Free domain with hosting: run these four checks before you claim one

The registrant on the WHOIS record must be you, personally or as your company, and never the host. Reputable providers get this right almost universally, but the old horror stories of hosts registering bundle domains under their own name are why the check endures. Thirty seconds on a WHOIS lookup after registration closes the question for good.

One more piece of small print: WHOIS privacy. Certain hosts bundle it at no charge, which is the right call when registries bill pennies for the service. Others resell it to you at $10-15/yr. Skip it and your name, your email and your postal address land on a public record. That alone makes you a spam magnet.

The name came free with the hosting, so what becomes of it once the hosting stops? Straight answer: it stays yours for whatever term is already paid up, and it renews at the standard rate whether or not a plan sits behind it. Watch for bundle wording that lets a cancellation inside year one claw the cost of the "free" domain back out of your refund. On its own that is fair enough, because the host really did pay the registry. It belongs in writing, though, rather than lurking inside a refund figure that catches you off guard.

Our terms take the deliberately dull position. The domain is registered in your name, renewals follow the published flat rate, and if you take a hosting refund but keep the domain, we deduct only the registry's actual cost. Every word of it sits on the refund policy page in ordinary sentences.