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afraid.org FreeDNS

freedns.afraid.org/Shared registry subdomains and managed DNSdomains-dns/afraid-freednsJSONcomparereport an errorprovider JSON

Free allowance
Unlimited domains per account with 20 free subdomains on each, plus 5 free hostnames on a shared registry of 23,087 domains
Verdict
caveatusable, with a named limit or an unprobed read path
Cost
free tier
Identity
emailno card, no phone
Binding limit
write-gateda hostname on a Shared: Private domain can be rejected by that domain's owner, while a Shared: Public domain takes hostnames without the owner's approval; the free plan keeps captchas, which every paid plan removes; the pricing table...
Evidence
documented36 sources; a first-party page was read and the sentence quoted
Freshness
stale on 2026-12-03checked 2026-11-02 (live); stale on 2026-12-03
Free tierunlimited domains per account with 20 free subdomains on each, plus 5 free hostnames on a shared registry of 23,087 domains
unit unlimited; metered on object-count
Pricenone stated
Limits
  • per-object-cap 5 free shared-registry hostnames and 20 subdomains on each domain you own source
  • write-gated (binding) a hostname on a Shared: Private domain can be rejected by that domain's owner, while a Shared: Public domain takes hostnames without the owner's approval source
  • write-gated (binding) the free plan keeps captchas, which every paid plan removes; the pricing table does not say which actions they guard source
Identityemail a first and last name, a user ID, a password and an e-mail address that receives the activation link, an image captcha, and a required checkbox declaring the user is not on a U.S. restricted list or in a U.S.-sanctioned territory; no phone and no card (https://freedns.afraid.org/signup/)
Egressno query cap published
Per-object cap5 hostnames on the shared registry and 20 subdomains on each domain you own, on the free plan
Retentiona hosted domain that stays undelegated (broken) for 365 days is disabled; a shared-registry hostname lasts only while its domain stays in the registry, which the FAQ says may disappear next week
Interfaceunknown no general record-management API is documented, and the /api/ page is behind a login, so its content is unverified: behind a sign-up; the site's client list says a client that sends a SHA1 hash of the user name and password can fetch the needed update URL itself; the free plan's programmatic path is the dynamic-update URL https://sync.afraid.org/u/<token>/ (https://v6.sync.afraid.org/u/<token>/ for IPv6), which changes the address of an existing record; other record edits, TXT included, are POSTs to https://freedns.afraid.org/subdomain/save.php with a logged-in session cookie; the interface term for the update URL would be dyndns, which the vocabulary lacks, so interface carries unknown
Toolingcurl against sync.afraid.org/u/<token>/; DD-WRT and router integrations
Composes witha free hostname that resolves without owning a domain, which is the only thing here that does
Reliabilitya shared-registry name is on someone else's domain, so its survival is their decision
NotesThe name is not yours and the owner can withdraw consent. It is a dynamic-DNS tool with a social dependency, not a name.
Evidence notedocumented the landing, features, pricing, signup, signup Q&A and FAQ pages were read and quoted; the shared-registry cap of 5 hostnames and the 20-subdomain cap on an owned domain are first-party figures
Parsed numbers
  • has-free-tier 1
Evidence 36
datesourcewhat it proved
2026-10-22freedns.afraid.org/'23,246 domains in the shared domain registry'; dynamic update by URL token at sync.afraid.org/u/<token>/; free and premium subdomain and domain hosting
2026-10-22freedns.afraid.org/domain/registry/the registry is a browsable list of domains a hostname may be attached to
2026-10-30freedns.afraid.org/signup/features/an account may host any number of owned domains; the same page counts 23,097 shared-registry domains
2026-10-30freedns.afraid.org/signup/features/a free account gets 5 hostnames on the shared registry, a first-party figure
2026-10-30freedns.afraid.org/pricing/the subdomain cap is 5 on the free plan and 50, 100, 250 or 500 on the four paid plans
2026-10-30freedns.afraid.org/signup/features/each domain the user owns gets 20 free subdomains
2026-10-30freedns.afraid.org/faq/only a Shared: Private domain screens hostnames; a Shared: Public domain takes them without the owner's approval
2026-10-30freedns.afraid.org/pricing/the free plan keeps captchas and every paid plan removes them
2026-10-30freedns.afraid.org/signup/the signup form asks for a first and last name, a user ID, a password and an e-mail address
2026-10-30freedns.afraid.org/faq/a TXT or other record edit outside the dynamic URL is a POST to subdomain/save.php with the logged-in session cookie; no token-based record API is documented
2026-10-30freedns.afraid.org/the dynamic update is a GET of https://sync.afraid.org/u/<token>/, and of the v6.sync.afraid.org host for IPv6
2026-10-30freedns.afraid.org/faq/a hosted domain that stays undelegated for 365 days is disabled
2026-10-30freedns.afraid.org/signup/the signup form submits by sending an activation e-mail, so the account rests on an e-mail address
2026-10-30freedns.afraid.org/signup/the signup form carries a required checkbox declaring the user is not in a U.S.-sanctioned territory
2026-10-30freedns.afraid.org/signup/the signup form carries an image captcha
2026-10-30freedns.afraid.org/pricing/wildcard records are absent on the free plan and unlimited on the paid plans
2026-10-30freedns.afraid.org/the shared registry holds 23,097 domains
2026-10-30freedns.afraid.org/faq/a shared-registry domain can leave the registry at any time, taking its hostnames with it
2026-10-30freedns.afraid.org/api/the /api/ page redirects to the login page, so what it offers is behind a sign-in
2026-10-31freedns.afraid.org/signup/features/the features page states the 5 free shared-registry hostnames of limits[0]
2026-10-31freedns.afraid.org/signup/features/the features page states the 20 free subdomains on each owned domain of limits[0]
2026-10-31freedns.afraid.org/faq/the FAQ states the Shared: Public half of the limits[1] rule
2026-10-31freedns.afraid.org/faq/the FAQ states the Shared: Private half of the limits[1] rule
2026-10-31freedns.afraid.org/signup/features/the values of limits[0] and limits[1] are unchanged on the features page and the FAQ
2026-11-02freedns.afraid.org/scripts/freedns.clients.phpthe site's own client list says a client that sends a SHA1 hash of the user name and password can fetch the needed update URL itself
2026-11-02freedns.afraid.org/api/a request for the /api/ page without a session lands on the sign-in page, so the page content is behind a login
2026-11-02probe: https://freedns.afraid.org/api/?action=getdyndns&sha=0000000000000000000000000000000000000000the /api/ endpoint ?action=getdyndns with a sha key, which third-party clients call to list update URLs, answers HTTP 200 with the text ERROR: Could not authenticate. to a placeholder key of forty zeros
2026-11-02github.com/ddclient/ddclient/issues/180third party: a ddclient issue ties the /api/ page to the v1 update protocol, which takes one request to get the update URL of a host and one to perform the update
2026-11-02github.com/ekkis/afraid-dyndnsthird party: a client's README says the signed-in /api/ page offers Available API Interfaces links whose sha parameter is the account key
2026-11-02beigebox.co.uk/programming/freedns-management-tool/third party: a script's comment places the API page under the Dynamic DNS menu as a Programmer's XML API with two interfaces, XML and ASCII
2026-11-02github.com/acmesh-official/acme.sh/wiki/dnsapithird party: the acme.sh maintainers say FreeDNS provides no API to update DNS records other than the IPv4 and IPv6 dynamic DNS addresses
2026-11-02freedns.afraid.org/signup/features/the features page counts 23,087 domains in the shared registry pool
2026-11-02freedns.afraid.org/signup/features/an account may host any number of owned domains
2026-11-02freedns.afraid.org/signup/features/a free account gets 5 hostnames on the shared registry
2026-11-02freedns.afraid.org/signup/features/each domain the user owns gets 20 free subdomains
2026-11-02freedns.afraid.org/signup/moreinfo/the vendor describes the update path as a fetchable URL that auto-updates the network address, available in the Dynamic DNS section
Unknown values 1
  • interface: the access interface was not established