A "free domain" bundled with web hosting is free for 12 months only. On the vendor pages checked on September 28, 2026, the .com that Hostinger and DreamHost give away renews at $19.99/year, SiteGround's regular .com price is $22.99/year, and InMotion Hosting values its free domain at $23/year. Registrar Porkbun lists the same .com at $11.08/year. The free year is worth one year of registration, about $11 at a registrar's everyday .com price; the renewals, the refund deductions, and the registrar lock-in decide whether bundling the domain with the host was a good trade.
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The Short Answer
Take the free domain if the host is also where the site will live for at least two to three years and a renewal premium of about $9 to $12 a year over a standalone registrar (the spread at the hosts checked) is an acceptable price for one bill and one login. Skip it, and register the domain separately, if the hosting plan is a short trial, if the refund policy deducts the domain from a cancellation refund, or if leaving the host later would mean moving the domain and the site at the same time. The domain is the asset that outlives any hosting plan, so where it is registered matters more than the one-year discount.
What Each Host's Free Domain Includes, and What It Renews At
The table below uses each host's public pricing and domain pages as read on September 28, 2026. Hosting prices are for the entry shared or web hosting plan at the term the host advertises; the domain column is the .com price once the free first year ends.
| Host and plan | Hosting intro | Hosting renewal | Free domain terms | .com after year one | HostingDive verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hostinger Premium (48-month term) | $2.99/mo ($143.52 upfront) | $10.99/mo | 1 year; every plan except Single, on 12-month or longer terms | $19.99/yr | Domain renewals add about 42% to the 4-year hosting bill |
| SiteGround StartUp (12 months prepaid) | $2.99/mo | $17.99/mo | 1 year; .com, .org, or .net | $22.99/yr (regular price) | Highest .com renewal in this set; hosting renewal is the larger jump |
| DreamHost Launch (yearly) | $2.89/mo first year | $10.99/mo | 1 year on annual or multi-year Web Hosting, DreamPress, and Managed VPS | $19.99/yr | Only host here that states free domain privacy for the life of the registration |
| InMotion Hosting shared (12, 24, or 36 months) | Varies by term | Varies by term | 1 year credit; .com, .org, .net, .info, or .biz | Regular price at renewal time (listed as a $23/yr value) | Regular domain price is deducted from a refund if you cancel in the 90-day window |
| Porkbun (registrar only, no hosting) | n/a | n/a | None | $11.08/yr | Baseline for what a standalone .com costs each year |
Hostinger
Hostinger's web hosting FAQ states that all hosting plans except Single include a free domain when ordered for one year or longer. The Premium plan is $2.99/month on a 48-month term, billed as $143.52 upfront, and renews at $10.99/month. Hostinger's domain search page lists .com at $0.01 for the first year with a $19.99/year renewal, and states that free privacy protection is included automatically for supported extensions. Details on the plan limits are in the Hostinger review for budget shared hosting.
SiteGround
SiteGround's hosting page lists StartUp at $2.99/month prepaid for 12 months, renewing at $17.99/month, with a free domain for one year in .com, .org, or .net. Its domain page lists .com at $11.99 for the first year and $22.99/year regular, with a note that discounted prices apply to the first invoice only and regular prices apply to all renewals. The same page advertises 12 months of free domain privacy; it does not list the privacy price after that. Plan-level detail is in the SiteGround review for small business sites.
DreamHost and InMotion Hosting
DreamHost's shared hosting page lists Launch at $2.89/month for the first year, auto-renewing at $10.99/month, with a free domain for one year on annual and multi-year plans. Its .com page shows $9.99 for the first year and a $19.99 renewal rate, and its domains page states that WHOIS privacy is free for the life of the registration. InMotion Hosting's free domain credit applies only to 12, 24, or 36-month plans, covers new registrations or transfers of non-premium .com, .org, .net, .info, and .biz names, and renews at the regular price in effect at that time. The InMotion Hosting review covers the plan tiers.
What the Numbers Mean Over a Full Term
The domain renewal looks small next to a hosting renewal, and in year two it is. SiteGround StartUp costs $35.88 for the first 12 months ($2.99 x 12) with the domain included. Year two at listed renewal rates is $215.88 for hosting ($17.99 x 12) plus $22.99 for the .com, or $238.87. The domain is under 10% of that bill. The hosting renewal, not the domain, is the line that jumps.
The ratio flips on long prepaid terms. Hostinger Premium's 48-month term costs $143.52 upfront for four years of hosting. The .com is free for year one, then renews at $19.99 in years two, three, and four, which adds $59.97 across the term. That is about 42% on top of the hosting spend, for a domain that Porkbun lists at $11.08/year ($33.24 for the same three years). On a cheap multi-year plan, the "free" domain is one of the larger line items over the life of the term.
DreamHost Launch sits between the two: $34.68 for year one ($2.89 x 12), then $131.88 in hosting plus $19.99 for the domain in year two, or $151.87.
Bundled at a host with a $19.99 renewal: $0 + $19.99 + $19.99 = $39.98. Registered at Porkbun at $11.08/year: $33.24. Bundled at SiteGround's $22.99 regular rate: $45.98. The spread across three years is $6.74 to $12.74 per domain, before any privacy charge. For one domain the money is minor; for a portfolio of 10 domains it is $67 to $127.
The dollar gap is modest for a single site. The stronger reason to separate domain and hosting is control, covered in the fine print below.
Who Should Take the Free Domain (and Who Shouldn't)
A bundled domain is a convenience trade: one bill, one login, DNS preset to the host's nameservers, and no setup step where a new site owner points the domain at the server. That convenience is worth something to a first-time buyer launching a single brochure site or blog. It costs more for anyone who expects to change hosts, run several sites, or cancel within the refund window.
- Take it if: the site is new, the hosting term is 12 months or longer, the $9 to $12 yearly renewal premium over a registrar is acceptable to you, and domain privacy is included beyond the first year (DreamHost states lifetime privacy; Hostinger includes it for supported extensions).
- Take it if: you have no existing domain and need the site live the same day, with no DNS configuration to learn.
- Skip it if: you might cancel inside the money-back window. InMotion deducts the regular domain price from the refund, and domain registration fees are non-refundable there.
- Skip it if: you already own a domain at a registrar. Transferring it in to claim a free year moves the registration to the host and ties the two together.
- Skip it if: you manage several client or personal sites. Keeping every domain at one registrar, separate from hosting, means a host change is a DNS edit rather than a domain transfer per site.
For readers who expect to move hosts within a few years, the sequence in how to leave a web host without losing the domain or email shows where a host-registered domain adds steps.
The Fine Print
Refund deductions
InMotion Hosting's shared hosting page states that if you cancel within the Money Back Guarantee period, the regular price of the domain is deducted from the refund, and that domain registration fees are non-refundable. The refund comes back smaller than the hosting charge. Check this clause on any host before relying on a refund window; the guide to what hosting money-back guarantees cover lists the common exclusions.
The 60-day transfer lock
ICANN's Transfer Policy (section 3.7.5) lets a registrar deny a transfer requested within 60 days of a domain's creation date. ICANN's registrant FAQ adds a separate 60-day lock after a change to the registrant name, organization, or email, which some registrars let you opt out of. A buyer who takes a free domain, dislikes the host, and cancels on day 20 of a 30-day refund window cannot move that domain to another registrar until the 60 days pass. The domain stays with the host's registrar in the meantime and still needs to be renewed there.
Renewal notices and expiry
ICANN's Expired Registration Recovery Policy requires registrars to send at least two expiration notices, about one month and about one week before a gTLD domain expires. Those notices go to the registrant email on file. If that email is an address at the domain itself (for example, a mailbox hosted on the same plan), a lapsed hosting account can take the inbox down along with the site. Set the registrant email to an address outside the domain. After a registrar deletes an expired name, gTLD registries must offer a 30-day Redemption Grace Period during which the registrar that deleted it can restore it.
Privacy after year one
DreamHost states WHOIS privacy is free for the life of the domain. Hostinger includes privacy for supported extensions. SiteGround's domain page advertises 12 months of free privacy and does not list the price afterward, so confirm it at checkout. When changing DNS or nameservers during a move, the DNS and nameserver guide for changing hosts explains which records cause downtime.
Verdict
The free domain is a first-year discount worth about one year of registration ($11.08 at Porkbun's listed .com price), followed by renewals at $19.99 to $22.99/year at the hosts checked, against $11.08/year at a standalone registrar. For a single new site on a 12-month or longer plan, taking it is reasonable, provided privacy stays free and you do not plan to cancel during the refund window. For multi-year prepaid plans, multi-site owners, and anyone unsure about the host, register the domain at a registrar and point it at the host: it costs a few dollars more in year one and removes the 60-day lock, the refund deduction, and the transfer step from every future host change. Start with the hosting renewal rate, which is the larger number; the guide to reading hosting renewal pricing covers that side. If a bundle still makes sense, the current offers are at Hostinger, SiteGround, and InMotion Hosting; DreamHost terms are summarized in the DreamHost review.
Read the full Hostinger review on HostingDive, or compare shared hosting options with current intro and renewal pricing before you choose where the domain lives.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Is the free domain with web hosting free forever?
- No. At Hostinger, SiteGround, DreamHost, and InMotion Hosting the free domain covers the first year only. After that it renews at the host's regular domain rate: $19.99/year for .com at Hostinger and DreamHost and $22.99/year at SiteGround, per their pages as of September 28, 2026.
- Who owns a domain that came free with hosting?
- The buyer is listed as the registrant, so the domain is registered to them, but it sits at the host's registrar. Moving it elsewhere is a registrar transfer, and ICANN's Transfer Policy lets the registrar deny transfers within 60 days of registration.
- What happens to the free domain after a hosting refund?
- It depends on the host. InMotion Hosting deducts the regular domain price from a money-back refund and treats domain fees as non-refundable. The domain stays registered to the buyer until it expires unless it is renewed.
- Is it cheaper to buy the domain from a registrar?
- Usually after year one. Porkbun lists .com at $11.08/year, against $19.99 to $22.99 at the hosts checked. Over three years a bundled .com at $19.99 renewals costs $39.98 versus $33.24 at Porkbun.