---
title: "Domain Names: ranked reviews and comparisons"
description: "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."
canonical: "https://saaskly.com/category/domain-names"
last-updated: "2026-09-07"
---

# Domain Names: ranked reviews and comparisons

> 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.

- Last updated: 2026-09-07

## Ranking

Ranked by Saaskly's editorial score (0–5). Ties share a rank. Method: https://saaskly.com/editorial-policy.md

1. **1. [Namecheap](https://saaskly.com/category/domain-names/namecheap.md)**: 4.5/5. The 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).
2. **2. [Porkbun](https://saaskly.com/category/domain-names/porkbun.md)**: 4.2/5. The 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.
3. **3. [Cloudflare Registrar](https://saaskly.com/category/domain-names/cloudflare-registrar.md)**: 3.5/5. The 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.
4. **4. [Hover](https://saaskly.com/category/domain-names/hover.md)**: 3.3/5. Tucows' 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.
5. **5. [Gandi](https://saaskly.com/category/domain-names/gandi.md)**: 3.0/5. The 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.
6. **6. [Squarespace Domains](https://saaskly.com/category/domain-names/squarespace-domains.md)**: 2.9/5. Where 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.
7. **7. [123-Reg](https://saaskly.com/category/domain-names/123-reg.md)**: 2.7/5. The 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.
8. **8. [IONOS](https://saaskly.com/category/domain-names/ionos.md)**: 2.5/5. Europe'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.
9. **9. [GoDaddy](https://saaskly.com/category/domain-names/godaddy.md)**: 2.4/5. The 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.
10. **10. [Fasthosts](https://saaskly.com/category/domain-names/fasthosts.md)**: 2.2/5. IONOS 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.

## Comparison table

| Provider | Rating | .com renewal / yr | .com first year | Renewal premium* | .co.uk renewal / yr | WHOIS privacy | Pricing pattern | Checkout upsells | Transfer out | Bring your own DNS | DNSSEC | 2FA | API | MCP server | UK phone support | Blocks AI agents by default** | Trustpilot (reviews)† |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [Namecheap](https://saaskly.com/category/domain-names/namecheap.md) | 4.5/5 | £13.66 | £8.12 | 68% | £7.38 | Free | Intro discount | Light | Free, self-serve | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | 4.2 (21,800) |
| [Porkbun](https://saaskly.com/category/domain-names/porkbun.md) | 4.2/5 | $11.08 | $11.08 | 0% | $5.66 | Free | Flat | Light | Free, self-serve | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | 4.9 (26,873) |
| [Cloudflare Registrar](https://saaskly.com/category/domain-names/cloudflare-registrar.md) | 3.5/5 | $10.46 | $10.46 | 0% | $5.30 | Free | At cost | None | Free, self-serve | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | 1.4 (1,309) |
| [Hover](https://saaskly.com/category/domain-names/hover.md) | 3.3/5 | $18.99 | $18.99 | 0% | $10.99 | Free | Flat | Light | Free, self-serve | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | 1.3 (120) |
| [Gandi](https://saaskly.com/category/domain-names/gandi.md) | 3.0/5 | £31.98 | £9 | 255% | £15.98 | Free | Intro discount | Light | Restricted | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | 4.6 (3,879) |
| [Squarespace Domains](https://saaskly.com/category/domain-names/squarespace-domains.md) | 2.9/5 | £16 | £8 | 100% | £8 | Free | Intro discount | Light | Free, self-serve | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | 3.5 (5,162) |
| [123-Reg](https://saaskly.com/category/domain-names/123-reg.md) | 2.7/5 | £18.99 | £7.99 | 138% | £12.99 | Free | Intro discount | Light | Free, self-serve | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | 3.9 (21,857) |
| [IONOS](https://saaskly.com/category/domain-names/ionos.md) | 2.5/5 | £15 | £1 | 1,400% | £10 | Not offered | Intro discount | Light | Free, self-serve | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | 4.7 (41,642) |
| [GoDaddy](https://saaskly.com/category/domain-names/godaddy.md) | 2.4/5 | £18.99 | £12.66 | 50% | £12.99 | Free | Intro discount | Light | Free, self-serve | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | 4.4 (142,493) |
| [Fasthosts](https://saaskly.com/category/domain-names/fasthosts.md) | 2.2/5 | £16.92 | £1 | 1,592% | £12.83 | Not offered | Intro discount | Heavy | Free, self-serve | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | 4.8 (21,048) |

*Renewal premium: how much more the second year of a .com costs than the first, as a percentage of the first-year price. Registrars advertise the first year; you pay the renewal every year after. 0% means the advertised price is the real price. Prices are per domain per year as shown to a UK visitor on the research date, in the currency the registrar bills UK customers in; see each profile for the VAT basis.

**Blocks AI agents by default: whether the registrar's bundled DNS/CDN stops AI agents (chat fetchers, browser-use agents) reaching customer sites unless the owner changes a setting. Recorded only where the vendor documents such a default (Cloudflare, from 15 September 2026, on pages that carry ads).

†Trustpilot: uk.trustpilot.com TrustScore and review count on the research date. Two profiles are not representative of the registrar and are shown for completeness: Cloudflare (1.4) is mostly non-customers blocked by CAPTCHAs on other companies' websites, and Hover (1.3) is 120 unprompted reviews the company has not answered.

## Articles

- [Best Domain Registrars for UK Business in 2026: Namecheap Wins, Porkbun Sets the Honesty Benchmark, and the £1 Deals That Cost £17 a Year](https://saaskly.com/comparisons/best-domain-registrars-2026.md): Comparison. 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.

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Researched and drafted with AI assistance; reviewed and approved by Tim Meredith. See https://saaskly.com/ai-transparency.md and https://saaskly.com/editorial-policy.md.

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