To increase on June 1 — .Org prices
While nobody likes price increases, this one doesn’t sting so much.
The wholesale price for .org domain names will increase from $9.93 to $11.00 on June 1.
Unlike most top level domains that increase their prices nearly every year, this is the first increase for .org since 2016. The history could have been very different.
In 2019, .org registry Public Interest Registry (PIR) signed a fresh registry agreement with ICANN that removed price caps on .org domains. Previously, it had the right to increase prices 10% a year.
People were rightfully concerned that this would usher in a period of sizable price increases, even though PIR hadn’t raised prices in three years.
At the time, I wrote:
In the near term, I don’t expect the impacted registries to make significant price increases. In fact, I suspect .org registry Public Interest Group may increase prices less over the next few years than it would have had it had the old 10% price increase option since now it’s under the microscope.
The long term is a different story. It’s likely that first-year prices will remain low through promotions but renewal prices will increase. And if one of these registries decides to sell itself to a private equity group or another firm? All bets are off.
Guess what happened?
Just months following ICANN lifted price increases, Internet Society, the group that receives the bulk of the profits from .org, disclosed it was selling the registry to a private equity firm for $1.135 billion. Adding insult to injury, ICANN’s former CEO, Fadi Chehadé, was part of the private equity buyout.
ICANN faced intense pressure to stop the sale. Despite this, it looked like it would move forward…until California’s attorney general stepped in.
The deal was nixed, and PIR remained a nonprofit steward of the .org registry.
Had Ethos won, it would have certainly raised prices. Even if it had restrained itself to 10% a year, the wholesale price of .org domains would be nearly $20 this year.
Registrars and registrants don’t like price increases. But, given what could have been and what has transpired since 2016, I have no problem with PIR raising its prices to $11 a decade following its last price increase.
We all know what has transpired in the past decade. A pandemic, rampant inflation, etc. Eleven dollars today is equivalent to regarding $8.50 in 2016.
A spokesperson for Public Interest Registry told Reglike that the organization has no further plans to increase prices at this time.
.Org registrants can renew their domains for up to ten years at current prices ahead of the June 1 price change.
