After our post of free dns (domain name servers) one of the readers of freestuff.co.za asked if we could do a write up about our favourite free hosting providers and free domain names. We did some research and posted about free domain names in the past so our first post will be a roundup of the free domain names available. We found several available places for free domains and we list them in order of our choice (A post about free hosting provider will follow soon)

za.net and za.org

ZA Nic the 100% free provider of domain names with extension za.net and za.org. This is a total non commercial provider of free domain names.  ZA NiC was created to provide free domain registration under ZA.NET and ZA.ORG to companies, not-for-profit organisations or private users who cannot afford the fees demanded by some domain name registrars or who simply believe that domain names should be a freely available resource for everyone.  They have been providing free domain names since 1998 so they are very reliable and bound to be around for a very long time.

In the past there could be a waiting time for 2 to 3 weeks before they processed the queue of new domain registrations, but lately they seem to be more responsive and the waiting time is about 1 to 2 days.

Visit them at www.za.net

co.cc

co.cc registry seems to be growing in popularity.  CO.CC is the world’s best free domain name registrar and the leading provider of Internet services including – Free dns service, online marketing, url forwarding, e-mail and more. However they provide free domains only for non commercial use, commercial use of the domain name requires a yearly registration fee of USD3. Some keywords they have reserved as well and they consider that as premium domain names like moneytalks.co.cc which they want to charge USD6 for per year. (This is probably the way they fund their business)

So while they have a lot of free domain names available there are certain conditions that you have to pay for the domain name. This is one of the reasons they are not number one on our list.

They have a lot more features though as the ZA NIC registry including dns services so even it is a mixed combination of free and not free they are second place in our opinion

Visit them at co.cc

cz.cc

cz.cc are a free domain name registration service. You can register up to 5 domain names for free or purchase a domain name VIP account. Use the search box above to find a domain name available at our free domain name registration.

You can register all available domain names instantly. We offer the best free domain registration with dynamic dns service. We provide in addition to our domain names a free DNS service with full MX, CNAME, A and SOA records. Register a free domain now!  Like co.cc they have premium domain names avaialble as well.  Allthough they seem to have more available free domain names and less premium domain names. The reason they are number three on our list is that cz.cc does not sound as good as co.cc

Visit them at cz.cc

uni.cc

UNI.CC is a free domain name that will help making your web sites more accessible using short and easy-to-remember Internet addresses.

UNI.CC provides the domain name registration tools and DNS setup wizard. You can point a domain to a domain to the IP address of your server or set your own DNS servers to get the maximum flexibility. The service is provided at no cost. We only require from you that you keep your contact information updated and use the service according to our Terms and Conditions.

Visit them at uni.cc

dot.tk

A lesser known provider of free domain name registrations. They provide free domain name forwarding and domain name registrations. But as with co.cc and cz.cc they have what they call so called premium domain names.  The pricing for their so called premium domains is a bit excessive(the one domain we tried out which has a pricetag of USD 3 with co.cc and for free with cz.cc has a price tag of over USD200 at dot.tk

visit dot.tk

URL Forwarding ONLY Domain Names

co.nr

.CO.NR Free Domain Name project was developed to provide Free Domain Names or Free Subdomain of .CO.NR domain name to those who wish to get a cool and free domain name, free subdomain or free short URL, that looks like a real paid domain name:

• Do you have a long website address, that is difficult to remember?
• Do you want your website to look professionally without obtaining a paid domain name?
• Do you often change your web hosting providers, so that you have to change your website address as well?

unonic and smartdots

 several free url forwarding domain names available at United Names Organisation and Smartdots

• absolutely free of charge – forever!
• no compulsory advertisement!
• free web stats for your homepage!
• easy to use professional domain tools!
• Forwarding is possible to any URL – no matter which webspace provider!
• Search engine optimized

visit unonic or smartdots

Hopefully you can find the domain name your are looking for free of charge

Tags: domain name, internet