Free Domain name as are great. Although I wouldn’t necessarily use them for an important website due to the chance that they may not be here tomorrow but they are great for testing and small non critical web sites. Below is a list that I compiled of my top five free domain name providers.
1. Dot.TK
Dot.tk has been around for a long time and they continue to provide excellent free domain names. I even run an entire flash arcade on one of these and its been great! Their website provides a fairly simple signup process and management area. You can use your own DNS servers or you can create records with dot.tk and use theirs.
They have an excellent F.A.Q. which answers many questions. Also, a thing to note, the TK TLD is for Tokelau, a territory of New Zealand.
One thing to note with dot.tk as well as many other free domain provers is that since they are free, many people use them for spam. This causes search engines like Google to have a harder time giving website with these top level domains a high ranking. – Just something to keep in mind.
2. Uni.me
Uni.me is another free domain provider. Although I don’t use them as frequently as others they are still a viable backup. One thing to take note of with Uni.me is that they require a street address, phone number, etc to register a domain. This can be a good as well as a bad thing. The bad is obvious, giving out personal information is never something you WANT to do but it is sometimes necessary. The good thing is that this may reduce the amount of spam domains, but yet again, spammers can just fake information.
Uni.me also offers more than just a uni.me domain. They offer many others.
3. CU.CC
Much like Uni.me, you must provide a bit more personal information than registering a dot.tk. Also, a thing to note is that the Uni.me and Cu.cc domains only offer free sub domains where your domain is a sub domain of a domain on a TLD. (Which is why I suggest dot.tk so much) Although you may not be getting a second level domain, you can still use this for test projects and to learn the ways of the Internet.
So these are the three free domain name providers that I currently enjoy using. As you make have already noticed, my favorite is dot.tk. They offer actual domain names and their system is great!
Do you have any favorite free domain name providers? Why do you use a free domain over a paid one? I’m interested in knowing what you think!
