Cloudflare Registrar, if you are happy to run your DNS on Cloudflare: it charges the registry's price with no markup, about $11.17 a year for a .com and the same on renewal, but the domain must use Cloudflare's nameservers. Porkbun costs a little more ($11.81 a year for a .com, same at renewal), works with any DNS, includes free WHOIS privacy and sells .in at $7.83. The trap is the first-year deal: Hostinger India advertises a .com or .in for ₹1 in year one, and on Porkbun's five-year comparison GoDaddy renews a .com at $23.19 and Namecheap at $20.18, so check year two before you buy. For a .in, use a registrar on the .IN Registry's accredited list, which includes BigRock, GoDaddy, Hostinger, Namecheap and Porkbun. Rule: buy where renewal matches the first-year price, and register the domain in your company's name, not your developer's.
Most registrars hook you with a cheap first year and quietly triple the renewal, which is exactly the trap a bootstrapped founder does not need. Cloudflare Registrar sells domains at cost with zero markup, so what you pay is what the registry and ICANN charge, and the renewal price does not jump on you later. It bundles free WHOIS privacy and DNS, so there is nothing extra to buy on top.
Porkbun's calculator of first-year price plus four renewals for a .com across Cloudflare, Porkbun, Namecheap and GoDaddy, with competitor prices from tldes.com. It shows Cloudflare cheapest ($11.17 a year) and GoDaddy renewing at $23.19.
An ICANN-accredited registrar's domain search with Indian prices. It lists a .in domain at ₹899 for the first year (₹1 on a 3-year term during its sale) and shows renewal and transfer prices side by side.
The official list of registrars accredited to sell .in domains, from the .IN Registry run under NIXI. Use it to check that whoever sells you a .in is accredited.
