Porkbun vs Hover

Across 20 TLDs both registrars sell, Porkbun is cheaper on 20 over three years and Hover on 0.

Hover built its reputation on not upselling, and it delivers on that: no cart full of add-ons, WHOIS privacy included, a clean interface, and support that people write kind things about. You pay for it in the renewal. A .com at Hover renews at $18.99 against Porkbun's $11.08, which is 82% over the $10.44 true cost against Porkbun's 6%. On .dev it is $20.99 versus $12.87, on .io $74.99 versus $51.80, and on .xyz $22.99 versus $14.21. Hover also does not discount the first year, so the price you see is the price you keep paying, which is more honest than an intro trap but starts from a higher number. The question is what the extra $8 a year buys. For a single domain attached to a business where nobody wants to think about DNS again, a registrar with excellent support and no upsells is a defensible purchase, and $8 is not a real cost. For anybody holding ten or more names it becomes $80 a year for an interface preference. Porkbun is not a worse registrar on the things that matter: it includes the same privacy, adds free email forwarding and SSL, and runs an API that Hover's does not match. If support quality is the deciding factor, Hover earns its price. If it is not, the margin is hard to justify.

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Porkbun prices · Hover prices · All domains · Hosting cost calculator