Over the last few years we have seen an increasing rate of price increases in the domain name world. If you operate developed sites, or have names you feel sure you want to keep long term, in most cases it makes sense to renew in advance of price increases.
But to do that, you need to know about price increases before they happen. Registries provide registrars with information on upcoming price increases, and sometimes those registrars pass on that information to registrants, but not always.
We have not had a central place to easily check upcoming price increases. Until now.
TLD Price Changes Site
I only learned about two weeks ago about a relatively new site, TLD Price Changes. The site provides tracking on future, and recent past, wholesale price increases across a large number of legacy, country code and new extensions.
The site is free and easy to use, but here is a visual summary. The splash screen gives information on how many price changes have been tracked, so you can easily see if anything new has been added.
Scroll down, and it will highlight the next change. At time of article publication, the site informs us that .co prices will be going up about 9.1% on March 1, 2024. Note that the prices given are wholesale prices to the registrar, so retail prices for registrants in general will be somewhat higher.
Also, a heads up that although the site highlights one next change, that does not mean there are not additional changes on the same date, so be sure to view all. For example, .fr, .pt, .work, .design, .club, .vip, .fashion and numerous other extensions are also increasing prices on March 1, 2024.
Also, while coverage is growing, many country code extensions are not yet covered, so you will still need to count on getting information for those via your registrar or domain blogs, social media, or other sites like NamePros.
Also, for new and legacy extensions under ICANN, the $0.18 ICANN fee is not included in the wholesale prices shown. This does not apply to country code extensions.
Finding All Upcoming Price Increases
There are two ways to search and review upcoming price changes using the website. One is to use one of the tabs.
Note that in this context gTLDs refers to the legacy extensions such as .com, .net, .org, .info, .biz, .mobi, .pro, .name, and .travel, while nTLDs refer to extensions released under the new gTLD program release from 2013 and onwards.
The ccTLDs tab covers any country code, whether national or repurposed for generic use, or both. Note that price increases can be dramatic. For example, if you have any .tm domain names, the country code for Turkmenistan, the annual wholesale cost goes from $80 to $400 per year on June 1, 2024.
Within legacy extensions, we see that the wholesale price for .biz is going up just over 11% on March 1, 2024, while .com prices are going up again on Sept. 1, 2024 by just under 7%. This is the fourth recent price increase for .com, but according to the agreement we should then have two years without increases, before they are allowed to increase prices again.
On Feb. 1, 2024 .net extension prices increased again, by about 9.5% this time. In January 2024, .info went up by another 9.4%. This is the fourth increase in .info since 2020, going from $11.92 to $17.50 wholesale price before ICANN fee. .Mobi is another legacy extension that has had multiple increases since. 2020.
You can also search by entering an extension in the search box. For example, if I enter the term
The Developer
The site is easy to use and visually attractive. I reached out last week with some questions to the developer of the site – he goes by the handle @mallorca here on NamePros, or on X with this handle. Marc is associated with Spanish registrar INWX INWX.es.
In terms of a question about rationale for the site, he replied:
XYZ Family Prices Going Up
The TLD Price Changes site has a separate account on X. Just as I was finishing writing this article, they posted that .XYZ Registry prices were increasing 10% on Sept. 2, 2024. That is not only .xyz, but also other extensions within that registry including .homes, .quest, .boats, .rent, .lol, .autos, .monster, .beauty and 9 other extensions.
Scheduled Increases of Most Interest to Investors
There are scheduled increases in a number of extensions of particular interest to investors:
Price Increases: What To Do?
As a general rule, you might consider the following on how to respond to price increases:
One interesting feature of TLD Price Changes is the largest increase recorded since they started. That dubious title goes to the .country extension registry that increased wholesale prices from $20 to $2000 per year!
Typical median price increases over all extensions tracked is about 10%, though, according to the site.
Sincere thanks to TLD Price Changes for making this very useful site. Also, thanks for promptly answering my questions for this article. More transparency in the domain industry is good, and it is nice to have information on wholesale price increases.
But to do that, you need to know about price increases before they happen. Registries provide registrars with information on upcoming price increases, and sometimes those registrars pass on that information to registrants, but not always.
We have not had a central place to easily check upcoming price increases. Until now.
TLD Price Changes Site
I only learned about two weeks ago about a relatively new site, TLD Price Changes. The site provides tracking on future, and recent past, wholesale price increases across a large number of legacy, country code and new extensions.
The site is free and easy to use, but here is a visual summary. The splash screen gives information on how many price changes have been tracked, so you can easily see if anything new has been added.
Part of welcome screen for TLDPriceChanges.com. All images in this article are screen captures courtesy of that site.
Scroll down, and it will highlight the next change. At time of article publication, the site informs us that .co prices will be going up about 9.1% on March 1, 2024. Note that the prices given are wholesale prices to the registrar, so retail prices for registrants in general will be somewhat higher.
Also, a heads up that although the site highlights one next change, that does not mean there are not additional changes on the same date, so be sure to view all. For example, .fr, .pt, .work, .design, .club, .vip, .fashion and numerous other extensions are also increasing prices on March 1, 2024.
Also, while coverage is growing, many country code extensions are not yet covered, so you will still need to count on getting information for those via your registrar or domain blogs, social media, or other sites like NamePros.
Also, for new and legacy extensions under ICANN, the $0.18 ICANN fee is not included in the wholesale prices shown. This does not apply to country code extensions.
Finding All Upcoming Price Increases
There are two ways to search and review upcoming price changes using the website. One is to use one of the tabs.
Note that in this context gTLDs refers to the legacy extensions such as .com, .net, .org, .info, .biz, .mobi, .pro, .name, and .travel, while nTLDs refer to extensions released under the new gTLD program release from 2013 and onwards.
The ccTLDs tab covers any country code, whether national or repurposed for generic use, or both. Note that price increases can be dramatic. For example, if you have any .tm domain names, the country code for Turkmenistan, the annual wholesale cost goes from $80 to $400 per year on June 1, 2024.
Within legacy extensions, we see that the wholesale price for .biz is going up just over 11% on March 1, 2024, while .com prices are going up again on Sept. 1, 2024 by just under 7%. This is the fourth recent price increase for .com, but according to the agreement we should then have two years without increases, before they are allowed to increase prices again.
On Feb. 1, 2024 .net extension prices increased again, by about 9.5% this time. In January 2024, .info went up by another 9.4%. This is the fourth increase in .info since 2020, going from $11.92 to $17.50 wholesale price before ICANN fee. .Mobi is another legacy extension that has had multiple increases since. 2020.
You can also search by entering an extension in the search box. For example, if I enter the term
work it will show me results for .network, .work and .works. I was interested in the .work extension, so when I click on that, it tells me there is a price increase scheduled for March 1, 2024 of $1.00 wholesale, about 16.7% increase.The Developer
The site is easy to use and visually attractive. I reached out last week with some questions to the developer of the site – he goes by the handle @mallorca here on NamePros, or on X with this handle. Marc is associated with Spanish registrar INWX INWX.es.
In terms of a question about rationale for the site, he replied:
He went on to add:
Interestingly, he used ChatGPT to help build the site.
XYZ Family Prices Going Up
The TLD Price Changes site has a separate account on X. Just as I was finishing writing this article, they posted that .XYZ Registry prices were increasing 10% on Sept. 2, 2024. That is not only .xyz, but also other extensions within that registry including .homes, .quest, .boats, .rent, .lol, .autos, .monster, .beauty and 9 other extensions.
Scheduled Increases of Most Interest to Investors
There are scheduled increases in a number of extensions of particular interest to investors:
- .app increasing 16.7% on Aug 1, 2024.
- .art up by 66.7%. on May 22, 2024.
- .club increases 9.6% on Mar. 1, 2024.
- .co increases 9.1% on Mar. 1, 2024.
- .com increases 6.99% on Sept. 1, 2024.
- .design up by 14.3% on Mar. 1, 2024.
- .dev increase of 20.0% on Aug. 1, 2024.
- .xyz increase of 10.0% on Sept. 2, 2024.
Price Increases: What To Do?
As a general rule, you might consider the following on how to respond to price increases:
- Use TLD Price Changes and other sources to learn in advance of scheduled price increases.
- Decide which names in your portfolio warrant keeping long term. You may find the NamePros article: How to Decide What Domain Names to Renew. This is a good time to trim weak domain names and concentrate on quality names.
- For those names you do plan to keep, decide the minimum number of years you feel sure you will keep the name. Even though renewals paid in advance may seem to be a waste if the name sells quickly, in most cases the low sell-through rate for domain names makes it worthwhile to renew in advance names you plan to keep. I outlined the numerical argument in the article: Applied Probability for Domainers. Most extensions allow up to 10 years total registration period, but there are exceptions.
- Generally, don’t renew in advance trendy names, since they may not warrant long term investment, or even if you do plan to keep them for multiple years, the sell-through rate may be high enough that the probability argument for paying multiple years in advance is less strong.
- Taking all of the above into consideration, along with your cash position and the opportunity cost of different potential ways to use resources, decide the advance renewals that make sense for you.
- Use a source such as TLD-List to see the relative costs at different registrars that you use. Consider factors other than price alone, however, including registrar security, ease of use, and participation in fast transfer networks.
One interesting feature of TLD Price Changes is the largest increase recorded since they started. That dubious title goes to the .country extension registry that increased wholesale prices from $20 to $2000 per year!
Typical median price increases over all extensions tracked is about 10%, though, according to the site.
Sincere thanks to TLD Price Changes for making this very useful site. Also, thanks for promptly answering my questions for this article. More transparency in the domain industry is good, and it is nice to have information on wholesale price increases.
