Post by @A_norny_mousse@piefed.social

2026-10-19 11:11 UTC

Can you recommend me a free domain service? I want to try out some things with a secondary domain. I’d prefer ethical and non-shady providers. I have a fixed IP and a VPS to go with it, so it’s really only about the domain. A subdomain of my current domain is not enough. A subdomain of the provider would be OK but not ideal. Even paying very little is not an option right now - maybe later. Doing some preliminary research, the keyword seems to be Dynamic DNS even if I have a static IP. There are providers but those that pop up easily do not instil much confidence. I want to hear the Fediverse’s opinions! I haven’t found any recent posts about this. TIA

Replies (4)

@guycls@lemmy.world 2026-10-19 20:45

pagekite.net

Open ##5287810
@said@lemmy.sdf.org 2026-10-21 06:27

Different take but nip.io and sslip.io just let you use your IP as your domain. When you use the hex notation, it’s shorter, more usable and subdomains can just be used at will. Depending your IP address you may even get lucky and get a vanity looking subdomain. Granted it’ll be fixed as long as your IP is not changing. When it does, you gotta switch domains. I’m mentioning this because you said your IP is fixed and I have a similar use with these.

Open ##5292006
@just_an_average_joe@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2026-10-21 06:44

“The .tk domain (Tokelau’s country code) was known for letting people register at no cost under certain conditions, often for 1 year at a time. However, free .tk registrations ended after Meta sued Freenom in March 2023 over abuse and lookalike phishing-related activity.” I only remember .tk And mandatory fuck meta

Open ##5292956
@ultimaluz@lemmy.world 2026-10-19 16:50

nobody said desec.io yet, it’s a non profit from berlin and they give free subdomains under dedyn.io, with a proper API, so you can do the DNS challenge for let’s encrypt (there’s a caddy plugin for it too). I haven’t run a domain there myself so can’t say how it is long term, but for a “try some things” domain it looks like the least shady of the free ones I guess.

Open ##5322073