Porkbun Review 2026

Of the 278 Porkbun prices we verify, 49 are flat, the first year equals the renewal, and 229 discount the first year. Across the discounting ones the median renewal is 4.8× the first year, so the advertised figure understates the ongoing cost on roughly 82% of what it sells.

The steepest example in its catalogue is .courses: $1.54 in the first year against $31.41 at every renewal, 20.4× as much. That is not a criticism of the registrar so much as of the extension, promotional pricing on new gTLDs is set to win the first year, but it is the number to budget against.

On a .com specifically, Porkbun renews at $11.08 all in, which puts ten years at $110.80. Compare that ten-year figure rather than the first year when weighing it against another registrar.

Porkbun documents its WHOIS privacy as: Free, included by default.

Included at no charge is the right answer in 2026, and it is close to universal among reputable registrars: which makes a registrar that still charges for it the outlier rather than this one being generous.

What privacy does is replace your name, postal address, phone number and email in the public record with the provider's forwarding details. What it does not do is hide the registration from the registrar, the registry, or a court order, and it does not stop a domain being linked to you by other means. Since GDPR, most registries also redact personal data by default regardless of what the registrar sells, so for many extensions the privacy product is a smaller addition than it was. Our WHOIS-privacy sub-score for Porkbun is 9.5, based on the documented policy.

Porkbun describes its DNS as: Free DNS, ALIAS records, DNSSEC, and good UI.

ALIAS (or ANAME) support is the one feature most likely to decide this for you. The DNS specification does not allow a CNAME at the apex of a domain, so pointing example.com, not www.example.com, at a hosted platform needs this record type. Registrars without it leave you working around the limitation. DNSSEC is documented, which lets resolvers verify that the answers they receive have not been tampered with in transit.

A public API is documented, so DNS records here can be managed from a script rather than a dashboard. Remember that the registrar and the DNS host do not have to be the same company: you can keep a domain here and point its nameservers anywhere. Our DNS sub-score for Porkbun is 8.5, based on documented capability rather than measured resolution times.

Porkbun documents TOTP authenticator app for account access.

An authenticator app is the right default and better than SMS, which can be redirected by a SIM swap. What it does not do is resist a convincing phishing page: the code is still something a human can be persuaded to type into the wrong box. Hardware security keys close that gap, and this registrar does not document support for them.

Whatever the method, the registrar account is the domain's real perimeter: anyone inside it can change nameservers and start a transfer. Turn on the strongest option offered, keep the registrant email on an account with its own two-factor, and check the domain lock is set. Our security sub-score for Porkbun is 8.5, based on the methods it documents rather than on a penetration test.

Porkbun publishes 3 support channels: email, live chat (business hours), knowledge base.

Live channels are available but not around the clock, so a problem outside business hours waits. For a domain that fronts a business, weigh that against the price difference before choosing on cost alone.

What we have not done, and will not imply: we have not timed responses on these channels or run test tickets. The support sub-score of 8.0 reflects the channels published and their stated hours, not measured response times. Treat published availability as a claim by the registrar until someone has tested it.

Transferring a .com in to Porkbun costs $11.08 against its renewal of $11.08. For most gTLDs a transfer adds a year to the registration rather than resetting it, so that fee buys a year rather than only paying for the move.

Across the 278 extensions we verify here, 9 of them, about 3%, cost less to transfer in than to renew in place. Where that gap exists, moving a domain is a cheaper year rather than just a cheaper move.

The process itself is the same everywhere and the constraints are ICANN's, not the registrar's: unlock the domain, get the authorization code from the losing registrar, and enter it at the gaining one. A gTLD cannot be transferred within 60 days of a registration, a previous transfer, or a change to the registrant contact, that last one catches people who tidy up their WHOIS details first and then find the domain locked for two months.

We have read Porkbun's own transfer documentation and recorded what it says in the evidence section above. We have not run a transfer through a paying account here, so nothing on this page reports how long one actually takes.