Free domains from dot.tk. To be or not to be

I hope you already know that there is a company that provides absolutely free domains in the .tk zone. If you want to get one, visit their site and register your domain. But there is one problem that I will tell you about in this post.

Firstly, let’s go through their policy. To have a free domain and use it, you should accept these conditions:

1. The site should not contain inappropriate content. There is no explanation of what content is inappropriate and what isn’t.
2. The site should have some content.
3. You mustn’t protect the site with basic authentication or anything similar.
4. The site shouldn’t be inactive.
5. 25 views in 90 days are required.

And so on. You can find all the conditions on their official site.

OK. You have a site that complies with all these conditions. You would think that you can enjoy your site just like those on your other, paid domains. So did I. But after 3 days, my domain was cancelled. Why? I didn’t get any email or message from support, so I sent them a complaint. I got a response after 2 days. Here is its content:

Our systems auto-checks every free Dot TK domain and cancels any that potentially contravenes our terms and conditions, eg: inappropriate content, no content, password protected or if your site was down or not active, then it is cancelled.

Unfortunately we have to have some of these conditions because we have a lot of people register a free domain and then abuse it or never use it. This is called ‘domain hijacking’. We close these down to allow others to register that domain.

Your site was not active when our review system checked and so your domain was cancelled as this indicated a dormant site. Perhaps it was just down at that point unfortunately.

We have activated your domain. Please check your url/dns settings asap.

Please ensure that it is active at all times so this doesn’t happen again.

We suggest that you consider upgrading to a paid domain as you will then actually own this domain. Paid domains do not have the same requirements as the free domains and so do not get checked. Plus you will guarantee that you never lose your visitors that you have built up.

Please make sure that your domain complies with Dot TK’s terms and conditions for free domains so that your domain is not closed down again. Our terms and conditions for free domains can be found on our homepage under ‘Policies’.

But I’m sure that my site was working the whole time, and I was watching Google Analytics at the exact time the domain was cancelled. So my assumption is the following: I got a lot of unique visitors in one day, and I think they wanted to get them.

Anyway, I would recommend using another zone or just paying for a domain in the .tk zone. Yes, you can buy one. To taste the honey, you’ve got to pay some money.