I have a .io domain registered with GoDaddy and have generally been happy with them after more than 20 years. I only use them for domain registration while hosting elsewhere, and the domain is mainly used for private email routing. However, the renewal price has risen to about £66 per year, compared with roughly £10 for my other domains.
I'm looking for reputable registrars that offer cheaper .io renewals, and possibly a good home for my other domains too. I'm based in the UK, so a UK registrar or a US company with reasonable currency conversion would be preferable. I've found plenty of comparison lists, but I'd rather hear from people with firsthand experience before moving my domains.
5 Answers
Porkbun has worked well for me, and their .io renewal pricing is noticeably below £66—roughly £40 in my case. They’re US-based, but card payments and currency conversion have been straightforward, and the total still came out cheaper.
I’d also recommend Cloudflare. Keep in mind that each top-level domain has different wholesale pricing, so the savings can vary. UK domains are especially inexpensive at the registry level, meaning some registrars add a surprisingly large markup.
Rocket Domains is a UK-based option. They also include secure premium global DNS with their domains, which may be useful if you want to keep DNS management and registration in one place.
I recently moved my domains from Namecheap to Porkbun because of the lower renewal costs and better API controls, including support for DNS-01 certificate challenges. One important setup detail: copying your DNS records isn’t enough. If you want Porkbun’s nameservers to handle DNS, you also need to enable its DNS service separately.
Cloudflare would be my first choice. Their pricing is generally close to the registry cost, so .io domains may be considerably cheaper than at traditional registrars. Just check that their supported services and transfer rules suit your needs.
Thanks, Porkbun keeps appearing in recommendations, so I’ll investigate them properly. I was mainly hesitant because there are so many unfamiliar registrars to choose from.