Porkbun vs Spaceship vs Cloudflare: the cheapest .org, .io and .net, and the catch on renewals

Most "cheapest domain" articles compare first-year teaser prices. That is half the picture, because the price you actually pay over the life of a domain is mostly renewals. Below is a three-way comparison — Porkbun, Spaceship and Cloudflare Registrar — using the register and renewal prices recorded in the OneYearDeal domain catalogue and re-checked on 7 October 2026.

The headline: Spaceship wins year one, Porkbun wins year two

Spaceship (the Namecheap founders' new registrar) has aggressive first-year pricing: .org at $6.65, renewing at $11.39. Porkbun's .org is $7.98 to register and $11.84 to renew — so by year two Spaceship is cheaper there, but Porkbun renews flat from the start on most extensions.

Extension by extension: register / renew, USD per year

• .org — Porkbun $7.98 / $11.84 · Spaceship $6.65 / $11.39 · (NameSilo $14.99 flat)
• .net — Porkbun $12.52 / $12.52 · Spaceship $11.20 / $11.20 · NameSilo $15.95 / $15.95
• .io — Spaceship $31.98 / $51.75 · Porkbun $28.12 / $51.80 · NameSilo $38.99 / $69.99
• .dev — Porkbun $13.18 / $13.18 · NameSilo $10.99 renewing $14.99
• .xyz — Porkbun $2.04 / $14.21 · NameSilo $2.79 / $17.29
• .me — Porkbun $17.27 flat · Spaceship $8.70 / $15.53 · NameSilo $9.99 / $19.99
• .com — Cloudflare $10.44 / $13.48 (at-cost, no markup — see our .com renewal-trap analysis)

What the numbers say

If you keep a domain for one year, Spaceship usually wins. If you keep it for three years or more, Porkbun's flat renewals usually come out ahead — and Cloudflare's at-cost pricing wins .com outright after year two. The .io story is stark: every registrar here roughly halves the gap between year one and renewal, with a $20 jump at Spaceship and a $24 jump at NameSilo. Five years of .io at NameSilo is $358.95 against $258.60 at Spaceship — a $100 difference on identical TLD registry terms.

Browse the full price rows, with purchase links, on the business pages: Porkbun, Spaceship, NameSilo, Cloudflare Registrar. Everything is listed under /domains, and broader hosting value comparisons live in the article index.