Best domain registrar in the UK: six I have used, compared on renewal price

The best domain registrar in the UK, for most small businesses, is the one whose renewal price you will still find fair in five years, with a dashboard you understand and support that answers. My pick is Spaceship, whose .co.uk renews at exactly its first-year price. Namecheap, which built Spaceship, is a safe second choice.

I have registered or looked after domains at six registrars: Spaceship, Namecheap, Squarespace (which took over Google Domains), Infomaniak, OVHcloud and Hostinger. Some I chose; others I inherited, because a client’s domains were already there. This comparison ranks them on the price you pay every year after the first, then on privacy, DNS and support.

Prices are as listed in October 2026. Several of these registrars list theirs in US dollars, so the pound amounts are approximate. If the line between a registrar, a web host and an email provider is still blurry, my guide to domain vs hosting sets out what each one does.

The best domain registrar in the UK at a glance

A domain registrar is the company you rent your domain name from, one year at a time, and whose dashboard decides where that name points. Here are the six side by side, with the figures I could check on each registrar’s own pages or, where stated, in price trackers.

“Not confirmed” means I could not check a current price on an official page for this article: look it up on the registrar’s price list before you buy.

The verdicts come from my own work. I trust Spaceship and Namecheap, and I recommend Infomaniak. I worked with OVHcloud and Hostinger because clients’ domains were already there, and I recommend neither to a small business owner who manages everything alone.

Why the renewal price matters more than the first year

Every extension on a registrar’s price list has two prices. The first year is the advert; the renewal is what you pay every year after that, for as long as you keep the name. A domain is a ten-year purchase paid in instalments, so the second figure is the one to compare.

This is where registrars differ most. In my experience, some providers, Hostinger and GoDaddy among them, charge far more from the second year than in the first; Spaceship and Namecheap have never done that to me. Hostinger’s own pages show the gap: at the time of writing, its .co.uk page offers the first year for £0.01, then renews at £10.99 (about $15) a year, and its .com goes from £0.01 to £16.99 (about $23). The penny price also requires a registration of at least three years, and only the first year is discounted.

Here is what that means over five years, at today’s listed prices:

Spaceship’s .com is missing on purpose. The price trackers I checked all put its renewal below Namecheap’s and below the official renewals in this table, but they disagree on the exact amount, and a price change has been reported for November 2026. Read the renewal line on Spaceship’s domain price page on the day you buy. VAT and exchange rates also change the final bill, so compare totals at checkout, not banners.

The six registrars, one by one

Spaceship: my first choice

Spaceship suits most small businesses and any new project. Namecheap built it and unveiled it in August 2023, and it is now an ICANN-accredited registrar in its own right. To me, it is an up-to-date version of Namecheap: fair prices, often a little below the original’s, in a more modern dashboard where domains, email and hosting sit together.

It is also where my habits are. The .co.uk costs $5.42 (about £4) a year with no jump at renewal, WHOIS privacy is free on eligible domains, and the Advanced DNS page shows the records, the nameservers and DNSSEC in one view. Support is there around the clock, and every issue I have raised has been resolved. The only reason to look elsewhere is an extension Spaceship does not sell, so search for yours first. My Spaceship vs Namecheap comparison goes through the differences between the two.

Namecheap: the original, still a safe choice

Namecheap has sold domains since 2000, and I trust it as much as Spaceship. It suits anyone whose domains are already there: if everything works, there is no reason to move them. WHOIS privacy is free (the service is called Withheld for Privacy), the DNS records sit in the Advanced DNS tab of each domain, and the nameservers on the Domain tab.

Its prices are fair, with one habit to watch: Namecheap often discounts the first year, then renews at its standard rate. Price trackers put a .co.uk at $6.98 (about £5) for the first year, with a renewal that Spaceship undercuts.

Squarespace: convenient if your website is there

Squarespace took over Google Domains’ registrations in 2023, which is how the Google Domains names I worked with ended up there. It suits owners whose website already runs on Squarespace, the builder I give clients who want to edit their own site: the domain, the site and the billing then sit in one account.

You pay for that convenience. Squarespace’s domains FAQ prices common extensions such as .com at $20 (about £15) a year. An annual website plan includes a domain free for the first year, which then renews at that standard rate. Domains renew automatically, and Squarespace charges the card 15 days before the renewal date.

Infomaniak: the one I recommend for Swiss hosting

Infomaniak is a Geneva company, in business since the 1990s, that runs its own data centres in Switzerland and sells domains, hosting and kSuite, its email and office suite. I came across it through clients whose domains were there, and I recommend it highly, above all to businesses that want their email and files kept in Switzerland. My habits are at Spaceship, so I do not use it every day.

Infomaniak lists its prices per extension, excluding VAT. I could not confirm its .co.uk and .com prices for this article, so check its price list before you compare. My Infomaniak review covers kSuite, SwissTransfer and its hosting.

OVHcloud: fine for technical users

OVHcloud is the large French host and registrar. It suits developers and technical users who are at ease in a dense control panel. On its international site, a .com costs $9.20 (about £7) for the first year, then $14.69 (about £11) a year to renew.

I worked on OVHcloud because clients’ domains were already there, and I do not recommend it to an owner on their own: the interface is a bit complicated. Its DNS zone editor also holds the only trap I have met there. A CNAME target that is a domain name must end with a dot, or OVHcloud adds your own domain to the end of it. My tutorial on how to connect an OVH domain to Squarespace shows the fix.

Hostinger: a penny now, the full price later

Hostinger suits people who already host their websites there and are comfortable in hPanel, its control panel. I inherited it through clients too, and I find hPanel a bit complicated for an owner who handles everything alone.

Its domains follow the same pattern as its hosting: a tiny first price on a long commitment, then the real rate: £10.99 (about $15) a year for a .co.uk and £16.99 (about $23) for a .com. If your domains are there, budget for those figures, or move them before they renew. My guide to the Hostinger renewal price shows how, step by step.

Privacy, DNS and support: what to check besides the price

WHOIS privacy keeps your name, address and phone number out of the public record of the domain. Spaceship and Namecheap include it free on the extensions that allow it; at the other four, check whether it is included for your extension before you pay. Spaceship runs its service through a third-party provider which, like any privacy service, can disclose your details on a valid legal request.

DNS is the set of records that points your domain to your website and your mailbox. You will edit it at least twice, to connect the site and to set up email, so a clear editor saves you an afternoon. Spaceship’s and Namecheap’s are the ones I find easiest, and I know my way around both; OVHcloud’s works once you know about the final dot.

Support matters on the day something breaks. When a domain stops working, the website and the email stop with it. At Spaceship and Namecheap, support has answered me around the clock.

Account safety is down to you. Register the domain in the business’s name, with an email address you will still read in five years, and switch on two-factor authentication on the registrar account.

Which registrar should you choose?

• Your first domain, or a new business: Spaceship. Register the .co.uk and the .com together, and point one to the other with a 301 redirect, which Spaceship includes free when the domain uses its nameservers. For the studio, the site lives on the .com, and I hold the .co.uk and the .fr as well.
• Domains already at Namecheap: stay. Moving domains that work to save a few pounds a year is the kind of shiny-object chase I warn small business owners about.
• A website on Squarespace, where one account matters more than price: Squarespace, knowing that a .com costs $20 (about £15) a year.
• Email and files kept in Switzerland: Infomaniak, with kSuite.
• Domains at OVHcloud or Hostinger: no emergency. Note the renewal date and price; if the figure or the dashboard bothers you, move the domain before it renews.

Moving is routine. For a .com, you switch off the transfer lock, get the authorisation (EPP) code and start the transfer at the new registrar; a .com registered or transferred less than 60 days ago usually has to wait. A .co.uk has no such code: it moves when its IPS tag is changed to the new registrar’s tag (SPACESHIP, for a move to Spaceship). My guide on how to transfer a domain covers both, in an order that keeps your site and email online.

Before you buy a domain: a short checklist

1. Search the name at two registrars and note the renewal price, not only the first year.
2. Multiply that renewal by five: that is the figure you are really comparing.
3. Register the domain in the business’s name, with an email address you will keep.
4. Switch on auto-renewal, check the card on the account and put the expiry date in your calendar.
5. Check that WHOIS privacy and two-factor authentication are on.
6. Before you change any DNS record, write down the existing ones, especially the MX records, so your email keeps arriving.

You do not need me to buy a domain: it takes ten minutes at any of these six. Hand it over when the stakes are higher than the job: the domain sits in an account you cannot open, or your website and email depend on records nobody can explain. Connecting the domain is also the last step of every website project I deliver.