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Freenom has shut down: alternatives for a free domain

What happened to Freenom's free .tk, .ml and .ga, what options are left for a free domain or subdomain and how not to lose your name again.

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For years, Freenom was the answer to "free domain". It gave you a .tk, a .ml or a .ga without paying anything. Today it is gone, and plenty of people still search for it. This is what happened and what you can use instead.

What happened to Freenom

In March 2023 Freenom stopped taking new registrations, after Meta sued it over the domains being used for phishing. That November ICANN terminated its accreditation, and in February 2024 it announced it was leaving the domain business.

With the shutdown, millions of .tk, .cf and .gq domains stopped working. Many were personal sites and class projects that vanished overnight, with nothing their owners could do.

What no longer exists

A top-level domain, like yourname.com or yourname.tk, free and forever, is not offered by any serious registrar today. Keeping a domain costs money every year, and someone has to pay it.

Freenom's business was giving the name away and making money when it expired or got suspended. If a service promises you a domain of your own free forever, look at how it makes money before you trust it with your name.

The alternatives that work

A free subdomain. On does.software you get yourname.does.software right away, with a redirect, email forwarding and HTTPS, no card. Other options are is-a.dev, if you know DNS and don't mind waiting for your pull request to be reviewed, and eu.org, free but with an approval that can take months.

Your platform's name. GitHub Pages, Vercel and Netlify give you a subdomain of theirs for free, like username.github.io. It works, but it changes if you change platforms.

A cheap domain for the first year. If you are a student, the GitHub Student Developer Pack includes a free domain for a year with some registrars, and outside the pack there are extensions that cost very little the first year. Always look at the renewal price, not the first-year one. It is all compared in the guide to free domains for students.

If you had a .tk

A domain Freenom took down cannot be recovered. What you do have is your content. If the site was on GitHub or on your computer, upload it under a new name and in a few minutes it is back online.

Then change the link wherever it appeared, your CV, LinkedIn, your profiles and your signatures. The old name is not coming back, so the sooner you change it, the fewer visits you lose.

How not to lose it again

Before picking a free service, find out what happens if you stop renewing, stop paying or the service closes. If it isn't written anywhere, that is a bad sign.

Here it is written in the FAQ. On the free plan you renew your name with one click every 45 days, we remind you 7 days and 1 day before, and if you miss it we hold it for 3 more days. With the Starter plan, from €2.56 a month, the name does not expire while you pay. And if you ever want to leave, your content is yours and goes with you.

Freenom is not coming back and nobody gives away a domain of your own forever. To have a free name today, use a subdomain with clear rules and, if you buy your own domain one day, redirect the subdomain to the new one.

Claim your name Or back to Lifecycle & rules

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