Best price on .com domains — Getting the

Some registrars offer consistently good deals on .com domains.

There’s a lot of competition at the registrar level for .com domain names. This intense competition leads to prices near the wholesale price that the registrar pays the registry (Verisign) for the domain.

Verisign right now charges a list price of $7.85 for .com registrations and renewals. This will increase to $8.39 on September 1, 2021.

But Verisign offers discounts to registrars for fresh .com registrations depending on things like volume, growth, and region. Sometimes, Verisign offers discounts for domains that are re-registered shortly following they expire. Registry discounts are why you often see prices for what appear to be below cost.

Many registrars offer special pricing for the first year. Prices revert to their standard pricing thereafter.

Others offer coupons for first-year registrations. I don’t like dealing with coupons since you spend a lot of time hunting them down and reading the fine print.

So, from the perspective of getting the best .com prices all of the time, here’s what I’ve found.

I see a handful of registrars that pass along first-year discounts so that domains are at or below the current wholesale price. Sav.com is the most consistent regarding this; its price for .com domain registrations has been $6.95 for a long time. This includes ICANN’s 18-cent fee. Dynadot often passes along the savings as well. Both registrars will charge you more to renew but the prices are still lower than most competitors.

NameBright also has consistently low prices on .com domains. It charges the wholesale cost (counting the ICANN fee) of $8.03 per year if you pre-fund your account by bank wire or check. The nice thing is that this is also the renewal price. It’s rare for registrars to charge at-cost renewals. Of course, this price will increase when Verisign increases prices later this year.

You also need to consider any extras that you usually opt for when registering domains. Most domain investors choose to keep their Whois information public, but it’s worth noting that some registrars charge for privacy and others don’t. NameBright gives domain privacy free for the first year but it’s $2.95 per year following that.

I personally register most of my domains at GoDaddy. It charges $8.47 per year counting the ICANN fee if you opt for the Domain Discount Club, which is right now $240 per year. (Clients who bought this early pay only$120 per year.) I don’t love the idea of having memberships to get discounts but I understand why GoDaddy does this in the context of its user base.

One of the reasons I register at GoDaddy is since it provides additional transfer-out security to people with sizable portfolios and a dedicated account manager. It’s difficult to place a value on this but it’s a reminder to consider the entire package when selecting a registrar.

Of course, you ought to never select a registrar based on price alone. Make sure they have good client service and a user-friendly account management interface.

Feel free to share other registrars that consistently have good prices on .com domains.