Spaceship vs Porkbun: The Cheapest .com Registrar in 2026

If you own a .com domain, the renewal price is where registrars quietly take your money. The first year is cheap almost everywhere - it is the renewal that matters.

Two registrars consistently sit at the bottom of the price list in 2026: Spaceship and Porkbun. Here is how they actually compare.

The renewal prices

Prices checked 28 October 2026:

• Spaceship - $10.18 total ($9.98 + $0.20 ICANN fee). The cheapest .com renewal I have found anywhere.
• Porkbun - $11.08 total. Just ninety cents more, and still far below most big-name registrars.
• For comparison: Cloudflare Registrar renews at $10.44 at cost, Namecheap at $18.48, Hostinger at $19.99 and GoDaddy at $22.99.

The full price comparison lives here: https://renewpings.com/blog/cheapest-com-renewal-prices

What you actually get

Spaceship is the newer, cheaper option. The dashboard is clean, transfers in are straightforward, and there are no aggressive upsells at checkout. The trade-off: it is a younger platform, so if you want decades of track record, that matters to you.

Porkbun has been the budget favourite for years. Free WHOIS privacy, free SSL certificates, and a no-nonsense checkout. It costs $0.90 more per year than Spaceship, which is $9 over a decade - barely noticeable for one domain, worth counting if you hold a portfolio.

Which one should you pick?

• One domain, lowest price: Spaceship wins by ninety cents.
• Several domains, set-and-forget: Porkbun's free privacy and long track record are worth the tiny premium.
• Already at Namecheap or GoDaddy: transferring out can save $7-$12 per domain per year.

The step-by-step transfer guide is here: https://renewpings.com/blog/how-to-transfer-domain-to-porkbun-step-by-step

One warning before you renew

Verisign's wholesale .com price rises from $10.26 to $10.97 on 1 November 2026, so at-cost renewals will creep up everywhere. If your domain expires soon, renewing before that date locks in the current rate.

A full side-by-side of the two cheapest registrars is here: https://renewpings.com/blog/spaceship-vs-porkbun-cheapest-registrar - and the whole comparison tool is at https://renewpings.com/compare

Bottom line: either registrar is a good choice. Spaceship is cheapest, Porkbun is the safest cheap choice. Both beat the big brands by a wide margin.