We compared six registrars across 24 endings on first-year, renewal, and three-year cost. Spaceship wins 12 three-year totals, Porkbun wins 8, and Cloudflare owns renewals. Here is where each one actually wins.
The headline price is not the price
Every registrar advertises its cheapest first year. Almost none advertises its renewal next to it. That is the whole game: a $6.67 first year next to a $17.16 renewal costs $41 over three years, while a boring $9.06 first year with a $10.16 renewal costs $29.38.
So we stopped comparing first years. Across 24 endings and six registrars, we scored every quote on three numbers that matter: cheapest first year, cheapest renewal, and cheapest three-year total with the $0.18 ICANN fee already inside.
Who wins the three-year totals
Counted across all 24 endings, Spaceship holds the best three-year total on 12 endings, Porkbun on 8, and Cloudflare on 4. Namecheap, NameSilo, and Dynadot rarely hold an outright three-year best, though they stay close on specific endings.
The pattern is consistent: Spaceship and Porkbun price first years aggressively and keep renewals within a few dollars of wholesale. Cloudflare never discounts the first year but never marks up the renewal either, which wins the long game on endings where everyone else pads renewals.
Cloudflare owns renewals
Cloudflare holds the cheapest renewal on 18 of 24 endings. That is the number to remember if you already own a portfolio: whatever your registrar charges to renew, Cloudflare at-cost pricing is the benchmark it has to beat.
The catch is transfers. Moving a domain usually costs a year of renewal at the gaining registrar, so compare the transfer column before you move a name to chase a cheaper renewal.
Where Namecheap actually wins
Namecheap wins exactly one headline: .com first years for new customers at $6.67 with the NEWCOM649 code. It is a genuine bargain for year one, and a genuine trap by year three, when the $17.16 renewal pushes its three-year total past Spaceship.
That is not a criticism of Namecheap specifically. It is the mechanics of promo pricing: the steeper the first-year discount, the harder the renewal snaps back. Our renewal-trap flag fires whenever renewal passes 2.25 times the first year with at least a $15 jump.
How to use this comparison
If you are registering today, sort the homepage table by three-year total and pick the winner for your ending. If you are renewing, sort by renewal and compare against Cloudflare. If you are moving registrars, sort by transfer.
Prices refresh daily at 03:00 UTC. Promo codes come and go; the renewal column is the one that barely moves, which is exactly why it deserves the most attention.
Questions this article answers
Which registrar is cheapest overall?
There is no single cheapest registrar. Across 24 endings, Spaceship holds the most best three-year totals (12), Porkbun holds 8, and Cloudflare holds 4. The cheapest choice depends on the ending.
Which registrar has the cheapest renewals?
Cloudflare holds the cheapest renewal on 18 of 24 endings because it sells at wholesale with no markup. If you already own domains, Cloudflare renewals are usually the benchmark to beat.
Is Namecheap ever the cheapest?
On headline first-year price, yes: Namecheap lists .com at $6.67 with the NEWCOM649 code for new customers. But its renewal jumps to $17.16, so its three-year total loses to Spaceship at $29.38.