I’m going to share some of my favorite free URL redirection services that provide free short URLs which look exactly like a paid domain name. There are many services that can convert a long URL into a shorter one like Tinyurl, bit.ly, etc but they are limited for single links. Three services listed below give you free domain names (actually subdomains) which you can use for your websites or blog hosted on free service like blogspot.com!
#1 co.cc Domains
co.cc is one of my favorite free domain service since it is lot more than a URL shortener. Domain name formats they provide is like www.yourdomain.co.cc. You can register upto 2 domains with a single account. You will get full control over domain management. They provide DNS and MX services too. So, you can either use the regular URL forwarding or frame forwarding (doesn’t show ur original link in address bar) or you can use these DNS services and add CNAMEs in your domain. CNAME control means you can use Google apps and so you can have your own email id like [email protected] rather than the usual [email protected] or [email protected].
#2 co.nr Domains
co.nr is not so special as co.cc but are in the market for long. They provide free domain name in the form www.yourdomain.co.nr and it can be used for either URL redirection for another domain or any long web URL. They also support meta tags and provide favicon support. The only problem with this service is that we need to provide a link back to their site from our homepage or where we redirect this URL or else the service will be deactivated momentarily.
#3 .tk Domains
DOT.TK domains are also used for url forwarding i.e to convert any web URL into the form www.yourdomain.tk . In addition to the normal URL forwarding they also provide mail forwarding where in we can choose upto 250 mail aliases to be forwarded to your mail account. For example, you can forward [email protected] or [email protected] into your personal mail account. Earlier, they used to have a banner ad at the top of the window but now they have removed the ads completely which makes this service more attractive. The only problem now is all domain names that receive less than 25 hits per 90 days will be removed from your account.
There are a lot more free domain services but these are the only ones without any ads and they provide domains which are more or less similar to paid domains. I’Il write more on the other services in my next post. What are you waiting for?Ā Register your free domain now.
[Editor’s Note: This is first post by Sri Ganesh at Devils Worrkshop. Sri Ganesh blogs on internet & technology at Sriz Dreamworks.
If you like to write for Devils Workshop, please check this. Details about our revenue sharing programs are here.]
34 Comments
@ Sriganesh,
Among these .co.cc is better one… It gives opportunity for newbies to learn what is blogging. After they learn, they can switch to commercial domains…
Your signature looks cool š
you forgot http://www.smartdots.com, its another good Free Domain Registration Services. it has added advantage –
it allows you to choose from various address (eg. yourdomain.net.tc, yourdomain.at.tc, yourdomain.eu.tc),
its free and has various features in admin.
co.cc allows only 3 domain per account whereas in smartdots its more.
@pavan
Yeah.. co.cc can help newbies learn what CNAME and DNS setting are before they try their hands on paid domains.
Btw Thanks, I made the signature at My live signature
@Pratik Parekh
There are various sevices like smartdots such as tipdots.com , ulimit.com etc. But I posted only my favorite and those which look almost like a paid domain. Anyway I will post a list of all these services in my future posts.
I agree Co.cc is the best for url redirection. they also provide DNS management. that best ever
I also agree with Abhishek that co.cc is best free domain!
tHANKS aNKIT !!
Mah pleasure!
In addition you can also earn money by referring these free domain services to others.
@Bapun: ya ur right!
Co[dot]cc is the best one.
Pavan is right.. you can start your experience there. But now, its difficult to get a domain there.
I also had a .co.cc account, and according to my understanding you would only be required to pay anything if you had more than 2 domains registered with them.
I only had one, but after a year I saw a notice that my account expired and that I had to pay to renew it…
They don’t mention this on their website so don’t be fooled by the 1 FREE redirection… you will pay.
ya ur right , after 1 year you have to pay to renew your acc..
[The only problem now is all domain names that receive less than 25 hits per 90 days will be removed from your account.]
What do u mean by this?if my site has less than 25 visitors will it be deleted?
@Adarsh
If terms says so, then your site will be deleted if it get less than 25 hits in 90 days
Is it enough if I visit it if there are not enough visitors?Or do they need visits from other IP addresses?
@Adarsh
I am not sure but they are more likely to track visits based on IP address.
@Adarsh
Write a post on DW it wouldn’t be hard to generate traffic to your co cc domain . Again 25 hits/90 days is very very less.
@Author: you must report the negative point of co.cc that it requires money after 1 year !
@All: Which domain is totally free ?
@Prabal
co.cc did not have any paid subscription when this article was written.
ok .. š
Co.cc is now only 2 domains per account. But http://www.registry.gv.vg has
5 free domains with full DNS control!!! Most of domain names are not taken.
A bad news for co.cc users,that its flagged as spam on facebook
I think you all should check out cz.cc It’s the best of the one’s I’ve seen.
I m using co.cc since 2010.. Never let me go down.
Co.Cc Rocks!!
co.cc is good but i have read that google had deindexed all co.cc domain names from their database if you dont believe you can check it out why i know this bcz i created website taking co.cc domain name and it was approx 4 months it was not showing in google i searched for it and i founded this info!!!!
co.cc is definitely NOT the best- mainly because major search engines have all co.cc domains blacklisted, meaning you can only get direct traffic (by linking someone to your domain address). You can only get traffic to your site by word of mouth- so unless you have a really awesome website, not a lot of people will ever know of it and you won’t get a lot of website traffic.
dot.tk is probably the best I’ve used so far. There isn’t a lot of options when you’re talking about a free domain service, so I would say to just either buy a good .com .net or .org domain (they are not that expensive), or just use .tk if you still want a free one.
Biggest problem with .tk is that your domain might get canceled just about anytime. Maybe because this visits/quarter rule, but they give you all kinds of lame excuses. One of my domains they claimed was “special” like abc.tk and therefor more expensive. This was after I’ve had i for three years…
is there any free domain service which provides a. com domain for free.
No. There is no service which provides .com domains for free
The best thing is to go for blogger or WordPress (example.blogspot.com and example.wordpress.com) because they too got sub-domains and they are ranked better in search engines.