Why did domains get so expensive again?

[The Grinch]

This has probably been discussed many times before, but forum search isnt the best.

Domains were super expensive to reg back in like pre 2002, but then they became super cheap, as low as $5-$7 depending on the registrar. this was the average price from at least 2004 to 2009 or so.

But a couple years ago all the registrars bumped their prices, and i never fully understood why.

Now the same type of domains are usually $10, which is almost double the price they once were.

I remember reading a few years ago that they were doing this because ICANN upped the fee they collected, but looking through my domains registrations i see that the most icann ever takes is like 20cents. So this doesn't explain the $dollars price hike.

Did they all just agree to become greedy and rack up more dollars per domain? because all registrars upped their prices.

Why doesn't a registrar just go back to cheap domains? One would think a registrar would make alot of money if they went back to $5-7 domains because they'd sell more in volume.

But none do that, so it makes me assume there must be another fee going on that i don't know of yet?

does anyone know?

 

[PlusNames]

Economic crisis.

Domains can be cheap though, just be on the lookout for coupons. The past 2 years I haven't paid more than $7 (usually $1 or $5) for a domain.

 

[Kate]

The contract that Icann granted to Verisign allowed them to raise their fees by 7% a few times... so it's the registry prices that have increased.
http://hostlater.com/verisign-increases-com-net-prices/

 

[Name Trader]

sdsinc is correct.

 

[Earthian]

according to VeriSign's agreement with ICANN ... VeriSign can raise the prices for .com and .net 7% per year for 4 of the 6 years of the 2007-2013 contract (it can also increase them on the remaining 2 years if for they can prove they had extraordinary expenses to protect the security or stability of the DNS)




.com VeriSign prices (the price registrars pay to VeriSign to register domains)

15/10/07: $6.00 >>> $6.42
01/10/08: $6.42 >>> $6.86
01/07/10: $6.86 >>> $7.34
15/01/12: $7.34 >>> $7.85




therefore , just by the increase on January 2012 ... (on 100,000,000 .coms) VeriSign will receive an extra $51,000,000 ... on top of the $734,000,000 it was receiving per year

​

 

[lennco]

.com VeriSign prices (the price registrars pay to VeriSign to register domains)

15/10/07: $6.00 >>> $6.42
01/10/08: $6.42 >>> $6.86
01/07/10: $6.86 >>> $7.34
15/01/12: $7.34 >>> $7.85

​

If those are the prices VeriSign gets from registrars, then how does Godaddy make any money from .com domains?

You can always pick up a .com domain at Godaddy for $7.49 or less.

 

[Earthian]

GoDaddy uses their low .com price to attract (new) customers and then sells the rest of their products to them that cost GoDaddy way less than the price they charge (eg. hosting , websitetonight or email) ... many don't buy those extra products but many others do (especially non-domainers)


also they make a large amount from other tlds (that a customer might buy after starting to buy domains) on which they have better margins (eg. .net , .tv or .co) ... for which it is also usually more difficult to find good coupons


lastly , not all people know about the lowest GoDaddy coupons , many people just go the site from their ads (eg. Superbowl) and pay a higher price than $7.49 (eg. $9.99)

If those are the prices VeriSign gets from registrars, then how does Godaddy make any money from .com domains?

You can always pick up a .com domain at Godaddy for $7.49 or less.

​

 

[Dave_Z]

Why doesn't a registrar just go back to cheap domains? One would think a registrar would make alot of money if they went back to $5-7 domains because they'd sell more in volume.

Contrary to popular belief, registrars hardly make money just by registering domain names.

 

[EGS]

At our domain registrar, we keep our domain base pricing as low as honestly possible. We charge $0.05-$0.10 beyond the base pricing for each domain TLD only for foreign transaction fees/rates and advertising. We do give new customers freebies and bonuses though!

It's the bigger domain companies that want to profit off of you. To even make a profit of $1.00+ for domains is ridiculous - it's an automatic service with no work involved. We at eWeb Domains have a different stance on domain registrations, renewals, and transfers (transfers are always cheaper).

---------- Post added at 06:56 AM ---------- Previous post was at 06:51 AM ----------

If those are the prices VeriSign gets from registrars, then how does Godaddy make any money from .com domains?

You can always pick up a .com domain at Godaddy for $7.49 or less.

The problem is that big companies like GoDaddy don't offer that pricing - it's only for new customers and one time. Then it goes up in pricing to profit off of customers.

Any and all promotional pricing that we @ eWeb Domains can offer, we offer. We literally nickel and dime in terms of our profit, solely for advertising and freebie/bonus purposes.

 

[the_poet]

Verisign's tendency is to raise the price of domains once a year (full price for a .com is already $13 at GoDaddy and other registrars are at $10-$11). I wonder how much it will cost to reg a domain in 10 years if things go on this way.