Price your name with the buyer's renewal in mind
Your asking price comes from the sales of names like yours, then from the buyer. A small business walks away from a four-figure renewal, and a low one is a selling point.
Chapter 11 of 13, 13 min read
A buyer has written about a name you are selling. That buyer is already working out a sum, and your price is its first line. At checkout, a year of renewalRenewalThe yearly fee that keeps a domain yours. You pay it for as long as you hold the name, and on some endings it costs far more than the first year did.Read the definition may appear as a line of its own. After that, another renewal falls due every year. Beside the total sits the buyer's other choice: the same word on another ending, or a name like yours.
On most names, the renewal is a small part of that sum. Some names are different: the registryRegistryThe organisation that runs an ending, like the company behind .com. It sets the rules and the price registrars pay.Read the definition, the company that runs the ending, prices them as a premium. On those names, the renewal can outweigh your price within a few years. By the end, you can run the buyer's sum first, set an asking price that survives it, and state the renewal in the listing and in the reply.
What you will be able to do
- You can write what your name costs a buyer over five years, renewal included, before you set the ask.
- You can set the ask from past sales and from what the buyer's other choices cost, with your cost as a floor.
- You can tell when a premium renewal must come off your price, and you can disclose it.
- You can state the renewal in a listing and a reply, and offer a low renewal as a reason to buy.
The buyer's sum has more lines than your price
A buyer weighs more than your price. The buyer sets what your name costs to own against what the other choices cost. Owning your name costs your price once. It then costs a renewal every year, for as long as the name is kept. That renewal is built on a fee that the registry sets.
Afternic, GoDaddy's marketplaceMarketplaceA site where owners list domains for sale and buyers make offers, such as Sedo or Afternic.Read the definition, wrote on 25 November 2025 about its Standard Transfer sales, which follow its manual path. On those sales, an extra year is added at checkout and shown as its own line item. That includes premium renewalsPremium renewalA yearly renewal the company that runs an ending sets above its standard price for one name. Whoever holds the name pays it, so a buyer counts it with the price.Read the definition. Clear renewal pricing, Afternic wrote, reduces friction and renewal risk after the sale.
On a standard name, the renewal is the ending's list priceList priceThe price a registrar publishes for an ending, before any coupon or bundle. It is what anyone pays who simply adds the name to the cart.Read the definition at the buyer's registrarRegistrarThe company you buy and renew a domain through, such as Namecheap or GoDaddy. It does not own the name, it only registers it for you.Read the definition. Across the registrars we price, the median yearly renewal is $13.40 for .com, $61.75 for .io and $84.15 for .ai. In the sales we track, the 12-month median of .io sales is $400, and that of .ai sales is $810.
Now divide each sales median by the renewal of its ending. The result is the number of years of renewal that one typical sale is worth. The fewer the years, the more the renewal weighs in a buyer's sum.
Set the ask against the buyer's other choices
The cheapest other choice is a fresh registration. In April 2020, the chief executive of the marketplace Dan.com told the investor Elliot Silver, who writes on DomainInvesting, that end usersEnd userA company or person who buys a name to use it, as opposed to an investor who buys it to resell.Read the definition in general have no idea why a resale name should be worth more than $10. In that executive's view, the seller or the marketplace has to give the buyer the price.
If the word is free on another ending, registering it there sets the buyer's floor. Take .co as that other ending. Across the registrars we price, the median first-year price of .co is $15.76. The median yearly renewal is $35.10. Five years of that registration cost the first-year price once, then four renewals. Your name has to justify everything it costs above that total.
Silver's own prices depend on several factors, listed on DomainInvesting on 15 April 2020. Among them are the purchase price, comparable salesComparable salesPast sales of names like this one, used to judge whether a price is fair.Read the definition, comparable names for sale and market conditions. Above all, Silver often asks what an end user would pay in a reasonable time. With no offer button, the article warns, a price set for a home run can send the buyer elsewhere.
Quote in the buyer's terms, then keep your price
A price reads differently in the buyer's own units. Andrew Allemann wrote about a Quebec pharmacy chain with 139 stores (Domain Name Wire, 24 October 2024). In 2023 the chain had offered $2,500 through an agent for the .com of its name. The holder countered in 2023 at $115,000. In that article of 2024, Allemann did the arithmetic on the holder's price: less than $1,000 per store.
Set the ask before you know who is asking, and keep it. In a lawsuit filed in April 2025, a company says a seller agreed to sell it PayRewards.com for $38,000, then demanded $380,000 after learning who the buyer was. Allemann reported the suit on Domain Name Wire on 23 April 2025. A judge granted a temporary order that stops the name from being transferred or deleted.
No buyer for a $50,000 renewal
Case- Minimum first year
- $50,000, then $25,000 (2017)
- Yearly renewal
- the first-year price, then $30
- Highest renewal negotiated
- $5,000
- Five years at the minimum, our arithmetic
- $250,000, then $25,120
Rightside, a registry, cut the price of its 14,000 Platinum names, its costliest tier. Kevin Murphy reported the cut on Domain Incite on 11 January 2017. The minimum first-year price fell from $50,000 to $25,000. The renewal, until then the same as the first-year price, fell to $30. Rightside's other premium names kept their higher renewals.
A Rightside executive told Murphy why: "There is not a market for $50,000-a-year domain purchases." A small number of Platinum names had sold, for sums in five and six figures. None of them, the executive said, had sold with a $50,000 renewal. By the same account, the highest renewal negotiated so far was $5,000.
The arithmetic is ours. At the old minimum, the first year cost $50,000 and so did each of the four renewals after it. Five years came to $250,000, and $200,000 of that was renewals. At the new minimum, the first year cost $25,000 and each of the four renewals cost $30. Five years came to $25,120. The first-year price was halved. The five-year costCost to holdWhat a name costs over five years: the first year plus four renewals.Read the definition fell by about 90%.
The lesson for a seller starts from the executive's account: no buyer took the yearly figure as listed. A buyer reads the price and the renewals as one sum. A registry can lower its own renewal. A seller who holds a premium name cannot lower it. So the price is the line that seller has left to cut.
Kevin Murphy, Domain Incite, 11 January 2017: RightSide cuts super-premium fees in half, drops premium renewals
The renewal belongs to the name
A renewal can be fixed on the name itself and pass to its next holder. Kevin Murphy reported that Rightside would cut the renewal it charges registrars to $10 in 2016 (Domain Incite, 6 April 2016). The cut was for premium names registered in a six-week window. Those reduced renewals, the report added, pass to later holders if the name is sold.
It works the other way too. Allemann reported on Domain Name Wire on 31 August 2016 that Donuts would cut prices on .business and .company from 1 October 2016. Names already registered would keep renewing and transferring at the original, higher prices, even if they were deleted and registered again. The article called this grandfatheringGrandfatheringLetting those who already hold something keep it under the old rule when a new rule arrives. Only newcomers face the new rule.Read the definition in a negative way.
On a standard name, the renewal also depends on the buyer's registrar. At Porkbun, the yearly renewal of .io is $51.80, and at Namecheap it is $75.98. So quote your renewal with your registrar's name. Say too whether that renewal is the ending's standard price or a price of the name's own.
A low renewal that stays with the name is a reason to buy, so say so and say why. A premium renewal is one the buyer will meet anyway, so say it first, beside your price.
The question after the price was agreed
Case- Agreed price
- $3,000 (2016)
- Renewal
- $23.90 a year
- Zournas's guess at a deal breaker
- above $150 a year
- Five years of renewals, our arithmetic
- $119.50, 4% of the price
Konstantinos Zournas wrote about selling a name after a long dry spell (OnlineDomain, 1 November 2016). The name was on one of the endings launched since 2013. The buyer had made a first offer, then came back a month later with a new one, three times as high. The two agreed on $3,000, and Zournas opened the EscrowEscrowA neutral third party that holds the buyer’s money and the domain until both sides have done their part, then completes the swap. It is how large domain sales avoid either side going first.Read the definition.com transaction.
Then the buyer sent an email. The buyer had forgotten to ask what the name renews at. The renewal was $23.90 a year at Uniregistry. The buyer thanked Zournas, and the sale went ahead. The question left Zournas wondering what a higher renewal would have done.
In the article, Zournas answered with a guess. Up to $50 a year, by that guess, the buyer would have been happy. From $100 to $150 a year, the buyer would have started thinking. Above $150, about 5% of the price, the buyer would probably not have paid. Zournas had also heard of investors losing sales over renewals of $200 or $400.
By Zournas's own arithmetic, at $150 a year the renewals add up to the price in 20 years. At $23.90, that takes 125 years. Ours covers five years. At $23.90, the renewals come to $119.50, 4% of the price. At $150, they come to a quarter of it, $750. The lesson: a buyer may ask about the renewal only after agreeing a price. So put the renewal in the listing.
Konstantinos Zournas, OnlineDomain, 1 November 2016: What would have happened if my sold New gTLD domain had a higher renewal price?
Read your name as the buyer will
Unique Domains lays out the sum a buyer runs. In Browse's view settings, the Cost to hold preset shows Price now, Sold by, Renewal and 5-year side by side. In the same settings, the Worth and resale preset shows Est. value and Est. profitEst. profitThe gap between a name’s estimated value and its price today, before fees.Read the definition. In a name's drawer, the section Price and cost lists Year 1Year 1What a new domain costs to register for its first year. Registrars often lower it to win the sale, so it can be far below the renewal.Read the definition, Renewal and Five years.
Under The ending, the drawer lists each registrar we price, with its first year and renewal. It marks the cheapest renewalCheapest renewalThe lowest yearly fee among the registrars we compare for an ending. Over several years it matters more than the first year.Read the definition and flags a renewal trapRenewal trapA cheap first year followed by a renewal at least twice the first year and at least $10 more. The low price wins the sale, and the yearly fee afterwards is where the cost really is.Read the definition. That is the range of renewals your buyer may meet at the registrars we price. A premium on one name is the registry's own price for that name, so read it at your registrar.
We compute no asking price, hold no listing and keep no portfolio of the names you own. Start the ask from Similar sales, under Value in the drawer. Then run the buyer's sum on that ask.
Before you set the ask
The renewal line in your listing
These lines go in a listing's description or on the name's for-sale page, under the price.
[name] renews at [renewal] a year at [registrar], the standard price for [ending].
Five years of ownership: [price] for the name, [five renewals] in renewals.
For a premium name: [name] is priced as a premium by the company that runs [ending]. It renews at [renewal] a year, and that renewal stays with the name.
For a low renewal that travels with the name: [name] keeps a renewal of [renewal] a year, set by [registry] in [year], and passes it to its next holder.
Keep the line that is true for your name, with the renewal read at your registrar the week you list it.
Answer the renewal question
This reply goes to a buyer who asks what the name renews at, on the day the question arrives.
Hello [first name],
Thank you for asking. [name] renews at [renewal] a year, in [currency], at [registrar], where it is registered today.
That is the standard price for [ending], not a premium of its own. At another registrar, the renewal may differ.
Over five years, the price and the renewals come to [total].
The price stays [price], and the sale is handled through [venue or Escrow.com].
Kind regards,
[your name]
If the name carries a premium renewal, say so in the first sentence, with the five-year total. A premium renewal is better told by you than found at checkout.
Try it in Appraise
Your turn- Open AppraiseAppraiseA value estimate for one name or a whole list, with every name placed on one shared axis.Read the definition, on the Investor plan. Paste the names you mean to sell, up to 1,000 a run. For each, add its word on an ending where it may be free. Write each name's Marketplace estimate.
- Open a row. Its drawer opens at the first depth, which spends nothing. Under Price and cost, write the Renewal if one shows. Under The ending, write the cheapest and highest renewals. Under Value, read Similar sales.
- Work out the buyer's sum: your planned ask plus five renewals. Then open the row of the same word on the other ending, the buyer's other choice, and write its Five years if one shows.
- The gap between the two sums is what your name has to be worth to the buyer. Set it against the Marketplace estimate. Export the run and write each name's renewal line.
Sources
- Konstantinos Zournas, OnlineDomain, 17 June 2015: Buyer Of Top.Domains Paid Less Than The Renewal Fee To Buy It: $750
- Kevin Murphy, Domain Incite, 6 April 2016: Rightside offers $10 renewals on premium names
- Andrew Allemann, Domain Name Wire, 31 August 2016: Donuts lowering prices for .business and .company domain names
- Konstantinos Zournas, OnlineDomain, 1 November 2016: What would have happened if my sold New gTLD domain had a higher renewal price?
- Kevin Murphy, Domain Incite, 11 January 2017: RightSide cuts super-premium fees in half, drops premium renewals
- Andrew Allemann, Domain Name Wire, 26 January 2018: Sedo enables listing of domains with premium renewals, releases more new TLD sales data
- Elliot Silver, DomainInvesting, 15 April 2020: With Installments on DAN, Pricing is Critical
- Andrew Allemann, Domain Name Wire, 24 October 2024: Bad strategy: weak cybersquatting claim puts pharmacy in bad negotiating position
- Andrew Allemann, Domain Name Wire, 23 April 2025: Company sues after domain seller backs out of transaction
- Prakash Sadarangani, Afternic, 25 November 2025: Reducing friction: Afternic streamlines Make Offer and Standard Transfer sales
This course explains how the trade works. It is not legal or financial advice.