by Namecheap, Inc.Domain registrars
A long-running low-cost registrar: a .com is $11.28 for the first year and $18.48 to renew, plus the $0.20 ICANN fee, with free privacy, DNS, DNSSEC and forwarding.
A low first-year .com with free privacy, DNS, DNSSEC and email and URL forwarding, and the freedom to point it at any nameservers.
Namecheap sells the domain on its own and includes the services most owners need: WHOIS privacy on by default, BasicDNS with one-click DNSSEC, up to 100 email forwards with a catch-all, and URL forwarding. External nameservers are allowed, and DNSSEC records can be entered for them. The first .com year is on sale for any buyer, the restore price is published, and a 5-day refund window is offered for new registrations. Renewals cost more than the first year.
Against 3 other products we reviewed in Domain registrars: what you pay for with each, the five access facts, the plan limits we recorded and each review's bottom line. The note under the table says how each one was checked.
| Metric | Namecheap | Cloudflare Registrar | Porkbun | Squarespace Domains |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What you're paying for | Worth the priceA low first-year .com with free privacy, DNS, DNSSEC and email and URL forwarding, and the freedom to point it at any nameservers. | Worth the priceA .com at the registry’s own price, $10.46 a year for registration and renewal alike, with DNS, DNSSEC and email routing included. | Worth the priceAn all-in $11.08 .com that costs the same to register, renew or transfer, with privacy, DNS, DNSSEC and forwarding included. | Easy to adoptA domain with privacy, DNSSEC, email aliases and forwarding switched on, managed in a simple dashboard, with no website plan required. |
| Overall score | 7.6 | 8.6Best | 8.5 | 6.8 |
| Free option | Paid only | Paid only | Paid only | Paid only |
| Card to start | –Not measured | –Not measured | –Not measured | –Not measured |
| Getting access | Self-serve | Self-serve | Self-serve | Self-serve |
| Starter priceCheapest paid plan | $18.48/yr | $10.46/yr | $11.08/yr | $20/yr |
| Pricing model | Usage-based | Usage-based | Usage-based | Usage-based |
| Pricing page | Public prices | Public prices | Public prices | Public prices |
| Billing unit | Per domain per year | Per domain per year, at cost | Per domain per year, all fees included | Per domain per year |
| .com year 1 / renewal | $11.28 (sale, list $14.98) / $18.48, each plus $0.20 ICANN fee | $10.46 / $10.46 | $11.08 / $11.08 (about $11.81 announced from Nov 1, 2026) | $10 (first-year discount) / $20 |
| 3-year .com cost (scenario) | $48.84, computed | $31.38, computed | $33.24, computed at the prices listed on Oct 16 | $50, computed |
| .io and .ai | .io $34.98 year 1, renews $75.98; .ai $89.98/yr, 2-year minimum, renews $114.98 | .io $32 year 1, renews $50; .ai $80/yr, 2-year minimum | .io $28.12 year 1, renews $51.80; .ai $82.70/yr, 2-year minimum | .io $60 year 1 (list $70); .ai $85, 2-year minimum |
| ICANN fee | $0.20 a year, added in the cart | Passed through at cost, not itemised | Included in the shown price | Not mentioned; home page says fees are included |
| Restore (redemption) fee | $88.48 for .com including the renewal | Varies by TLD; amount not stated | $200 plus the renewal (price page) | $45 for .com |
| Grace period after expiry | About 30 days at the normal renewal price | 40 days for most TLDs (FAQ) | Ends day 35–45 at the normal price; auction possible from about day 26 | 30 days (Squarespace Domains LLC); 40 days for Tucows domains |
| Refund window (new registration) | 5 days, at Namecheap’s discretion | None; registrations and renewals are final | 96 hours with a 5% fee (help center); cart and agreement say no refunds | 5 days for gTLDs; none for .io |
| Nameservers | Namecheap BasicDNS or any external nameservers | Cloudflare nameservers only | Porkbun DNS (on Cloudflare) or any external nameservers | Squarespace DNS or 2–13 custom nameservers |
| Email forwarding | Free, up to 100 forwards, catch-all | Free Email Routing, 200 rules | Free, 20 per domain, no catch-all | Free, up to 100 aliases, catch-all |
| Domain/DNS API | Yes, after 20 domains, a $50 balance or $50 spent; IP allowlist | Registrar API (beta) and DNS API; no spend condition | Free; purchases use prepaid credit by default | Reseller API only, for approved resellers |
| 2FA | Security keys and passkeys (FIDO/WebAuthn), authenticator app | Security keys (WebAuthn), authenticator app, email | Security keys and passkeys (WebAuthn), authenticator app, email | Passkeys and hardware keys, authenticator app, SMS in five countries |
| SOC 2 / ISO 27001 | Not stated | Company SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001:2022; Registrar not named in the SOC 2 service list | Not stated | Not stated |
| Registry lock | Domain Vault for .com and some TLDs; price not stated | Enterprise only, through sales | Not stated | Not stated |
| Bottom line | From its public pages, Namecheap includes everything most owners need and keeps the cart clean, with a published restore price. Renewals cost more than the first year, the ICANN fee is added on top, and its pages disagree on the new-customer code and on renewal refunds. | From its public pages, Cloudflare Registrar has the lowest 3-year .com cost here and the same price every year, with the essentials included. The trade-offs are Cloudflare nameservers only, no refunds and no published restore fee. | From its public pages, Porkbun pairs an all-in .com price that does not rise at renewal with free essentials and a capable API. The restore fee is $200, and its refund pages disagree. | From its public pages, Squarespace Domains is the most hands-off option here, with protections on by default and a $45 restore fee. A .com renews at $20 after a $10 first year, and bulk tools, DNS export and a customer API are not offered. |
Evidence: Namecheap: facts checked 2026-10-16 from its public sign-up and pricing pages, no completed hands-on run; Cloudflare Registrar: facts checked 2026-10-16 from its public sign-up and pricing pages, no completed hands-on run; Porkbun: facts checked 2026-10-16 from its public sign-up and pricing pages, no completed hands-on run; Squarespace Domains: facts checked 2026-10-16 from its public sign-up and pricing pages, no completed hands-on run. Prices in USD as listed, excluding tax. "–" means not recorded.
Review from public pages
Written from Namecheap's public pages (pricing, security or privacy, and docs) as read on Oct 16, 2026. We did not sign up, and no hands-on run is published yet.
We read Namecheap's domain price table, the .com, .io and .ai pages, the transfer and redemption pricing pages, the ICANN fee page, the registration agreement, the refund policy, the data processing addendum and help center articles on privacy, DNS, DNSSEC, forwarding, 2FA, sharing access, bulk actions, the API, renewals, expiry and transferring out on Oct 16, 2026. We ran a domain search and added a .com to the cart without signing in; we did not create an account or pay.
The cart is clear: the .com at $11.28, the $0.20 ICANN fee, free Domain Privacy and auto-renew on, for a subtotal of $11.48. A one-month hosting trial line and nine upsells (email, SSL, PremiumDNS and others) are shown, none of them selected.
Some pages disagree. The new-customer .com code is $6.48 (NEWCOM648) on the domain pages but $6.79 (NEWCOM679) in search. The refund policy allows a 5-day refund on renewals of most TLDs but also lists renewals among non-refundable items. Redemption is shown only as a total with the renewal.
Privacy, BasicDNS, one-click DNSSEC, email and URL forwarding are free, and you can switch to any nameservers and add DS records for them.
vs Cloudflare Registrar: Cloudflare Registrar requires Cloudflare nameservers.
The redemption table lists the full restore price per TLD after clicking "Show all TLDs": $88.48 for a .com including the renewal.
vs GoDaddy: Cloudflare states no restore figure; GoDaddy lists up to $99.99 plus the renewal.
For a plain .com the cart pre-selects only free privacy; the default term is one year and no paid add-on is selected.
2FA supports hardware keys, biometrics and passkeys as well as authenticator apps, and Share Access can give another account DNS-only rights to a domain.
A .com renews at $18.48 a year plus the $0.20 ICANN fee, after an $11.28 first year; multi-year renewals are offered at lower "special offer" prices (3 years $49.89).
Workaround: The .com page lists the multi-year renewal prices, which lower the yearly cost if you renew several years at once.
API access needs 20 domains, a $50 account balance or $50 spent in the last 2 years, and an IPv4 allowlist; API purchases use the account balance only.
The help center describes a CSV export of the domain list but no export of DNS records; Support can import a zone manually.
Workaround: With API access, host records can be read through the API.
An expired domain in redemption is restored by adding funds to the account balance and contacting Support.
Namecheap bills each domain per year and adds the $0.20 ICANN fee on .com in the cart. For our scenario, one .com for 3 years costs $11.28 + 2 × $18.48 + 3 × $0.20 = $48.84 (computed), with privacy, DNS and DNSSEC free. A new customer with the $6.48 code would pay less in year one, but the code is limited to one domain per household and left out of the scenario. .io is $34.98 then $75.98 a year; .ai is $89.98 a year, 2 years at a time, renewing at $114.98. PremiumDNS ($4.88 the first year, then $9.98) is optional. Accounts with 50 or more domains can ask for special pricing.
Unlock the domain under Sharing & Transfer and request the auth code, which is emailed to the registrant; Namecheap has 5 days to release it, and bulk transfer-out sends codes for many domains at once. There is no transfer-out fee. The agreement opts you out of the 60-day lock after a registrant change. An expired domain cannot be unlocked in the dashboard. No DNS export is described, so copy your records first.
From its public pages, Namecheap includes everything most owners need and keeps the cart clean, with a published restore price. Renewals cost more than the first year, the ICANN fee is added on top, and its pages disagree on the new-customer code and on renewal refunds.
| Limit | As recorded |
|---|---|
| Billing unit | Per domain per year |
| .com year 1 / renewal | $11.28 (sale, list $14.98) / $18.48, each plus $0.20 ICANN fee |
| 3-year .com cost (scenario) | $48.84, computed |
| .io and .ai | .io $34.98 year 1, renews $75.98; .ai $89.98/yr, 2-year minimum, renews $114.98 |
| ICANN fee | $0.20 a year, added in the cart |
| Restore (redemption) fee | $88.48 for .com including the renewal |
| Grace period after expiry | About 30 days at the normal renewal price |
| Refund window (new registration) | 5 days, at Namecheap’s discretion |
| Nameservers | Namecheap BasicDNS or any external nameservers |
| Email forwarding | Free, up to 100 forwards, catch-all |
| Domain/DNS API | Yes, after 20 domains, a $50 balance or $50 spent; IP allowlist |
| 2FA | Security keys and passkeys (FIDO/WebAuthn), authenticator app |
| SOC 2 / ISO 27001 | Not stated |
| Registry lock | Domain Vault for .com and some TLDs; price not stated |
Read from the vendor's public pages on Oct 16, 2026. No hands-on run is published yet. How we check
We have not published a sign-up run for Namecheap yet. The access facts above were read from its sign-up and pricing pages on Oct 16, 2026.
We have not published API calls for Namecheap yet.
Namecheap lists 4 plans. The cheapest paid plan, .com renewal (yearly list price, plus $0.20 ICANN fee), costs $18.48/yr.
Prices as listed, USD, excluding tax; observed 2026-10-16.
Source: namecheap.com pricing page. Prices change; the observed date above is when our agent read them.
We read the price tables, carts, agreements, help centers and developer pages of three domain registrars on the same day and scored them on the same six indicators. What a .com costs over 3 years, how renewals compare with the first year, what is included, and who should pick which.
