Free subdomains for developers
A free subdomain gives your work an address of its own, like yourname.portfilio.live, without buying a domain. Here is how Namestead’s work, what you can point one at, and where the limits are.
What a free subdomain is
A subdomain is a name in front of a domain someone else owns: in yourname.portfilio.live, the domain is portfilio.live and your part is “yourname”. The owner of the domain keeps it registered and its DNS running, and hands out the names in front of it.
Namestead owns a small catalog of domains (today portfilio.live and digitalplayground.quest), pays for them in public, and gives the names on them away free. You don’t buy anything, and nobody asks for a card.
How to get one
- Sign in on namestead.dev with GitHub, Google or an email link.
- Pick a domain from the catalog and type the name you want. It must be one label with no dots, pass the name rules, and not imitate a brand.
- Choose what the name does: redirect to an address you already have, or show a parked page.
- Claim it. Most names are live straight away; a claim from a brand-new account with little history can wait for a short manual review.
You must be 18 or older to use Namestead (see the Terms).
What you can point it at
| Mode | What it does | From |
|---|---|---|
| Redirect | Sends visitors to an address you choose, such as your-site.vercel.app or a GitHub profile | Ping (everyone) |
| Parked page | Namestead serves a simple page for the name while you build | Ping (everyone) |
| Direct DNS | A CNAME to Vercel, Netlify, GitHub Pages, Cloudflare Pages or Render, plus the TXT records they verify with | Resolver |
| Proxy | Namestead serves your verified server under the name | Authority (not open yet) |
Everyone starts at Ping: one name, as a redirect or a parked page. Resolver (150 Trust Points and an account at least 7 days old) gives three names and direct DNS. Authority adds a fourth and fifth name and proxy mode, which is not open yet.
Trust Points come from time on Namestead, connecting GitHub (its account age, public repositories and followers count), linking other accounts, keeping a name healthy, helping the project (a domain you asked for going live, an abuse report that was acted on) and contributing money. They have no cash value.
HTTPS (SSL) is included
Every catalog domain has a wildcard certificate, so redirects and parked pages are served over HTTPS. With direct DNS, your host (Vercel, Netlify, GitHub Pages and the rest) issues the certificate for your name the way it does for any custom domain.
Names are a single level on purpose. A wildcard certificate covers one level only, so a name like blog.yourname.portfilio.live would break HTTPS; Namestead never hands those out.
What it can’t do
- No A, AAAA, MX or NS records. You can’t point a name at your own server’s IP, receive email on it, or run your own DNS for it.
- Direct DNS is not available on day one; it opens at the Resolver tier.
- It’s a subdomain, not a domain you own. You can’t sell or transfer it, and it follows the Terms and the abuse policy.
- Not for game servers or anything that needs SRV records.
If you need those today, the comparison guide lists services that offer them.
Why a subdomain on Namestead
- No pull request and no waiting for volunteers: you claim it on a website.
- A name that reads like yours, not your host’s, so you can move from Vercel to Netlify without changing your address.
- Open books: every rupee in and out is on the public ledger, and every domain’s funding is on the registry.
- The community requests and votes on which domains join next.
- Every name is checked against protected brands, including look-alike spellings, and abuse reports follow a published process.