Domain name renewal fees

Bloke · 2019-02-26 17:38:02

I know we’ve done this dance before on the forum of “who’s the best registrar” and all that, so forgive me if I’m treading old ground.

Just scouring the web for a domain name using one of the fancy TLDs and the prices are insane. Seems that a lot of places like Gandi will do a first-year registration at a discount, then it’s back to £50 or £100+ a year thereafter, which the client isn’t willing to pay. A lot of the “find a domain” searching tools seem to be an exercise in random number generation. Varying the desired domain name by a single character can make the difference between £100/yr renewal and £17000/yr!

I was looking at Gandi initially but their renewal prices are fairly high, as mentioned above. Namecheap offer many of the same TLDs for the same price as first year registration, significantly (over 60%) cheaper than Gandi overall: on the order of £19/yr, which is about the price point I’m aiming at.

Question is: are they any good or do they get money off you in hidden charges for things like astronomical transfer fees or admin charges or add-ons? They have a rock bottom TrustPilot score, but maybe that includes reviews for their hosting too, which I’ve heard is ropey?

Anyone got any experience with Namecheap? Or any recommendations for providers that won’t rip you off and don’t charge a fortune after the one-year intro? I’m looking at one of the media-related TLDs like .design or .media (maybe even .graphics though it’s not as good) but I’m in no way sold on any of them. Might just be better to try and find a regular .com or .co.uk and register it at a reputable place like Gandi instead of being cornered into one of the newfangled ones only to find they randomly try and shove the prices up sometime later.

Also, many places cite a maximum of a 10-year registration period. I presume (hope) that’s just en-bloc, i.e. you can’t buy more than 10 years at a time, not that after 10 years you have to give the domain up entirely… right?!

Thanks in advance for any wisdom.

Last edited by Bloke (2019-02-26 17:40:59)

jakob · 2019-02-26 18:00:24

I often try domainr.com which lists what’s available and similar name combinations but not the prices. You still have to click through to the sites and compare prices.

I’ve used namecheap before for domain registration (nothing else, though) and quite like them to be honest. They do try and give you various bits and pieces of extra services (which you don’t have to have). And, yes, the special offer prices do go back to regular price after a year but they quote what that is.

The really expensive prices are either super-fantastic names (but most of those have already been sat on) or for brand new TLDs in the pre-register period (like .dev at the moment which began at 17,000 US$ on day 1!).

I’ve never tried registering for 10 years or more!

gaekwad · 2019-02-26 19:29:43

Bloke wrote #316752:

Seems that a lot of places like Gandi will do a first-year registration at a discount, then it’s back to £50 or £100+ a year thereafter, which the client isn’t willing to pay.

[…]

I’m looking at one of the media-related TLDs like .design or .media (maybe even .graphics though it’s not as good) but I’m in no way sold on any of them. Might just be better to try and find a regular .com or .co.uk and register it at a reputable place like Gandi instead of being cornered into one of the newfangled ones only to find they randomly try and shove the prices up sometime later.

You’ve sort of answered your own question, Stef.

The TLD owner typically sets the year-by-year price and the registrar tacks on a profit. Fewer and fewer people actually pay attention to TLDs, they just search instead. The latest crop of new gTLDs have some absurd pricing, and Google were offering pre-registration for .dev at $10,000+ (on a descending sliding scale each day after that, and ‘normal’ pricing as of Feb 28th).

Weird TLDs (and I consider most of the recent TLDs as weird) don’t jive with most people. You could consider .co as a relatively safe gTLD, and the pricing on that is not absurd. That said, we’re not in .com Kansas anymore and the days of £5-10 domains are fading…which is not to say that’s a bad thing, but I found that setting expectations at clients is important: if they see the cost of a domain, it’s part of doing business. There’s a business case for a responsive registrar. I use Gandi, I used to use GoDaddy back in the day, and I’ve used various other smaller registrars over the years, but Gandi is where I live these days.

Also, many places cite a maximum of a 10-year registration period. I presume (hope) that’s just en-bloc, i.e. you can’t buy more than 10 years at a time, not that after 10 years you have to give the domain up entirely… right?!

You just renew at any point during your tenure. No giving up unless you break registrar TOS or AUP. Oh, and if you’re a .eu TLD leaseholder (me) Brexit is forcing those to go back. That ten year tenure (badumtish) I paid for in 2016 wasn’t the brightest idea, in retrospect.

If Brexit actually happens, of course.

zero · 2019-02-26 19:35:25

Namesilo are pretty good although they do like the rest wrt second year onwards. They include privacy automatically and the prices aren’t often beaten. They have a good search bar for finding what’s available and not.

I’m pretty certain that after 10 years you’ll have plenty of opportunity to re-register and continue owning the domain without any worry about someone sneakily pinching it. That’s what happens to renewals after 2 or 3 years at least.

jakob · 2019-02-26 19:53:16

With the exception of being forced to give it up, I didn’t think you could lose a domain if you keep it paid up. I thought there was a grace period too if for some reason you are unable/indisposed to renew in time.

zero · 2019-02-26 20:11:45

I think most registrars will put an automatic lock on the domain to stop any funny business – apart from the shady one of course and there are plenty of those. I let one of my domains cease last year and I kept getting reminders to renew it for 3 months after it had expired, so that’s probably the grace period.

gaekwad · 2019-02-26 20:18:28

jakob wrote #316758:

With the exception of being forced to give it up, I didn’t think you could lose a domain if you keep it paid up.

Check the small print. Some registrars will turn a blind eye to anything, others won’t

I thought there was a grace period too if for some reason you are unable/indisposed to renew in time.

Yes. That time period varies from registrar to registrar.

Bloke · 2019-02-26 22:20:44

Thanks for the insight, guys. You’ve convinced me to stick with a standard TLD, as content over vanity is the name of the game these days.

Destry · 2019-02-28 11:34:52

Bloke wrote #316752:

Anyone got any experience with Namecheap?

I don’t. But I did just see someone in the f’verse the other day complain loudly about them for the same reason you mention about Gandi, once the initial year was up, their price jumped ridiculously.

Might be the fact of web life anymore, depending on one’s vanity.

This is why, for my own situation and projects, I’m favouring subdomain usage now; as many websites as I want for the price of one. I feel pretty lucky these days to have my own short name on an old fashioned tld.

I was just kicking around last night that I will probably use office.wion.com instead of the origin for the work face, that way it’s just a feather to clip when retirement happens without disruption to the root design. The origin might end up being nothing more than an About page for ‘House Wion’, like Dune royalty. ;)

Bloke · 2019-02-28 11:46:43

Destry wrote #316796:

I’m favouring subdomain usage now

Yeah, that’s great for my own use – and I often use a subdomain for staging client sites – but not so good for a full launch of a separate project I don’t necessarily want to associate with my current domain name.

I went with a .com in the end at Gandi. Cheaper than a vanity plate, no hidden surprises. Just the initial headache of finding one that’s spare!

maverick · 2019-03-11 18:53:39

fwiw, I’ve been looking at CloudFlare’s new registration service

Pricing wise they seem to be about as straight forward as anyone else I’ve found.

Last edited by maverick (2019-03-11 18:54:35)

gaekwad · 2019-03-11 19:15:16

maverick wrote #316992:

fwiw, I’ve been looking at CloudFlare’s new registration service

Pricing wise they seem to be about as straight forward as anyone else I’ve found.

Gotta admit, I was tempted by them when I saw it. I’m watching for now, see how the initial customers find them. Knowing Cloudflare, their interface will be top flight and pretty seamless. Does raise the inevitable question: what do they have to gain if they’re charging largely at-cost? Presumably an easy upsell to their other services…beyond that, not sure.

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#1 2019-02-26 17:38:02