How To Get A Free Domain Name: 4 Legit Ways In 2022
Elizabeth Kraus has more than a decade of first-hand experience building and growing a boutique digital marketing agency and double that in small and mid-size business marketing management. She provides expert answers to questions related to branding, content marketing, web development, email, social media, and SEO.
This article is part of a larger series on Small Business Websites.
Buying a domain name outright for your website or professional email address only costs about $12 per year. However, there are a few ways to get one at no cost. For example, domains often come included when bundled with other services. Well show you how to get a free domain name for your business and discuss each methods benefits to help you determine which option is best for you.
If you are planning to build a WordPress website, one of the easiest ways to get a free domain for the first year is with a web hosting service like Bluehost. They offer low-cost yet feature-rich plans packed with free extras, including a domain, from five to unlimited email addresses and a WordPress website builder, starting from $2.95 per month.
The other legitimate ways to get a domain name for free include:
Go To Hostingers Website
The very first thing you need to do is head over to Hostinger by clicking here.
Click Start Now and youll be taken straight to the checkout page.
Conveniently, that checkout page is all set up with my recommendation. Youll get premium shared hosting, which is the lowest-cost plan that also includes a free domain name.
My tip is select the longest term for the best rate. If you commit to four years of hosting upfront, you can lock in a really attractive rate of $2.59 per month.
Just click on the right-most box at the top to make sure you get the best deal.
Take a look at the add-ons below there to see if any are useful to you. None of them are absolutely necessary, but daily backups and priority support are helpful features and theyre reasonably priced.
After that, enter your payment information, click Submit Secure Payment, and then youll be onto setup.
Option C: How To Get A Free Domain Name With Email Hosting
If you arent ready to build a website yet or you want a separate domain to use for business emails, a dedicated email hosting plan that includes a free .com domain could be ideal. IONOS offers several different email hosting options that come with a free domain, starting from $1 per month.
| PROS | CONS |
|---|---|
| Get a free .com or other top level domain to use for email in hosting plans from $1 per month | Doesnt include web hosting like you get with DreamHost and Bluehost |
| Using a separate domain for email can reduce incoming spam and make email usernames harder to discover | 2GB storage limit in the Basic 1 plan isnt adequate for moderate-to-heavy email users |
| Cost per user decreases as you add more users to the Mail Business plan |
As buying a domain often costs around $12 to $15, IONOS email hosting plans essentially bundle business email and a domain for what you would pay just to get a domain. All plans include spam filtering, virus protection, web-based email, and IMAP/POP settings to set up your email in your preferred email client, and can scale with additional email accounts or storage:
- Mail Basic 1: $1 per user, per month for a domain and email account with 2GB storage
- Mail Basic 1+: $4 per user, per month to increase storage to 12GB
- Mail Business: $5 per user, per month to increase storage to 50GB and gain premium virus protection cost per user, per month decreases as more accounts are added
You May Like: How To Change Gmail Domain
Other Reasons Why A Free Sub
Free Website With Own Domain Is It Possible
Do you wonder if its possible to set up a website with your own domain without any budget investment? There are several ways to do that due to the availability of domain name registrars that provide such an opportunity. The range of platforms to start a free website and to host it for free afterwards is quite extensive as well.
There is one thing, however, you should be aware of. Free web building and hosting services mostly work well for small projects meant for personal use. If you intend to launch a full-featured website with powerful integrations and design customization options, this variant wont make any sense for you. This is because such a domain name wont belong to you and, thus, you wont be able to manage and set it up with regard to your project/business requirements. Hosting a free website with GitHub pages or other suchlike services may be a suitable solution for simple websites, but not for large-scale projects.
If you still intend to host your website for free, you will face the need to pick a domain name zone for your project. Thats not quite easy as popular domain zones like.com or .gov, for example, are rarely provided at no cost. Instead, you can get a domain with less widespread extensions like a generic , a reserved or a second level domain. The latter usually consist of two parts and belong to financial/governmental projects. To get such a free domain, you may contact a domain registrar or a hosting provider of your choice.
Read Also: How To Transfer Your Domain To Shopify
Domain Registrar Ad Programs
Domain registrars sometimes offer to give you a free domain in exchange for running ads on your website.
Dont do this.
Theres nothing wrong with ads on your website. However, you wont have any control over the ads and their placement with this method. This will not only hinder the experience for your website visitors but will also damage your SEO ranking.
Plus, what if your website got one million views? You wouldnt see a dime from those ads. All you get is a free domain.
If you want to run ads on your website, do it through a legitimate advertising network, like Google. Dont exchange ads for a free domain.
Can I Transfer My Domain Name
Yes, most domain registrars can also facilitate the process of transferring a domain name from one person to another . For example, if you want to buy a premium domain name from someone, a registrar can help process the deal securely.
Also, you can transfer your domain name between different registrars if you found a better deal, for example, or just need some extra features.
Below are linked help documents for doing that with each registrar:
You May Like: How To Find The Domain Registrar Of A Website
How To Get A Free Com Domain For A Year
Starting a new website?
Dont pay for a .com domain when you can get it for FREE!
The most common advice you read online when starting a new website is to go to one of the big platforms and buy your domain. Dont believe everything you read.
Many website hosting services offer a completely free .com domain to users on their platform. You just need to choose the right one.
So Im going to show you exactly how to get a free .com domain for at least a year .
What Will I Learn?
What Can I Do With A Ca
Host a website or build an online store
A website or online store is an obvious and powerful way to use your domain name.
Create your own .CA email address
Your .CA domain name can be used for personalized email addresses
Link your .CA to your social media profile
You can forward your .CA domain to another online or social media profile, like Facebook, LinkedIn, or Etsy – anywhere you want.
I think a .CA will always be the number one domain for us partly because of the brand value that Canada has abroad the quality that Canada brings, the brand recognition. I personally believe that a .CA has more brand appeal internationally than a .com does.
Connor Curran Founder and Chief Laundry Folder at locallaundry.ca
Don’t Miss: How Can I Get A Domain Name For Free
How To Find An Available Domain Name
Ideally, your domain name is your business name with the domain name extension .com. Though, it can be hard to get the desired domain name as a majority of common names are already taken. You can try prefixes or suffixes or adding keywords to your business name in order to find an alternate domain name that is available.
What Is The Storage Space Of Email
Email storage space is the total amount of data, in megabytes, that your email messages occupy on the server. Each character written in your email message is equal to one byte of space. The size of your email attachments like PDF, images, slides, etc. are also included while calculating the storage space used.
All professional email providers have a fixed storage space that they allocate to each email account. Once this limit is breached, all incoming emails will bounce. Also, you will not be able to send any new emails. Hence, it is important to monitor the current storage space consumed by your email account to prevent the loss of important incoming client emails.
Don’t Miss: How To Get My Own Website Domain For Free
Claim Your Free Domain
Once your payment goes through, youll have the option to claim your free domain name.
Select this option unless you want to buy additional domains or connect other domains you own.
From there, Hostinger will walk you through the process of selecting a domain name thats available. You can search right on their site.
Hostinger offers domains with different extensions, including:
- .com
- .us
- .club
In most instances, a .com domain will be the only one I recommend. But there are two reasons why you might get an alternative domain extension: price and availability.
Getting a .site or .tech domain is cheaper than a .com extension. But in this case, youre getting a year for free anyways.
Price aside, .com domains will be better for the long-term success of your website.
I recommend getting your domain name set up right away for a few reasons.
- Sure, the chances are small, but someone else could grab your preferred domain name while you are hesitating.
- Youd be surprised how many people hesitate in picking a domain name and never come back to it. You already paid for the service, so force yourself to take this step to keep your project moving forward.
- Dont second-guess yourself about your name choice! If you made it this far, Im confident that you already gave quite a bit of thought about the domain name you want, so just pull the trigger and register your domain.
Create Email Address At Custom Domain
To create an email address at your new custom domain, first log into your Bluehost account.
Now, click on the Email & Office menu option on your left and then click on the Manage button next to your domain name.
This will you to your email account panel. Click on the Create button to continue.
You also need a strong password for your email address. Simply click on the Generate button next to the password field to allow Bluehost to automatically create a strong password for you.
You can also set your email storage space and change other settings under the Optional Settings section. Keep in mind that the Basic Bluehost plan only allows a maximum storage space of 100 MB. So if you want unlimited storage, we recommend getting Bluehost Plus or above.
When youre done, scroll down and click Create.
This will create your email account at your custom domain name. Now, you can access your mailbox to send and receive messages at your new business email.
Read Also: How Do I Manage My Google Domain
How To Get A Free Business Email Using Google Workspace
Step 1) Go to this link. To start off, it is recommended that you choose the smallest plan. It is easy to upgrade the plan later based upon your usage needs.
Step 2) will ask you the basic information about your company. The most important field in this section is the country of your business location, which cannot be changed later.
To begin with, in the number of employee section, you can choose Just you.
Step 3) Since you are creating Google Workspace account for the first time, an administration must be assigned to your business email domain. This information can be changed later.
Step 4) You have an option to use an existing professional domain name. In this guide, we will register a new domain with Google.
In the next screen, click on NO I NEED ONE button.
Step 5) allows you to search your desired custom email domain.
Many a times, your desired domain may not be available. Google Workspace will display alternative domains that can be booked. You can also use domain name generator tools to come up with unique domain name ideas.
Once you have confirmed the availability of the domain, click on Next button. The domains are privacy protected.
In the next screen,
How To Register Your Website’s Domain Name
When you register a domain name for your site, you make it a lot easier for people to find you, ensuring that you reap the branding and marketing benefits of having an online presence.
A domain name is the address that visitors type into their browser address bar to arrive at your website. It replaces an IP address: a random, unique string of numbers that specifies where your sites files are located. While a website domain can be an investment, you can also find one for free, especially if you purchase it with hosting.
In this post, youll learn everything you need to know about registering your websites domain name either for free or for a low cost.
Read Also: Where To Buy Email Domain
Wix Free Website Builder And Domain Name In One Place
Wix is the top web building platform that occupies the highest position in the list of contemporary DIY website builders. It currently empowers millions of websites across the globe, providing myriads of advantages like bogging and eCommerce engines, free responsive highly customizable templates, professional design customization tools, versatile approaches to the web development process and pricing policy.
Wix makes it possible to start and manage website for free and, thus, it offers a free neverending plan that lets you launch a project without any hidden charges.
All websites created with a free plan are initially created on a Wix-branded subdomain. This is enough to test the features of the service and practice your web design skills. However, Wix subdomain will certainly not be enough to publish and promote your website.
To be able to boost your website popularity, recognition and search engine positions, Wix makes it possible to upgrade to one of its paid plans. Each of them comes with an opportunity of your own domain name connection. Such domains are provided at no cost for those users, who decide to get annual plans.
Read also:
Choose Your Billing Terms
After you select the appropriate plan, Hostinger asks you to choose a period for your plan: monthly, 12-month, 24-month, or 48-month.
If you want the free domain, do not select the month-to-month payment option. Hostinger only includes the free domain with terms of one year or more.
The longer your commitment, the greater the discount. You also stretch out that discount for as long as possible, because renewal pricing is never as good. This is not a Hostinger thing, it is just the way every host does it.
If you sign up for longer, Hostinger will actually lower the renewal rate. This is not common. As you can see in the image above, the renewal price for a single month of service is $11.99/month, whereas the renewal price for a 48-month term drops to $6.99/month.
The downside to signing up for a longer period is that you have to pay upfront. Again, this is typical of every host. But Im willing to take the hit with Hostinger because it is a really great deal.
Do the math: Hostinger Premium Shared Hosting saves you over $400 for four years of hosting. Pay a hundred and change today, and dont worry about your website hosting again until this years high school freshmen have graduated.
When you factor in the savings of a free domain name, the price only gets better.
Read Also: How To Change Ownership Of Domain Name