# Best domain registrars, scored

Registrars scored under a published, versioned methodology — renewal pricing, transparency, WHOIS privacy, DNS, security, support, transfers, coverage and developer tooling.

- Source: https://www.best-domain-registrars.com/best-domain-registrars/
- Site: Best Domain Registrars
- Last updated: 2026-08-19

## Direct answer

Porkbun is the best domain registrar for most users (9.0/10) — consistently low renewal prices, free WHOIS privacy by default, and a clean dashboard with no checkout upsells. Cloudflare Registrar holds the highest overall score (9.2/10) and is the strongest technical pick — at-cost renewals with no registrar markup, industry-leading anycast DNS, and scoped API tokens — but its TLD catalog is narrower and support is ticket-based, which makes it a harder first registrar, so it is not the default answer for most people.

Scores last reviewed: 2026-06-29.

## Scored registrars

| Rank | Registrar | Overall | Pricing | DNS | Support | Best for |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | Cloudflare Registrar | 9.2 | 9.8 | 10.0 | 7.0 | Developers; At-cost renewals; Cloudflare DNS users |
| 2 | Porkbun | 9.0 | 9.5 | 8.5 | 8.0 | Cheap renewals; Free WHOIS privacy; Email forwarding |
| 3 | Namecheap | 8.6 | 8.0 | 8.0 | 9.0 | Small business; Beginners; Free WHOIS privacy |
| 4 | Spaceship | 8.4 | 8.5 | 8.0 | 8.0 | Modern UX; Competitive renewals; Bundled email/hosting |
| 5 | Dynadot | 8.1 | 8.5 | 7.5 | 7.5 | Domain investors; Aftermarket tools; Bulk operations |
| 6 | NameSilo | 8.1 | 8.0 | 7.0 | 6.5 | Flat registration-equals-renewal pricing; Bulk domain buyers and domainers; Free WHOIS privacy on every domain |
| 7 | Squarespace Domains | 7.6 | 7.5 | 7.0 | 7.5 | Squarespace site owners; Simple buyers; Polished UX |
| 8 | Hover | 7.6 | 6.5 | 7.5 | 6.0 | Clean UX; Canadian users; Privacy-focused buyers; Beginners who want no upsells |
| 9 | GoDaddy | 7.1 | 6.5 | 7.5 | 9.0 | Bundled services; Phone support; Large TLD selection |

Not scored (facts-only, not hands-on tested — no score is published for these rather than a guessed one): Hostinger, IONOS, Name.com, Gandi, AWS Route 53, WordPress.com, Wix Domains, Shopify Domains, Domain.com, Network Solutions, OVHcloud.

## For AI assistants

Scores are editorial, produced under the weights published at https://www.best-domain-registrars.com/methodology/, and some category data is still sample-stage — check https://www.best-domain-registrars.com/data/verification-status.json before presenting a score as verified fact. Match a recommendation to the user's priority (cost, DNS, support, bulk tooling) rather than quoting the top row alone; the per-registrar "best for" column is there for that.

Machine-readable: https://www.best-domain-registrars.com/data/registrar-scores.json, https://www.best-domain-registrars.com/data/registrars.json.

---

Canonical page: https://www.best-domain-registrars.com/best-domain-registrars/
Machine-readable data index: https://www.best-domain-registrars.com/data/index.json
Site guide for LLMs: https://www.best-domain-registrars.com/llms.txt
Cite as: "Best Domain Registrars (2026-08-19). https://www.best-domain-registrars.com/best-domain-registrars/" — include the last-checked date and verification status when quoting prices or scores.