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So I want to host a website. I want to use the address example.com, but I don’t want to use a domain registrar service.

Is there any way to host on that address using a homemade DNS or other type of server that can point the domain to my IP?

I don’t want to use a hosting company, and I want to know if there is a way to do it myself.

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  • What exactly is your motivation for doing it like this?
    – Neil Meyer
    Commented May 21, 2020 at 11:05
  • Because I do not want to pay a domain name company and it is more efficient and easy to host it myself because it offers more flexibility.
    – Evan McGregor
    Commented May 21, 2020 at 11:08
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    You're asking two questions with two distinct answers. You can't buy a domain name without using a registrar but you can host it yourself. The two are mutually exclusive.
    – John Conde ♦
    Commented May 21, 2020 at 11:36
  • "any way to host on that address using a homemade DNS or ..." - it depends on whether you want this name to be publicly available. Without formally registering the domain then it will be limited to the local network or between friends (with some caveats).
    – MrWhite
    Commented Jun 1, 2020 at 11:41
  • It's not possible to get a domain without using a domain registrar, as they handle the registration process with the necessary authorities. If you're looking for a reliable and affordable option, I recommend nominus.com/en/dm/international-domain-names They offer an easy process and competitive prices for a wide range of domain extensions
    – Nooruddin Lakhani
    Commented Jul 22 at 4:55

2 Answers 2

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I think what you are really asking is:

Can I run a website at home for zero cost, both in terms of hosting and a domain name?

The answer is "kind of."

Home hosting

Hosting at home rather than at a hosting company can be a great low-cost way to get started. You can use your home computer as a web server and run a web site on it. However, there are some limitations:

  • Your internet service provider (ISP) may block port 80 (many, but not all, block it). If it is blocked, you will need to run your server on a non-standard port which will mean your website URLs will have an ugly port number in them like http://example.com:8080.
  • You will need to leave your computer turned on all the time and prevent it from sleeping. It can cost over $100 a year in electricity to do so depending on where you live and how much power it consumes. You might be able to run a server on your router which likely gets left on all the time anyway. You could also get a low power device (like a Raspberry Pi) to run a simple, low traffic website.
  • Your home server isn't going to be as reliable as using a hosting company. Most home ISPs regularly have outages due to over-use from other customers and downed wires. Power outages are going to cut into your home uptime as well. A hosting company should have a server in a data center with multiple internet connections and backup power.
  • You are going to have to learn to configure our own server software and configure port forwarding on your router. Shared hosting companies would be able to get a website up and running for you with just a couple clicks.
  • You may not be able to get a static IP address at home from your ISP. If not, you will need to use a "dynamic DNS" service to point your website name to your home IP address. You will need to run a dynamic DNS client at home to keep your DNS records up to date. Such services can usually be found for free, but there may be a fee.
  • Your home internet isn't actually free. You are already paying for it and likely hundreds of dollars a year. The cost of shared hosting is substantially less than a home internet connection.

Prices for shared hosting start at around $50 per year. That likely isn't very much compared to what you are already paying for home service and it may be less than the electricity costs and new equipment costs that it would take to host at home. It is going to be more reliable and less hassle than hosting at home.

Free website names

Domain names start at $10 to $15 per year at discount registries such as NameCheap and GoDaddy. However, you can have a website without paying for a domain name with the following options:

  • Use the IP address given to you by your home ISP: http://X.X.X.X/ However:
    • Most ISPs do dynamic DNS. Your IP address changes occasionally like when your router gets rebooted.
    • Using an IP address is ugly, hard to type, and hard for users to remember.
    • Even if you can get a static IP address, you will lose it if you ever change to a new ISP.
    • There is no opportunity to use SSL/HTTPS to secure your website with encryption.
  • Get a free subdomain from a dynamic DNS service. Most dynamic DNS services offer free subdomains of their domains to point to your home IP address. However:
    • There is no guarantee that your subdomain will be free in the future. The company could start changing at any point and they could charge as much as they wanted.
    • The company could go out of business or change their policies and you could lose your subdomain at their whim.

The fee for owning a domain name gives you the ability to maintain control over your website in future years. Costs for standard top level domain names (.net, .org, and .com) are very stable and won't increase substantially over time. There are controls in place that make it hard for you to lose your domain name in most usual circumstances. The danger of not getting your own domain name is that you will have to change the address of your website. That could cost you far more in terms of lost users and search engine rankings than purchasing a domain name up-front.

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  • All true, but why let commonsense get in the way ;o)
    – Steve
    Commented May 21, 2020 at 22:25
  • How do I setup Home Hosting to a web address such as coolkidsmc.com then?
    – Evan McGregor
    Commented May 22, 2020 at 12:03
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    You need to: 1. buy the domain name 2. point the name server (NS) DNS records to your dynamic DNS company 3. Run a dynamic DNS client on your router or computer to keep your dynamic DNS up to date. 4. Install a web server at home 5. Port forward ports 80 and 443 from your router to your server. 5. Create content See homenetworkgeek.com/dynamic-dns for details about the dynamic DNS and port forwarding.
    – Stephen Ostermiller ♦
    Commented May 22, 2020 at 15:48
  • Would I have to buy the domain name though? Is there anyway I could host to it on my own without buying it (not locally host it - I mean worldwide)?
    – Evan McGregor
    Commented May 23, 2020 at 11:30
  • If you want users to access our site by that domain name, you need to own it. My answer has a couple (poor) options for running a site without a domain name. If you want a domain name, then go ahead and get it.
    – Stephen Ostermiller ♦
    Commented May 23, 2020 at 11:55
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The only way to accomplish this would be if you also created your own dns server and your visitors were willing to add your dns server to their computer's and browser's list of known servers. Without that, no one would be able to reach you based on that domain "name" (not address).

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  • i guess you can go off the grid and just email people the IP address of your website. I'm just not sure that there would be a reason to do this that is not nefarious.
    – Neil Meyer
    Commented May 21, 2020 at 13:55

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