platform: the 1p .com needs a three-year purchase and renews at £18.99 ex VAT, .co.uk £3.99 then £12.99, free privacy via Domains By Proxy, DNSSEC and UK office-hours phone support, but no API and a Trustpilot profile that has stopped inviting reviews.
2.7/ 5
Full review
8
IONOSEurope's biggest host-registrar runs the £1-then-£15 playbook (.com renews at 1,400% of the first-year price, .co.uk £1 then £10, all ex VAT), has withdrawn WHOIS privacy on every TLD, sells DNSSEC as a £15-a-year add-on, and wraps domains in 12-month contracts that Trustpilot reviewers say need a phone call to escape.
2.5/ 5
Full review
9
GoDaddyThe world's largest registrar: the 1p .com is a three-year purchase renewing at £18.99 ex VAT, privacy is free since 2022, there is a real API and an MCP server and a 24/7 UK phone line, set against an upsell culture, a 2025 FTC order over security failures, and an auction marketplace we found overpriced.
2.4/ 5
Full review
10
FasthostsIONOS with a Gloucester accent: the £1 .com renews at £16.92 ex VAT (a 1,592% jump), the checkout pre-ticks a paid Domain Guard add-on, WHOIS privacy is a paid extra, no DNSSEC is advertised, domains sit inside 12-month rolling contracts, and its privacy notice reserves the right to phone you with advertising, which in our experience it exercises.
2.2/ 5
Full review

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Comparison

Best Domain Registrars for UK Business in 2026: Namecheap Wins, Porkbun Sets the Honesty Benchmark, and the £1 Deals That Cost £17 a Year

We compared ten domain registrars on the price you actually pay (the renewal, not the first-year promo), plus WHOIS privacy, DNS freedom, transfer-out and UK support. Namecheap wins on reliability and support; Porkbun is the runner-up on flat pricing and tooling. We explain why Cloudflare's at-cost domains are marked down, and why we walked away from GoDaddy and Fasthosts.