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?
Also, if this isn’t the correct community for this, I’d appreciate being pointed to the right one, thank you
Update: after reading the comments the two main options I’m considering now are either a cheap VPS to use as proxy for my network via wireguard, or DynamicDNS. I’ll see if I can figure out the rest from here, thank you!
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 using their API.
I use Porkbun’s ping endpoint to obtain my public IP. There are also alternatives such as Ipify. ↩︎
TIL porkbun can do that. Would that help with hosting behind a CGNAT?