Freenom alternatives that are still free in 2026
People still type “freenom alternative” and expect another factory that hands out .tk names. That factory is gone. Free registrations on Freenom’s country codes ended in 2024 after Meta sued. In 2026 some of those endings are for sale again — as paid names, not a leftover pile.
What still exists is smaller and more honest: a handful of third-level programs, plus year-1 cheap TLDs that are not free.
What Freenom actually was
Freenom let anyone register .tk, .cf, .gq, .ga, and .ml at no charge. The names were easy to get and easy to burn. Phishing kits loved them. After the lawsuit, the free window closed. Treat any 2026 “free .tk” ad as a thing to ignore.
You cannot scrape leftover Freenom names either. If a name is still in their system, it is not yours. If it is gone, it is not sitting in a public $0 dump.
Still $0, and you control DNS
These are the closest replacements if what you wanted was a hostname you can point at GitHub Pages, Cloudflare, or a VPS.
- eu.org —
you.eu.org. Free since 1996. A human reviews the request. Community reports still cluster around two weeks. Not the European Union. Full walkthrough: how to request eu.org. - is-a.dev —
you.is-a.dev. GitHub pull request onis-a-dev/register. Developers only. The hunter on this site can see if the slug file already exists. - thedev.id —
you.thedev.id. Same idea: fork, add a CNAME, open a PR. Aimed at personal developer sites. - is-a-good.dev — community-run cousin of is-a.dev.
is-a-good-dev/registerwas still merging PRs as of 19 Aug 2026. - js.org —
project.js.org. JavaScript projects only. They stopped handing these to personal blogs. Their own wiki now points people at the list above. - FreeDNS — a subdomain on someone else’s shared domain. Public ones look random. Private ones need the domain owner’s okay. $0, ugly, works.
- pp.ua — private-person zone. Confirm the current signup form before you assume it still answers. Do not invent Telegram or phone rules; use whatever their page says today.
Still $0, but it is a platform hostname
These are not names you take to another registrar. They die if you leave the platform. For a weekend project that is fine.
- GitHub Pages —
you.github.io. Tied to the username. This site runs on one. - Cloudflare Pages —
project.pages.dev. - Netlify —
project.netlify.app. - DuckDNS —
you.duckdns.org. Built for a home IP that changes, not a brand. - ClouDNS free zone — a hostname on
cloudns.org/.biz/.info/.us/.eu/.in, with DNS records you edit in their panel. Free zone cannot use custom nameservers.
Not free, even if year one is a dollar
If you will pay something, skip the subdomain theater and buy a real TLD. As of mid-August 2026, TLD-List’s public table had first-year promos around $0.95 for .xyz and $1.18 for .top at Spaceship. Renewals are the real price — Cloudflare’s listed .xyz renewal sat around $10. Spaceship’s own price table listed .xyz at $1.86 year one / $12.52 renew, and .online at $0.98 year one / $21.38 renew.
That is a discount. It is not Freenom. Use the hunter to see if a slug is actually unregistered (RDAP 404), then open Spaceship or Porkbun search from the result row. Compare the renewal, not the banner, on TLD-List before you pay.
Hosting “free domain with plan” deals are the same trick with extra steps. Year two is a bill. Cancel hosting and you still pay the next registrar.
What we will not list as a replacement
- Leftover .coms, WHOIS dumps, expired-domain auctions.
- Freenom names that “might still be free if you try the old form.”
- Open Domains GitHub PRs.
open-domains/registeris archived (21 Aug 2026). The README points at open-domains.com; we do not list that new site as confirmed $0. - cluster.ws / wip.la (Olivr/free-domain). Maintainer README: not working — Cloudflare 1,000-record limit. Last commits Dec 2025.
- Anything that requires you to pay us, or that we register on your behalf. We do not do that.
Pick one and move
Need a name today for a dev project: is-a.dev or thedev.id. Need DNS you control and can wait two weeks: eu.org. Need a box at home to have a hostname: DuckDNS. Need a cheap real TLD and will pay renewal: hunt the slug, then buy year one somewhere cheap.
The full table lives on the catalog. Famous shutdown .coms are a different question — they almost never drop. Use the graveyard.