Last updated: October 2026
The short answer: register your domain with a reputable registrar that shows honest renewal prices and includes WHOIS privacy, keep it separate from your hosting, and pick hosting for what the project actually runs. For most AI side projects and startups, Namecheap and Spaceship both include domain privacy free for life on eligible domains; EuroDNS, based in Luxembourg with over 1,000 extensions, suits projects that want European registration or an unusual extension, but charges for privacy.
Every AI project — a tool, a landing page, an app — needs a domain and somewhere to live. It is the least exciting decision and the one people overpay for, so here is the practical version: what actually matters and where to get it without the upsell traps.
Namecheap vs Spaceship vs EuroDNS
- Namecheap: the long-standing value pick. Its domain privacy service, Withheld for Privacy, is free for life and added automatically to eligible registrations and transfers — though some country-code extensions, such as .uk, .de, .eu, .ca and .us, cannot use it because of registry rules.
- Spaceship: the newer, streamlined option with simple pricing. It says domain privacy is free for life on nearly all its domains and is added automatically.
- EuroDNS: made in Luxembourg, with over 1,000 extensions plus hosting, email, SSL and DNS services. Domain privacy is a paid add-on, listed from €5 a year when we checked in September 2026.
What to Look For
For domains, the priorities are honest renewal pricing (the cheap first year that triples on renewal is the oldest trick in the book), clean management, and WHOIS privacy — free, or at least clearly priced. Any of the three registrars above avoids the worst registrar behaviour; compare the renewal price, not the first-year offer, for the exact extension you want.
What a Domain Really Costs: A Three-Year Worked Example
The renewal trap is easiest to see with real numbers. EuroDNS’s .com page, read on 16 October 2026, listed (in euros, excluding VAT):
- First-year registration: €10.99, a promotional price against a regular €21.00.
- Renewal: €21.00 a year.
- Transfer in: €21.00, including a one-year extension.
Three years of that domain cost €10.99 + €21.00 + €21.00 = €52.99, not the 3 × €10.99 = €32.97 the headline price suggests. The promotional year saves €10.01 once; the renewal is what you pay every year after. Namecheap and Spaceship run first-year promotions too, so do the same sum with the renewal figure each shows at checkout for your exact extension before you choose. If you plan to move a domain later, note that a transfer is priced like a renewal and adds a year, so moving rarely costs extra in itself.
The .ai question. Many AI projects want a .ai address. It is not a generic extension like .com: IANA’s root zone database lists .ai as the country-code domain of Anguilla, managed by the Government of Anguilla, and it is priced accordingly. EuroDNS listed .ai at a regular €140 a year (with a promotional €109 that ended on 16 October 2026) — over six times its .com renewal. Over three years that is €420 at the regular rate for one name. If the project is an experiment, start on a cheaper extension and buy the .ai once it has users.
