Thread: Registry Fees for .com's are increasing Oct 1st

If you have an online presence and you are manually renewing it on an annual basis, now is a good time to renew the domain out to the maximum 10-year limit.

Prices for .com's, .net's and other TLD's will be gowing up October 1st. Verisign is again raising registry fees (wholesale prices charged to registrars that sell domains to end users). Verisign will be raising .com's from $6.42 to $6.86, and .net's from $3.85 to $4.23.

Versign also raised wholesale rates October 15th last year. At that time, .com's increased from $6.00 to $6.42, and .net's increased from $3.50 to $3.85. Verisign has a contract with ICANN allowing it to raise wholesale prices 7% per year with certain restrictions.

If Verisign continues on this trend, next October wholesale .com's will be $7.34... $7.85 in 2010, and so on. Depending on how many domains you have and how long you plan on keeping them, renewing on an annual basis will cost significantly more than locking in today's rates. Do the math and determine if it makes financial sense to keep renewing annually.

Remember, this is just the registry fee. Registrars may mark up the prices at an equal or higher rate.

To your ongoing success,
RogueDomains

Interesting. But then...a few cents more per year won't make a difference to the pockets of those who have only a few domains. Even those who bulk-register will always I believe find a registrar that is simply cheaper.

Hence competition.

BigMax,

Yes, and no. Those who only have a few domains will not hurt too (subjective) much, but if the 7% increase continues to occur annually, that's a double in cost in 10 years.

Example, over just the next 6 years with rates increasing annually, locking in today's wholesale rate costs $38.52 for one domain, whereas it would cost $49.06 if you renewed annually. That $10.54 difference could have extended you an extra year.

However, end users do not get the wholesale rate, and registrars will likely pass on the increase to customers as they have in the past (this depends on how much they have marked up their prices). Even when you bulk register, you are currently paying more than the wholesale $6.42 rate.

Speaking of bulk registration and the same 6 year example, let's say someone has 100 domains. Does it make sense to renew them now and lock in rates before registry fees increase, or potentially spend an additional $1054 in registry fees alone?

You are right about competition. Prices vary greatly between registrars.

Here are some 1-year non-bulk registration fees available to end users for comparison (excluding ICANN fee of 20cents per year):

Rogue Domains 7.99 for .com
Network Solutions 34.99 for .com
Register 35.00 for .com
Enom 29.95 for .com


The point of the thread, however, is to take a look at your portfolio, decide how long you plan on keeping your domains, and determine whether the savings down the road are worth the outlay in funds now.

To your ongoing success,
RogueDomains

Less than a week left to make the cost/benefit analysis...

October 1st is right around the corner. If you are planning on renewing your domain(s), whether for 1 year or 10, the time to take advantage of current rates is running out.