Best naming services in 2026

Onchain .eth registry on Ethereum mainnet; annual renewal required. Strongest on does your wallet resolve it without a plugin (10/10): The only name in this set that three competing registries chose to interoperate with rather than replace: base.org/names states "Basenames are built on the decentralized, open source ENS protocol", 3dns.box states under "Built-in ENS Support" that "With 3DNS, your domain name doubles as an ENS name", and SPACE ID's docs say "The BNB Domain Name Service is built on the foundation of ENS." Weakest on whether you can lose the name (7/10): You can lose it by forgetting, not by being taken: docs.ens.domains/registry/eth documents a hard annual expiry, a 90-day grace period, then a 21-day Dutch auction opening near $100M USD. Against that, there is no vendor-side revocation clause anywhere in the model — ENS support states "the contracts have no function that would let anyone else move it, take it back, or hand it to someone else." Published price: Annual fee by name length, set in USD and paid in ETH on Ethereum Mainnet — "Annual .eth pricing by name length: $5, $160, or $640. Paid in ETH on Ethereum Mainnet, plus gas — no other cost."

Best for: Does your wallet resolve it without a plugin — 10/10

ENS-protocol names on Base L2, issued by Coinbase, priced in ETH. Strongest on does your wallet resolve it without a plugin (7/10): base.org/names states these names "can be used when connecting to onchain apps, and sending and receiving on Base and any other EVM chain", and the Basenames README describes "An L1 resolver enabling cross-chain resolution for the base.eth 2LD" — so resolution rides the ENS resolution path wallets already implement, rather than needing a plugin. Below ENS itself because the reach is inherited from ENS and depends on Coinbase's CCIP gateway. Weakest on onchain registry or company namespace (4/10): "Basenames are built on the decentralized, open source ENS protocol" (base.org/names), which is a real credit. But it is a namespace issued on a single Coinbase-operated L2: the README describes "A permissioned contract which manages registration payment", and on 14 September 2026 the BaseRegistrar and the registrar controller both reported the same owner on-chain, 0xf9BbA2F07a2c95fC4225f1CAeC76E6BF04B463e9, an address with no contract code. Published price: Annual fees quoted in ETH, not USD: 3 characters 0.1 ETH; 4 characters 0.01 ETH; 5-9 characters 0.001 ETH; 10+ characters 0.0001 ETH.

Best for: Does your wallet resolve it without a plugin — 7/10

Real ICANN domains tokenized as ERC-721 on Optimism, annual renewal. Strongest on does your wallet resolve it without a plugin (8/10): Real ICANN domains resolve in every browser, and wallet reach is borrowed from ENS — 3dns.box states under "Built-in ENS Support" that "With 3DNS, your domain name doubles as an ENS name". Weakest on onchain registry or company namespace (4/10): Onchain only at the ownership layer. The FAQ states "3DNS manages an offchain domain registrar that mirrors the onchain domain records." and the homepage says "3DNS partners with an ICANN accredited registrar to initiate your domain registration off-chain, then securely tokenize it" — so the registry of record remains ICANN's and the token is a wrapper over a conventional registration. Published price: Per-TLD annual price plus a flat tokenization fee: ".com 8.75 / year + $6 tokenization fee"; ".xyz 2.59 / year + $6 tokenization fee"; ".io 38.79 / year + $6 tokenization fee"; ".finance 20.79 / year + $6 tokenization fee".

Best for: Does your wallet resolve it without a plugin — 8/10

Solana name registry migrating .sol to .sns; one-time payment, no renewal fees today. Strongest on whether you can lose the name (6/10): The Migration FAQ says "The upgrade is designed so that you do not lose your domain." but qualifies the no-renewal promise — "There are no renewal fees today. That may change if .sol becomes an ICANN top-level domain, and we would share details in advance." — and reserves a right to exclude names from the migration: "We may exclude a domain from the snapshot, or be unable to deliver a matching new .sol domain, where that is necessary to comply with applicable law or with a court, regulatory or law-enforcement order, where the domain has been credibly reported in connection with a scam or hack". The Terms add that registrations "do not constitute legal ownership, property rights, or exclusive rights enforceable in any jurisdiction." Weakest on does your wallet resolve it without a plugin (4/10): A name bought today is a .sns name, and the FAQ says "Until support is available, your app may show your previous .sol name instead of .sns, or fail to resolve a .sns domain." Nothing in this comparison built on or integrated SNS: Base's naming layer chose ENS (base.org/names) and 3DNS integrates ENS (3dns.box), neither mentions SNS. Published price: one-time registration priced in USD and paid in a token of your choice: 1 character $750, 2 characters $700, 3 characters $640, 4 characters $160, 5+ characters $20.

Best for: Whether you can lose the name — 6/10