Free domain for life? - what's the catch

xen · 6th January 2009

hi, there are many hosts who provide free domain for life? is there any catch that i should know before signing up a hosting package?

what if i want to transfer domain or terminate the hosting? any advice from experience?

aguk · 6th January 2009

It is probably for the life of your hosting package. If you do not renew then you lose the domain.

The domain will probably registered to them rather than you.

There will probably be a high "admin" fee to transfer the domain elsewhere.

M8INTERNET · 6th January 2009

Let's see the Terms & Conditions of what they have to offer

JamieBeeston · 6th January 2009

Invariably they're only for the duration of the hosting plan, and they're not free, they're simply priced into the cost of the hosting.

Gimmick.

Cyberprog · 6th January 2009

Anyone remember freenetname? Anyone remember precisely what happened in the end/or if you wanted to get your domain name out?

othellotech · 6th January 2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by xen

hi, there are many hosts who provide free domain for life?

That might be how it's worded, but domains (in the main, there are *very* few exceptions) are neither free, nor for-life, so it's simply another marketing tactic - the price of the domain will be included in your hosting package, or "discounted" as a form of simple advertising.

Ideally you should pick a reliable, stable and established domain registrar, or direct reseller of one of the major registries - the domain is the most critical part of your online branding/identity - simply basing your choice on cheap/free could mean you lose the domain when they go t!tsup.com

If you're going to pick a fly-by-night no-name hosting company, then ensure your domain is registered and managed elsewhere, so when they vanish you dont lose it.

JamieBeeston · 6th January 2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cyberprog

Anyone remember freenetname? Anyone remember precisely what happened in the end/or if you wanted to get your domain name out?

Aye..

I was a customer, they wanted (iirc) £85 to release the .co.uk for me.

MH-Nick · 6th January 2009

Bluehost offer it, and their prices are still competitive (in the unlimited US market), though they don't suffer as much as they're a registrar themselves. If doesn't look too tricky to transfer it out, but I don't know of costs. Then again I don't think they'll mind.

Quote:

Originally Posted by JamieBeeston

...I was a customer, they wanted (iirc) £85 to release the .co.uk for me.

othellotech · 6th January 2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cyberprog

Anyone remember precisely what happened in the end/or if you wanted to get your domain name out?

An invoice for £100 (£85+vat) and you had no choice, as they registered the domains in their name, so you were prevented from going to the registry like Nominet directly and paying them to "take" it away from FNN

Cyberprog · 6th January 2009

Indeed, IIRC I ended up coughing up to get my .co.uk back from them. But then that was back in the day that people were charging silly money for .uk domains

Seemed like a good idea at the time!

JamieBeeston · 6th January 2009

I almost paid NetBenefit £160 for a .uk domain!

othellotech · 7th January 2009

Ah back in the 90's ...
There was one IT company in Yorkshire, had fairly good AltaVista/Lycos rankings for "uk domains" charged £375+vat for a .uk domain and £100/year for forwarding, and we're just buying them manually from thename.co.uk, who in turn were just using UKREG/FH ...

Cyberprog · 7th January 2009

Bring back the 90's

BoostDrinker · 7th January 2009

If you want a free domain try out UK.TO or any or the 1000s of other freedns.afraid.org subbys.

HOSTIN4U · 11th January 2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by xen

hi, there are many hosts who provide free domain for life? is there any catch that i should know before signing up a hosting package?

what if i want to transfer domain or terminate the hosting? any advice from experience?

It might be a scam but proberbly means for the life of your hosting package.