Is Freenom safe?

Freenom became famous for free domains (.tk, .ml, .ga, .cf and .gq), and people still ask whether it's safe. My answer is no: it is not safe and involves a lot of risks.

It also no longer gives out free domains. Freenom stopped taking new registrations in early 2023, ICANN ended its registrar accreditation in November 2023, and in February 2024 the company said it was leaving the domain business. In July 2026, Domain Incite reported that Freenom was back, but selling paid .tk, .cf and .gq domains from €8.22 a year.

The foremost risk factor involved in getting a free domain from Freenom is the termination of your domain at any moment. This leads to a wastage of all your time and efforts spent on the free domain.

Over the years, many people who built sites on a free Freenom domain were surprised to find their domain or account terminated.

Is Freenom safe?

The safety of a free domain from Freenom is truly questionable. In my opinion, the domain that you register with Freenom is not safe at all since you are not the owner of the domain. The company owns your domain and has complete control over it.

You are always at the risk of losing all the resources and time that you invested into the website, without any prior warning since Freenom owns your domain and can take it over whenever it wants. And with no legal rights to your domain, you will be left with no option to claim it.

Freenom also has an automatic traffic analyzer that observes traffic flow at the domains it registers. The company can cancel your domain name if it is not getting any traffic over a period of time.

On the other hand, when your domain starts receiving a good amount of traffic, the company might mark your domain as “ Fraud ” and steal it from you. It can redirect your website users to another page filled with online advertisements all over.

You will be surprised to know that even the paid domains registered with Freenom are also unreliable. The company resells your domain to the person paying extra money.

Is Freenom legit legally?

Freenom's track record is poor. Its way of running free domains led to suspensions, lawsuits and the loss of most of its business.

You will be surprised to know that Freenom had its ICANN registrar accreditation suspended in 2015 for cybersquatting rival companies. The suspension was, however, later lifted.

In late 2022, Meta sued Freenom, accusing it of ignoring phishing and cybersquatting on its free domains. Freenom settled in February 2024 and announced it would exit the domain business. Mali (.ml) and Gabon (.ga) have since moved their extensions away from Freenom.

Freenom pricing

Freenom no longer offers free domains. Until early 2023, you could register these extensions for free and point them to a website with Freenom's free DNS service:

• .CF
• .GA
• .GQ
• .ML
• .TK

This is how Freenom's checkout used to show them:

Since its return in 2026, Freenom sells .tk, .cf and .gq domains from €8.22 a year, with some keyword names priced much higher, according to Domain Incite.

With the free domains, Freenom said you were only the user of the domain name and not its licensee. It is because Freenom retains the ownership right of the domain that it provides you. So you will not even have any transfer rights to your domain since you do not own it.

How does Freenom make money?

Generally speaking, Freenom waits for your website to gain a little traffic and after some time it parks your domain on a page infested with ads from where it earns money. Let’s get into the details of money-making strategies followed by Freenom.

While the free model ran, free Freenom domains expired after 12 months. Then for a little while, perhaps two weeks, Freenom tried to sell those domains to the first bidder.

The theory behind this, is that a year of traffic and Google ranking will make such domains more “valuable”, especially if none of them has been flagged as sources of spam or illegitimate content.

The domain was only available if you paid for it during that period. Later, Freenom made these domains available for free again.

Freenom also has a freemium model that comes with many strings attached. The company earns a large share of its revenue by monetizing the traffic received by abandoned domains via an ad network. The company waits for its customers to build traffic to the domains so that they can take them over to earn money from them through advertising revenue.

Domains that are no longer used by the registrant or are expired, are taken back by Freenom and the residual traffic is sold to advertisement networks. So, all in all, Freenom makes money through the efforts of its customers whom it supposedly provides free domains.

When to use Freenom? (exceptions)

Free Freenom domains used to be handy for testing, staging sites and learning. Since they're gone, there's little reason to use Freenom now:

• For testing and learning, use the free subdomain many hosts and platforms give you, or a cheap domain from a regular registrar.
• For anything you want to keep, buy a domain from a trusted registrar, where you're the registrant and can transfer it.

Why should you not use Freenom? (7 reasons)

As discussed above, Freenom has many issues with its functioning and can lead you to several problems. Here are some of these issues that you might face when using Freenom:

1. Domain cancellation

Freenom can cancel your domain at any moment without any explanation. Your free domain is owned by the company and not you. So you cannot even recover it legally in such a situation.

2. No renewal reminders

With a paid domain with any registrar, you will receive reminders to renew your domain. But with Freenom, you are on your own to remember the due renewal date since the company does not send any renewal reminders to the free domain holders.

3. Bad customer support

Customer support is a must when you receive any service, whether free or paid. Freenom does offer support but it is very slow and might take several days to answer your support ticket. In some cases, you won’t get an answer at all.

4. Poor performance

Even if you plan to utilize a free domain from Freenom for testing or learning purposes, you expect it to perform like the paid domains. But the performance delivered by Freenom domains is very poor. You will find a buggy user interface and very slow servers with Freenom.

5. Not good for Google rankings

If you are serious about building a business, you must be aware of the importance of Google rankings. Good visibility in search engines is very important for the success of your website.

But you won’t find any free Freenom domains in the Google search results. These free domains must have been exploited by SEO spammers thereby leaving no value to Google rankings.

6. Risk of being marked as spam

The emails sent from a free domain are usually classified as spam. So the spam filters are more strict on such emails. With a free domain, all your emails bear the risk of being marked as spam and will, therefore, never be read by anyone.

7. Bad reviews

Freenom has earned many bad reviews from its customers over the years. It is because the company suspends its users’ domains without any warning thereby leading to waste of all the time and efforts one puts into building a website.

Freenom reviews by customers

Freenom has a bad score rating on both Trustpilot and Facebook since its customers are not at all satisfied with its services.

Here is an overview of what its users say about them:

• Many Freenom users complain about its customer support services. The company either responds too late or does not respond at all. Some Freenom customers complain about the arrogant responses received from the support team while others complain about their lack of knowledge.

• Freenom customers also complain about the unexpected deletion of their domains. Many customers claim to have paid for the domain only to find later that their domains are deleted by Freenom. People are then left with only one option of resorting to another domain registrar and paying again for buying the desired domain name.

• The worst part of receiving a free domain from Freenom is getting your website redirected to an adult website. Many Freenom customers complain about this issue and are left with no other option than to let their domains go.

Best Alternative to Freenom

Since Freenom is not safe, choosing an alternative is the best option for getting a domain.

In my opinion, the best alternative to Freenom is NameSilo. It is a trustworthy domain registrar with no shady business tactics like Freenom.

NameSilo is an American hosting company and the domain registrar. It is extremely reliable and highly praised among its users.

NameSilo is the best alternative to Freenom because:

• It offers domains at very reasonable prices.
• You will receive Whois privacy free for life.
• NameSilo has a friendly user interface.
• It offers the email forwarding feature.
• The company does not hike domain prices on renewal.

Verdict: My final recommendation

Freenom's free domains are gone, and its paid comeback cost about as much as a regular domain. With its track record, I wouldn't use Freenom for any project, temporary or serious.

For building a stable website for which you are expecting some good traffic in the short or long run, “NameSilo” would be the safest choice to go for.

For a test project, a free subdomain from your host does the job without the risk.

FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)

Does Freenom have Whois protection?

Yes, Freenom offers Whois protection through its affiliation with ID Shield, a privacy service. It is free to use.

How many domains can you have on Freenom?

You can have unlimited domains on Freenom. A single transaction will, however, allow you to register a maximum of 10 domains. For registering more domains in a single transaction, you can use the Freenom API.

What are the domain extensions that I can get for free?

None today. Freenom stopped giving out free .CF, .GA, .GQ, .ML and .TK domains in 2023, and its 2026 relaunch sells .TK, .CF and .GQ as paid domains.

Is Freenom free forever?

No. Free Freenom domains used to run for 1 to 12 months and could be renewed for free, but the free model ended in 2023. Most free Freenom domains stopped working in early 2024.

How do I use my Freenom domain name for free?

You can't anymore: Freenom no longer offers free domains. If you still have an old Freenom domain, check whether it resolves at all before you rely on it.

How long does Freenom take to activate?

When it gave out free domains, Freenom took up to 72 hours to activate one, after you confirmed the email it sent you.

How to delete a Freenom account?

Freenom does not provide any instructions to delete your account anywhere in its help guide. It only talks about canceling a domain from the Domain Panel.

What is Freenom?

Freenom is a Netherlands-based domain company that ran the free .tk, .ml, .ga, .cf and .gq domains until 2023. Since 2026 it sells paid .tk, .cf and .gq domains.