Porkbun review 2027

What problem does Porkbun solve for domain owners?

Porkbun solves the renewal-price problem. The .com first year is 11.06 USD and the .com renewal is 11.06 USD/yr, so the price you pay to register is the price you pay to keep the name. Free WHOIS privacy, DNSSEC, SSL and email forwarding are included rather than sold back to you, and the panel is fast enough that routine DNS work does not turn into a project.

It also solves the exit problem. Transfer-out took 6 minutes with no retention screens, which matters if you have ever tried to move a name away from a registrar that would rather you stayed. The trade-off is support: there is no phone line, only email and chat, and the company is smaller than the registrars it competes with.

How did we score Porkbun, criterion by criterion?

Pricing carries the most weight at 35 points, and Porkbun earned 32. We measured the .com renewal price and what the checkout adds by default, not the first-year promo, because the promo is not what you pay in year two.

Privacy and security is worth 25 points and Porkbun took 24. That covers free WHOIS redaction, DNSSEC, two-factor login and registrar lock, all present here.

Management is 20 points and Porkbun scored 17. We looked at the DNS editor, the API, bulk tools and how many clicks a transfer-out took. The 6-minute transfer-out is the number behind that score.

Support is the last 20 points and Porkbun scored 17. We timed minutes to a human and checked whether the answer was correct. Email and chat only is the reason this is not a perfect score.

Where Porkbun stands out in testing

The renewal price is the headline. At 11.06 USD/yr for a .com, Porkbun is cheaper than Namecheap at 16.98 USD/yr, Name.com at 18.99 USD/yr, Squarespace Domains at 20 USD/yr and GoDaddy at 22.99 USD/yr. Only Cloudflare Registrar undercuts it, at 10.44 USD/yr, and Cloudflare requires you to use its DNS.

Privacy is free, not a paid add-on, and the DNS editor is clean enough to use without documentation. The API is there for anyone who wants to script changes. Transfer-out took 6 minutes with no retention screens, which is the part of registrar ownership people rarely test until they need it.

DNSSEC and WHOIS privacy explained

DNSSEC adds a cryptographic signature to your DNS records so a resolver can verify that the answer it received actually came from your domain's nameservers. Without it, a forged answer can be accepted as real. With it, the resolver can detect tampering and refuse the response.

WHOIS privacy replaces your name, address, phone number and email in the public registration record with forwarding details, so anyone querying the domain sees a proxy rather than your home address. Both are switched on at Porkbun at no extra cost, and both appear in the spec sheet as Yes.

What you actually get: pricing, privacy, DNSSEC, 2FA, TLDs, transfer and email

• .com first year: 11.06 USD
• .com renewal: 11.06 USD/yr
• Free WHOIS privacy: Yes
• DNSSEC: Yes
• Two-factor login: Yes
• TLDs offered: 500+
• Transfer-in (.com): 11.06 USD
• Email hosting: Forwarding free; hosting from $2/mo
• Founded: 2014

That is nine spec rows and none of them hide a surcharge. The 500+ TLD count matches GoDaddy and Name.com, and sits above Cloudflare Registrar and Squarespace Domains at 300+ each.

How Porkbun compares with Cloudflare, Namecheap and GoDaddy

Cloudflare Registrar scored 8.7 and charges 10.44 USD/yr for a .com renewal, which is less than Porkbun. Cloudflare also offers 300+ TLDs, free WHOIS privacy, one-click DNSSEC, two-factor login and free Email Routing. The catch is that Cloudflare requires its DNS, while Porkbun works with any nameserver you point at it.

Namecheap scored 8.4 with a 16.98 USD/yr .com renewal, free privacy forever, DNSSEC, two-factor login, 400+ TLDs and 24/7 chat that answered in two minutes. Namecheap's transfer-in is 10.98 USD and Private Email starts at $1.24/mo. Porkbun is cheaper on renewal and faster to leave, but Namecheap's support hours are broader.

GoDaddy scored 6.9 and charges 22.99 USD/yr for a .com renewal, the highest here. GoDaddy offers 500+ TLDs, basic free privacy, DNSSEC, two-factor login and 24/7 phone support in many languages, plus Microsoft 365 as an email add-on. Porkbun is far cheaper and includes more by default, but it has no phone line at all.

Feature comparison across the registrars we tested

Read the table by column, not by brand. On .com renewal, Porkbun is 11.06 USD/yr, Cloudflare Registrar is 10.44 USD/yr, Namecheap is 16.98 USD/yr, Name.com is 18.99 USD/yr, Squarespace Domains is 20 USD/yr and GoDaddy is 22.99 USD/yr.

Free WHOIS privacy is Yes across all six. DNSSEC is Yes across all six, with Cloudflare describing it as one click. Two-factor login is Yes across all six. On TLDs, Porkbun, Name.com and GoDaddy offer 500+, Namecheap offers 400+, and Cloudflare and Squarespace offer 300+.

On transfer-in for a .com, Porkbun charges 11.06 USD, Cloudflare 10.44 USD, Namecheap 10.98 USD, Name.com 12.99 USD, GoDaddy 11.99 USD and Squarespace 20 USD. On email, Porkbun includes forwarding free with hosting from $2/mo, Cloudflare includes Email Routing free, Namecheap sells Private Email from $1.24/mo, Name.com starts at $2.99/mo, and Squarespace and GoDaddy route you to Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 respectively.

Where Porkbun falls short

Support is email and chat only, with no phone line, which is the single reason the support criterion did not score higher. Porkbun also bundles fewer services than GoDaddy, so if you want email, hosting and a domain from one invoice, GoDaddy has more in the box. Finally, Porkbun is a smaller company than the registrars it beats on price, and that is a real consideration for anyone who wants a large support organisation behind the account.

Is Porkbun good value?

At 11.06 USD for the first year and 11.06 USD/yr on renewal, Porkbun is the cheapest full-service registrar in this test. Transfer-in is also 11.06 USD, and transfer-out took 6 minutes. Privacy is free, DNSSEC is free, and email forwarding is free, with hosting from $2/mo if you want a mailbox. The value case is not a first-year discount; it is that the number does not move.

Who should buy Porkbun?

Almost everyone. If you want a .com at a renewal price that matches the first year, free WHOIS privacy, DNSSEC, two-factor login, 500+ TLDs and a DNS panel you can script against, Porkbun is the registrar to pick. Choose Cloudflare Registrar instead only if you are already committed to Cloudflare DNS and want the 10.44 USD/yr renewal. Choose Namecheap if 24/7 chat response time matters more than the renewal price. Choose GoDaddy only if you need phone support and bundled services enough to pay 22.99 USD/yr.