Are Free Domain Names Really Free?

To answer a question with a question: Is anything ever truly free? Everything comes with a price, stipulation, or catch. So called, “free” domain names are no exception. These domain names are not necessarily bad. As a matter of fact, many of them are monetarily free. Often the costs associated with obtaining a free domain name is opportunity costs. However, some companies boast of free domain names along with the purchase of their web hosting services. In this case, there is an actual monetary cost associated with the “free” domain name.

Websites that offer truly free domain names in the financial sense usually do not offer unique or memorable domain names. With the extreme popularity of .com and .net, it is hard to make a website stand out when it ends in something like .abc.xyz. So, the tradeoff comes in the catchiness of the domain name. In addition to this, the common names or phrases usually are not given away freely. If you have a basketball site, you will probably have to pay to register basketball.abc.xyz. Free domain name websites are generous, but they are not ignorant. They recognize the value of simple, easy-to-remember terms. The only way to obtain a free domain name for your basketball site would be to add words, prefixes, or suffixes to the term. An example would be e-basketballsite.abc.xyz. The free domain name registrars attach prices to the common terms so that large companies will purchase them for reasonable sum. This is how the rest of the less popular domain names remain free.

The other type of free domain name comes with the purchase of web hosting services. Web hosts know that Internet users can not do anything without a host server to display their websites. Therefore, they charge you for the necessity of a host server, and include free domain name services. The domain name is only free for a limited time (usually one year). The web hosting service can cost anywhere from $10-$30 per month. This does not include the one time set-up fee that many companies charge. Suddenly, free domain names are more expensive than the paid domain names.

Finally, there is one last thing to be aware of when considering a free domain name. Many free domain name registrars often discontinue their services with no warning. If you need the security of a long-term domain name, you should consider fee-based registrar.