[deanhills]

I have a few Freenom free domains and during the last week when I had to move five Websites and change DNS, Freenom DNS propagated faster than Namecheap. Namecheap offers more in that one can create one's own Name Servers with one's domain. But with Freenom its DNS is great. I chose to use Freenom's DNS instead of Vesta CP by creating an A Record in the Freenom Panel. That went effortless and propagated almost immediately.

Freenom domains these days are not as easy to get as before though. Something to do with how they scrutinize and compare your user details with the info in the application. And it usually happens right at the end of the application process, annoyingly so. But it's still possible to get a domain if you try, try and try again. Just make sure however that you don't use the Freenom free domain for sites that get a lot of traffic, as I've heard bad stories about Freenom making the domain disappear. My Freenom domains are mostly used with low-profile personal blogs. I've lost the odd Freenom domain over the years due to my own fault, as one can only renew the site 2 weeks before the expiry date and not earlier. And I have forgotten from time to time to renew it on time. In most cases however I've been able to get the domain back.

[mzltest]

Personally I am not using the provider's dns as the cdn's provider often provide a ns server(the progration seems to be better for these cdn's ns)and yes,freenom is harder to apply now.I've heard that your country in the details you provide at the registeration must match the ip address when you make the order otherwise it gets automatically rejected.

And for the renewal,yes I miss them too.Without notifications set ahead you hardly remember the thing after almost a year.

[tryp4vps]

For me, I did try Freenom DNS some years ago. However, my experience was not that good. As I noticed some downtimes from time to time for my websites running with Freenom DNS.

Now, glad to hear that Freenom DNS does work for you. So it appears that their DNS quality has been improved.

[fChk]

I have a few Freenom free domains and during the last week when I had to move five Websites and change DNS, Freenom DNS propagated faster than Namecheap.

I've been using Freenom services since it came into being and, like you said, it never disappointed DNS propagation-wise. In the order of few minutes generally.

To my mind, as a TLD-manager that should be norm. This is why it's a bit unfair to compare Namecheap to it, which doesn't have -to my knowledge- any authority on any TLD of its own.

[deanhills]

I've been using Freenom services since it came into being and, like you said, it never disappointed DNS propagation-wise. In the order of few minutes generally.

To my mind, as a TLD-manager that should be norm. This is why it's a bit unfair to compare Namecheap to it, which doesn't have -to my knowledge- any authority on any TLD of its own.

Thanks @fChk. Didn't think of it like that before. I assumed that since I was paying for a domain, that the expectancy would be for DNS to propagate faster than with a domain that was free. And now the penny drops. Thinking about it more logically. Of course! Authority makes a bigger difference or lack thereof rather than whether it's a paid or free domain. From that point of view I see your point the two can't be compared.

[sagher]

I am using freenom from last two years and it is great working for me. even i redirect my domains through cloudflare. no issue from direct access to VPS IP. but i face some issues with VestaCP panel. work directly but not work with cloudflare redirect nameservers.

at freenom you only face issue when your free domain traffic is excessive. i dont know the exact value but if you are using a web page and traffic is exceed to some value the domain goes dead and freenom demand to purchase the same domain or you have to add new domain.

[Sn1F3rt]

I have a few Freenom free domains and during the last week when I had to move five Websites and change DNS, Freenom DNS propagated faster than Namecheap.  Namecheap offers more in that one can create one's own Name Servers with one's domain.  But with Freenom its DNS is great.  I chose to use Freenom's DNS instead of Vesta CP by creating an A Record in the Freenom Panel.  That went effortless and propagated almost immediately.

Freenom domains these days are not as easy to get as before though.  Something to do with how they scrutinize and compare your user details with the info in the application.  And it usually happens right at the end of the application process, annoyingly so.  But it's still possible to get a domain if you try, try and try again.  Just make sure however that you don't use the Freenom free domain for sites that get a lot of traffic, as I've heard bad stories about Freenom making the domain disappear.  My Freenom domains are mostly used with low-profile personal blogs.  I've lost the odd Freenom domain over the years due to my own fault, as one can only renew the site 2 weeks before the expiry date and not earlier.  And I have forgotten from time to time to renew it on time.  In most cases however I've been able to get the domain back.

Well with my old account it's still easy to register whichever domain you want. I did hear that Freenom is turning strict on their new accounts and so these users can definitely face a problem. My Freenom account is from 2017 Dec, and still, I do not face any issues with them. In my experience, though Freenom generally propagated slower than any other registrar maybe they have tweaked their backend I haven't used Freenom for a few months, but it's indeed good if they let users obtain a domain free of charge and use it for a year. 

I have heard (maybe these are rumors) that Freenom suspiciously cancels high-traffic domains at times and makes it a premium domain. Haven't experienced it myself however all my domains hardly used to get any traffic. 

Personally I prefer a nameserver propagation as opposed to the A record method you mentioned, however any method is fine as long as you are only planning to use the domain for a website and not a mail server, or copy over each record from Vesta DNS to Freenom.