I have recently started a free subdomain service called “Free Domains”. The service offers the ability to register as many subdomains as you want on two different domains.

The domains we offer are is-a-backend.dev and is-a-frontend.dev.

Register

There are 2 options for registering a subdomain, using the CLI or manually regsitering it.

I personally recommend using the CLI as it is quicker and easier to register a subdomain. All you need is a GitHub account!

CLI Registration

Registering a subdomain using the CLI is the recommended way to register.

To use the CLI, you need the following requirements.

• Node.js v16 or higher

1. Install the CLI

To install the CLI, run the following command in your terminal:

npm install @free-domains/cli -g

Important: Make sure the -g option is included otherwise it will not work.

2. Login with GitHub

To login to the CLI, run the following command and follow the instructions provided:

domains login

If it asks you to select an email, this means you have more than one email address attached to your GitHub account. Select the email that you want to use to register the subdomain.

3. Register your subdomain

To register your subdomain, run the following command:

domains register

When it asks if you want your record proxied through Cloudflare, if you are not sure what that means, select no.

After that, your pull request will be generated and a link will be provided to the pull request.

Manual Registration

To register your subdomain manually, follow these simple steps.

1. Create a domain file

Firstly, you need to go to the GitHub repo.

Next, select the domains folder and create a new file.

For the name of the file put the subdomain you want (e.g: william) then put a full stop (.), then the domain you want the subdomain on (either is-a-backend.dev or is-a-frontend.dev), then put .json at the end.

For the content, copy and paste the following content into the file:

{
    "$schema": "../schemas/domain.json",

    "domain": "is-a-backend.dev",
    "subdomain": "example",

    "owner": {
        "email": "[email protected]"
    },

    "records": {
        "A": ["1.1.1.1", "1.0.0.1"],
        "AAAA": ["2606:4700:4700::1111", "2606:4700:4700::1001"],
        "CNAME": "example.com",
        "TXT": [
            {
                "name": "@",
                "value": "example_verification=1234567890"
            }
        ]
    },

    "proxied": false
}

Replace the domain value with the domain you want your domain on, it will be either is-a-backend.dev or is-a-frontend.dev.

Replace the subdomain value with the subdomain you want to register (e.g: william).

For the records, remove the record types you don’t want and only keep the ones you want to use. Please note that CNAME records cannot be used with other records.

For the proxied value replace it with true if you want your record(s) proxied. Leave this as false if you don’t know what it means or don’t need it. Please note only A, AAAA and CNAME records are proxied.

Then replace the record value with the record you want.

2. Open a Pull Request

Commit the file. When it asks to open a pull request, fill out the description then press Open Pull Request.

Make sure to star the repository as it is a requirement.

Wrapping Up

If you’re interested about learning more about the project, you can checkout our website.