Free domain for students

How to use this guide

Free domains in the GitHub Student Developer Pack

These are the domain offers listed on the GitHub Student Developer Pack page, checked on October 22, 2026:

• Namecheap: one year of registration on a .me domain, plus one SSL certificate free for one year.
• .TECH Domains: one standard .tech domain free for one year.
• Name.com: a free domain on select extensions, with over 25 to choose from, such as .live, .studio, .software, .app, and .dev.

Who can get the Pack

GitHub Education is open to students who are at least 13 years old, have a personal GitHub account, and are enrolled in a degree- or diploma-granting program. That includes high school, college, university, and homeschool.

You prove you are a student with a document such as a school ID showing the current enrollment date, a class schedule, a transcript, or an enrollment letter. Some schools also need you to add and verify your school email on your GitHub account first.

How to claim the free .me domain from Namecheap

1. Apply for GitHub Education as a student and wait for approval.
2. Open your GitHub Education benefits page and find the Namecheap offer.
3. Follow the offer link to Namecheap's student flow and search for the .me name you want, for example yourname.me.
4. Complete the free registration and point the domain at your site, such as a GitHub Pages portfolio.
5. Write down the renewal date. Turn off auto-renew if you do not plan to pay for a second year.

Which free extension to pick

.me reads well for a personal site or portfolio (yourname.me). .tech fits a project, a hackathon team, or a developer brand. If you take .dev or .app from Name.com, know that browsers only load these over HTTPS, so your host must serve a certificate. GitHub Pages, Vercel, and Netlify all do this for you.

Pick a name you would be happy to keep. Changing domains later means updating your resume, links, and email everywhere.

Where to host the site

A domain only points somewhere. For a portfolio or project site, GitHub Pages, Netlify, and Cloudflare Pages host it free and let you connect your own domain with HTTPS. Our hosting guide compares the free and student options.

• Free hosting for students

Free options that need no approval

If you are still waiting on GitHub Education, or you do not qualify, you can still publish under a free address today.

• GitHub Pages gives every account a free site at username.github.io.
• is-a.dev is an open-source project that gives developers free subdomains like yourname.is-a.dev for personal and software projects. You request one with a pull request to its GitHub repository.
• Vercel and Netlify give each free project a subdomain on vercel.app or netlify.app.

Skip old free-domain sites

Many older lists still recommend Freenom for free .tk, .ml, .ga, .cf, and .gq domains. Freenom stopped new registrations in 2023 after Meta sued it over phishing abuse, and later left the domain business, shutting down millions of those domains. Do not build anything you care about on them.

When a paid domain makes sense

A paid domain is worth it when the free year is ending and you want to keep the name, when you want a .com, or when you cannot get the Pack. Prices vary a lot by extension, so compare a few before you choose.

Before you buy anywhere, compare the first-year price with the renewal price, since first-year deals are often cheaper than renewals. Also check that domain privacy (WHOIS privacy) is included, so your name and address are not public.

Questions students ask