Domain registrar privacy ratings

Where to register and renew domain names.

15 domain registrars are rated against 13 public criteria, and 15 have enough evidence for a letter grade. Our pick is Cloudflare Registrar. Of the 15 with a known jurisdiction, 10 are based in a Five Eyes country, and 13 in the wider Fourteen Eyes.

Criteria for this category · Suggest an addition · Markdown

Domain registrars privacy ratings, sorted by pick and then by grade
Name	Grade	Score	Data	Jurisdiction	Open source	No trackers or telemetry	No ads or data sales	Independent audit	Transparency report	Tells users about requests	Free WHOIS privacy	Honest renewal pricing	Two-factor login	Transfer and registry lock	TLS configuration	Security headers	Modern web standards
Cloudflare Registrar Our pick Domain registrar that charges registry cost with no markup, with free WHOIS redaction, transfer lock and one-click DNSSEC.	Grade C	66	100%	United States Five Eyes	No	No	Yes	Partial	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Partial	Not tested yet
Njalla Domain service run by njalla.srl in Costa Rica. Njalla registers domains in its own name and grants customers full usage rights, and accepts cryptocurrency.	Grade D	57	100%	Costa Rica Outside Eyes	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Partial	Not tested yet
INWX German domain registrar with a large selection of European extensions, flat renewal pricing, authenticator-app login and optional registry lock.	Grade D	50	100%	Germany Fourteen Eyes	No	Partial	Yes	No	No	No	Partial	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Partial	Not tested yet
Orange Website Icelandic hosting company that also registers domains, asks only for an email address at sign-up and accepts Bitcoin.	Grade D	50	100%	Iceland Outside Eyes	No	No	Yes	No	Partial	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	Not tested yet
NameSilo US domain registrar with flat renewal pricing and free WHOIS privacy, email forwarding and DNS on every domain.	Grade D	48	100%	United States Five Eyes	No	No	Yes	No	Partial	Yes	Partial	Yes	Yes	Partial	Yes	No	Not tested yet
Gandi French domain registrar and hosting provider with free WHOIS privacy on most extensions, TOTP and security-key login, and a yearly transparency report.	Grade D	45	100%	France Nine Eyes	No	No	Yes	Partial	Yes	No	Partial	No	Yes	Partial	Partial	Partial	Not tested yet
Joker.com German domain registrar run by CSL GmbH, offering hundreds of domain extensions, free DNS hosting with DNSSEC, and optional paid WHOIS privacy.	Grade D	45	100%	Germany Fourteen Eyes	No	Partial	Yes	No	No	No	Partial	Partial	Yes	Partial	Yes	Partial	Not tested yet
Spaceship US domain registrar from the team behind Namecheap, offering domain registration with free WHOIS privacy, hosting, email and a domain marketplace.	Grade D	41	100%	United States Five Eyes	No	No	Partial	No	Partial	Partial	Partial	Partial	Yes	Partial	Yes	Partial	Not tested yet
Namecheap Large US domain registrar with free WHOIS privacy on eligible extensions and TOTP or security-key login.	Grade F	39	100%	United States Five Eyes	No	No	Yes	No	No	Partial	Partial	No	Yes	Partial	Yes	Partial	Not tested yet
GoDaddy US domain registrar and web hosting company offering domain registration, website building, hosting and business email.	Grade F	36	100%	United States Five Eyes	No	No	No	No	Partial	Partial	Yes	No	Yes	Partial	Yes	No	Not tested yet
Hover Canadian domain registrar owned by Tucows, offering domain registration with free WHOIS privacy on supported extensions and email hosting.	Grade F	36	100%	Canada Five Eyes	No	No	No	No	Partial	Partial	Partial	Partial	Yes	Partial	Yes	Partial	Not tested yet
Dynadot California-based domain registrar with free WHOIS privacy on eligible extensions, two-factor login and optional registry lock.	Grade F	30	100%	United States Five Eyes	No	No	Partial	No	No	No	Partial	Partial	Yes	Yes	Partial	No	Not tested yet
IONOS Web hosting company and domain registrar, part of the German IONOS Group, offering domains, website builders, hosting, email and cloud servers. The ionos.com site is run by IONOS Inc. in the US.	Grade F	30	100%	United States Five Eyes	No	No	No	No	Partial	Partial	Partial	No	Yes	Partial	Partial	Partial	Not tested yet
Porkbun US domain registrar with free WHOIS privacy on most extensions, authenticator-app and security-key login, and an API.	Grade F	27	100%	United States Five Eyes	No	No	Partial	No	No	No	Partial	Partial	Yes	Partial	Partial	No	Not tested yet
Squarespace Domains Domain registrar run by the website builder Squarespace, which took over Google Domains customers. Registrations include WHOIS privacy on eligible domains, DNSSEC and SSL.	Grade F	27	100%	United States Five Eyes	No	No	No	No	No	No	Partial	Partial	Yes	Partial	Yes	No	Not tested yet

Questions

What is the most private option among domain registrars?

Our pick is Cloudflare Registrar. Registry cost with no markup on registration or renewal, free WHOIS redaction, security-key login, and automatic DNSSEC with Cloudflare DNS.

How are domain registrars rated?

Each entry answers 13 questions: open source, no trackers or telemetry, no ads or data sales, independent audit, transparency report, tells users about requests, TLS configuration, security headers, modern web standards, Free WHOIS privacy, honest renewal pricing, two-factor login and transfer and registry lock. Answers need links to evidence. See the full criteria.

Does jurisdiction matter?

Jurisdiction decides which laws can compel a provider to hand over data. Each entry shows its country and whether it is in the Five, Nine or Fourteen Eyes. The data a provider can hand over depends mostly on what it stores and who holds the keys. Read about jurisdictions and the CLOUD Act.