home / rankings / domain registrars / gandi alternatives Gandi alternatives 7 tools we tested head to head against Gandi, ranked — and what each one actually does differently.
last reviewed 5 sept 2026 · from our best 8 domain registrars · list curated by Onur Ozcan x in
first — what you'd be leaving Gandi ranks #8 of 8 in our domain registrars testing. $11.00 for the first year, $38.38 for every one after.
44 /100 a 267% markup and the largest first-year-to-renewal gap in the ranking, from a registrar that once had the opposite reputation.
why people look for an alternative
− $27.92 of margin — a 267% markup on an identical product − $27.38 gap between the first year and the renewal, the largest here − two different renewal prices published on the same page − $55.00 restore fee, and a 60-day wait before a transfer out is possible stay with Gandi if publishes registration, renewal and transfer prices publicly with no cart or account is the thing you care about most — nothing below beats it on that.
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Cloudflare Registrar #1 in domain registrars · zero margin, in writing, permanently
92 /100 verdict the only registrar here whose price is a policy rather than a promotion — and the only one that will not tell you what that price actually is.
Cloudflare Registrar vs Gandi
Gandi Cloudflare Registrar price $38.38 / year renewal $10.46 / year — at cost free tier no no com renewal $38.38 $10.46 — at cost margin over cost $27.92 $0.00 first-year gap $27.38 none — at cost always whois privacy not verified free redaction icann fee not itemised passed through
switch for anyone who intends to keep a domain for years and never think about it again
pros
+ at-cost pricing committed to in the vendor's own documentation + $0.00 margin — the reference point every other entry is measured against + no first-year teaser and no renewal shock, structurally + free whois redaction; over 390 tlds cons
− publishes no actual dollar figure — you must know the registry price yourself − the price moves with verisign, so it rises to $11.17 in november − not a standalone product — it exists to keep domains inside cloudflare 2
Spaceship #2 in domain registrars · renews below its own cost of goods, which cannot last
86 /100 verdict the cheapest .com renewal we could verify anywhere, priced below what the registry charges for it — a loss leader with a visible expiry date.
Spaceship vs Gandi
Gandi Spaceship price $38.38 / year renewal $9.98 / year renewal, plus $0.20 icann free tier no no com renewal $38.38 $9.98 + $0.20 icann margin over cost $27.92 −$0.28 — below cost first-year gap $27.38 $1.10 whois privacy not verified not verified icann fee not itemised itemised at $0.20
switch for buyers who want the lowest number on the page today and will re-check it in november
pros
+ $9.98 renewal — the cheapest verified figure in the ranking + the only registrar here that itemises the $0.20 icann fee + register, renew and transfer prices all printed on one public page + transfer at $9.48 is cheaper than most registrars' renewals cons
− prices below its own cost of goods, which is not sustainable − the november wholesale rise takes the loss to 99 cents a renewal − whois privacy terms not confirmed on the pages we read − same owner as Namecheap, which charges $8.50 more for the identical product 3
Dynadot #3 in domain registrars · 42 cents of margin and the same price all three years
84 /100 verdict the cheapest registrar here that both publishes its number and charges a margin it can actually survive on.
Dynadot vs Gandi
Gandi Dynadot price $38.38 / year renewal $10.88 / year free tier no no com renewal $38.38 $10.88 margin over cost $27.92 $0.42 first-year gap $27.38 none — flat whois privacy not verified free icann fee not itemised not itemised
switch for buyers who want a real published price, flat in both directions, from an independent registrar
pros
+ $10.88 flat across register, renew and transfer + 42 cents of margin — the cheapest verifiable, sustainable price here + free domain privacy included + grace, delete and restore terms published alongside every price cons
− $100.92 to restore an expired .com − the icann fee is not itemised, so the all-in figure takes arithmetic − no published position on the november wholesale increase advertisement
4
Porkbun #4 in domain registrars · one all-inclusive number and the best security defaults here
80 /100 verdict twenty cents more than Dynadot for an all-inclusive price, free privacy and webauthn — which is a reasonable trade.
Porkbun vs Gandi
Gandi Porkbun price $38.38 / year renewal $11.08 / year free tier no no com renewal $38.38 $11.08 margin over cost $27.92 $0.62 first-year gap $27.38 none — flat whois privacy not verified free icann fee not itemised included in price
switch for people who want the number on the page to be the number on the invoice
pros
+ all-inclusive $11.08 — icann and other fees stated as included + free whois privacy as a matter of stated policy + webauthn, 2fa and login notifications on accounts + over 500 extensions and a documented public api cons
− 20 cents dearer than Dynadot for a comparable product − transfer-out and expired-domain terms not published on the pricing page − no published position on the november wholesale increase 5
NameSilo #5 in domain registrars · $11.05 for everyone, behind a $17.29 headline
78 /100 verdict effectively the same price as Porkbun with more included for free, presented in a way that makes it look more expensive than it is.
NameSilo vs Gandi
Gandi NameSilo price $38.38 / year renewal $11.05 / year free tier no no com renewal $38.38 $11.05 margin over cost $27.92 $0.59 first-year gap $27.38 none — flat whois privacy not verified free icann fee not itemised not itemised
switch for buyers who want free privacy, email forwarding and dns bundled at a near-cost price
pros
+ $11.05 flat for any account holder, registration and renewal alike + whois privacy, email forwarding, dns and custom whois all free + volume discounts down to $10.80 for large portfolios + no first-year teaser cons
− a $17.29 retail column that applies to almost no one sits above the real price − pricing split across three tabs and an eight-column matrix − per-tld pages 404, so there is no simple page for one extension 6
Namecheap #6 in domain registrars · $10.98 to join, $18.48 to stay
66 /100 verdict a $7.50 step up at renewal from a company whose own sibling brand sells the identical domain for $9.98.
Namecheap vs Gandi
Gandi Namecheap price $38.38 / year renewal $18.48 / year renewal free tier no no com renewal $38.38 $18.48 margin over cost $27.92 $8.02 first-year gap $27.38 $7.50 whois privacy not verified free for life icann fee not itemised not itemised
switch for people already invested in its dns and email who value the interface over the margin
pros
+ renewal price published plainly alongside the registration price + free whois privacy for life + well-built dashboard and a large tld range + transfer in at $11.48 is cheaper than its own renewal cons
− $7.50 step up from first year to renewal − $8.02 of margin — roughly 43% of the price − its own sibling brand Spaceship renews the same domain for $9.98 − the first-year rate is a named sale, not a standing price 7
Hover #7 in domain registrars · expensive, flat, and honest about being expensive
62 /100 verdict the second-most expensive .com here, and the only expensive one that charges the same price both years.
Hover vs Gandi
Gandi Hover price $38.38 / year renewal $18.99 / year free tier no no com renewal $38.38 $18.99 margin over cost $27.92 $8.53 first-year gap $27.38 none — flat whois privacy not verified not verified icann fee not itemised not itemised
switch for people who will pay a premium to never see an upsell
pros
+ identical price for registration and renewal — no teaser at all + renewal cost is knowable for the life of the domain on day one + long-standing reputation for not running checkout upsells cons
− $8.53 of margin — about eighteen times Dynadot's on an identical product − second-most expensive renewal in the ranking − the headline domains page quotes only a $15-$30 range, not the .com price how these were compared every tool on this page went through the same test as Gandi — same tasks, same order, scored the same way. the comparison tables are the figures from that testing, not vendor spec sheets.
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Cloudflare Registrar alternatives Spaceship alternatives Dynadot alternatives Porkbun alternatives NameSilo alternatives Namecheap alternatives