Is it possible to have a usable domain without a VPS or a static IP address?

Submitted ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨Inkstainthebat@pawb.social⁩ to ⁨selfhosted@lemmy.world⁩

I’ve been thinking about finally getting myself a proper domain for my server, but a friend told me that to get one I either need a VPS with a public ip (which just takes all the fun out of selfhosting) or purchase a static ip, which is beyond what I’m willing to spend for a hobby. Do I have any good options or should I just let it go?

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Nikki@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago
i have a little program for dynamic dns running in docker that checks every few seconds for an IP change and swaps my DNS records if it gets rerolled.

works well on my home network, I can use my domain for all my private services local and remote through wireguard :)

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fozid@feddit.uk ⁨9⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago
I’ve had a domain with a dynamic up for over a year with no problems. I have a simple script that runs every 30mins to check if my IP has changed, then updates the DNS records when required.

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ragingHungryPanda@piefed.keyboardvagabond.com ⁨20⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago
I started with dynamic DNS on my home server, then moved to an encrypted tunnel. the issue with ddns is that your provider may block your ports. Mine eventually blocked 80, 443, and the wire guard port.

When I switched to tunnels, with cloudflare as my provider, there was nothing my provider could do about it.

So, I’d recommend tunnels since many providers don’t want residential users hosting servers.

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Sunnydmess@lemmy.world ⁨32⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago
I use this, Cloudflare zero trust. I run a connector (tunnel) named cloudflared on a raspberry pi which connects to cloudflare. The zerotrust tunnel configuration (in CF dashboard) lets me route http traffic into my local network by domain. The Application access policy in zero trust lets me secure it.

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mantra@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Could you use dynamic DNS? Pretty sure there are some free options.

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- cmnybo@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  One of the better free options is FreeDNS, but you are limited to 5 records.
  
  If you want your own domain, I would suggest Porkbun. They have an API that can be used for dynamic DNS.
  
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foster@lemmy.hangdaan.com ⁨36⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago
You do not need a static IP address or dynamic DNS if your domain registrar provides a REST API. My current registrar is Porkbun and they have a REST API. I simply have a cron job that regularly checks if my public IP[^1] differs from the domain’s A-record. If it does, it updates the record to match the public IP address.

[^1]: I use Porkbun’s ping endpoint to obtain my public IP.

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- JetpackJackson@feddit.org ⁨10⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago
  TIL porkbun can do that. Would that help with hosting behind a CGNAT?
  
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ada@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Our setup uses a domain pointed at a dynamic (but stable) IP with a script to update it periodically

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MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago
I don’t have a static IP, and I just make sure to never ever let my DHCP lease expire. My ISP provides the same IP to the same MAC when renewing the lease. My longest streak on the same IP was three years.

As long as I always turn my router off by cutting the power, it won’t release the lease, so I keep my IP even through reboots. My last one didn’t release the lease at all, so it only ever got a mew IP if it wass off for over a day, or if I set a new MAC…

When my IP does change, I’ve configured my DNS record to only last an hour. So updating the domaim to point to a new IP only takes an hour to update.

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marud@piefed.marud.fr ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago
If you already have a domain name and don’t want to switch to something else, know that some DNS registrar have an API to handle the domains. For a short period of time I had to rely on this and had a little python script to get my current IP and apply it to every A record in my DNS zone. It worked well (but then I ~~took an arrow in the knee~~ had static IP)

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- tofu@lemmy.nocturnal.garden ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago
  Yeah I still do this. I have a cronjob on one of my servers that runs every five minutes, checks if the upstream DNS IP matches my public IP and, if not, sets it. Adding 60s TTL, this means an average downtime of 3 minutes per change, max 6 minutes.
  
  It’s also possible to use different nameservers than the one the registrar provides, in case the registrar doesn’t have a proper API for DNS.
  
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tburkhol@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago
If you only need it to be accessible inside your home, then you just need to run your own DNS. Have your dhcp point at your DNS and your DNS declare itself the master for your domain.

To get full functionality, you’ll probably want to have your registrar point to the public IP you get from your ISP as the domain’s authoritative name server.You should be able to script it to update the registrar when your ISP changes your IP, but that usually happens infrequently enough to do manually. Obviously can’t do that if you’re behind CGNAT.

To get Lets Encrypt certificates, you can do the DNS challenge. If your ISP gives you a (even inconsistent) public IP, you can do fancy ‘views’ with your selfhosted DNS, where it responds with private IPs inside your network and your ISP-given IP outside your network. I have certbot set up to expose my DNS & web server just before it starts its renewal process, then close the firewall after. Once you have the certificate, you can move it to where ever it will actually be used.

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Decronym@lemmy.decronym.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago
Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I’ve seen in this thread:

Fewer Letters More Letters

DNS Domain Name Service/System

IP Internet Protocol

VPS Virtual Private Server (opposed to shared hosting)

[Thread #181 for this comm, first seen 18th Mar 2026, 09:30] [FAQ] [Full list] [Contact] [Source code]

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drone509@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
It is possible to use a dynamic DNS service. They’re typically pretty cheap. I did for several years. It kind of sucked so I rented a VPS.

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- Inkstainthebat@pawb.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago
  In what way did it suck?
  
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  - drone509@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago
    Keeping hardware running 24/7 cheaply is difficult. Expanding an existing setup is expensive. Consumer grade ISP’s will block unexpected network protocols sometimes seemingly for no reason. Dynamic DNS isn’t super robust, so several times I went on vacation and the DNS service would flake. Maybe it’s better if you pay more for it, but I have no complaints about my VPS. It’s nice to be able to just reliably reach my web stuff and not worry a cat bumped the power cable.
    
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entheo@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
I believe cloudflare has some sort of tunneling option but I’ve never really looked into it, it might get around that.

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- Dave@lemmy.nz ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago
  It does, yeah. If you aren’t averse to cloudflare then it’s a great option.
  
  From memory I think it’s limited to http/https traffic, but that’s normally not an issue, just have all your services behind a reverse proxy.
  
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eksb@programming.dev ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
If your home IP does not change often, you can use a dynamic DNS service. But your services will be unavailable from the time that your IP changes and the time the DNS record is updated and the cached responses expire.

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- Jozav@lemmy.world [bot] ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago
  Do you need to update your (Let’s Encrypt) certificates after an ip change?
  
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  - Ooops@feddit.org ⁨32⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago
    No.
    
    Let’s Encrypt checks if you have control over the server the name eventually leads to, usually by providing you with a token that you put on your server for retrieval. The way there, including the IP, is irrelevant.
    
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  - eksb@programming.dev ⁨42⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago
    No.
    
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rosco385@lemmy.wtf ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago
Image

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czl@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago
If you’re self hosting you could even use github.com/qdm12/ddns-updater and skip a third-party service (if your registrar accepts dynamic entries)

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IsoKiero@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago
I have dynamic dns address and a handful of CNAME records on my domains pointing on that dyndns-address so I can use ‘proper’ names with my services. When my public IP changes it takes a few minutes for the records to update, but it usually happens only when my router reboots so it’s been good enough for me.

Also I use two separate dyndns providers so there’s likely at least one working DNS entry to my network.

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Fewer Letters	More Letters
DNS	Domain Name Service/System
IP	Internet Protocol
VPS	Virtual Private Server (opposed to shared hosting)