How to pay for a name in instalments
The big marketplaces let you pay for a name over months and use it from the first payment. The name moves to you with the last payment, and goes back if you miss one.
Chapter 10 of 12, 13 min read
The name you want belongs to someone else, and its price is more than your company can pay this quarter. Under that price sits a monthly figure, and you can use the name from the first payment. That monthly figure is a way in. It can also mean paying almost a third more, or losing the name and every payment you have made.
By the end you can read a plan as the venueVenueA place where names change hands: a marketplace or an auction house.Read the definition works it out: the total for each term against the fixed price, what you hold while you pay, and what one missed payment costs. You can name three other ways to pay for a name someone else holds, and set a plan's total beside the five-year costCost to holdWhat a name costs over five years: the first year plus four renewals.Read the definition of the same word on another ending, in Browse.
What you will be able to do
- You can work out a plan's total for each term and compare it with the fixed price.
- You can say who holds the name while you pay, and what a missed payment costs you.
- You can tell a marketplace plan apart from seller financing, a loan and equity.
- You can set a plan's total beside the cost of registering the same word on another ending, in Browse.
How a payment plan works
On the big marketplacesMarketplaceA site where owners list domains for sale and buyers make offers, such as Sedo or Afternic.Read the definition, the holder of a name can offer it on a payment plan, which these venues call lease to ownLease to ownA plan to pay for a name by the month and use it during the term, with the name moving to you at the last payment. A missed payment can end the plan and send the name back to the seller.Read the definition. You pay a fixed amount each month, and the sale completes with the last payment. Afternic, GoDaddy's marketplace, wrote in its seller guide of 8 June 2026 that a buyer chooses a term of 2 to 60 months, up to the maximum the seller sets.
While you pay, the venue holds the name. Andrew Allemann described selling a name in an article on Domain Name Wire on 30 July 2021: for the length of the term, the name moved to the marketplace's control at its 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. The buyer sets where the name points and builds on it from the first month, but does not own it.
The plan is an option, not a debt. Marketplace plans had so far been non-recourseNon-recourseA plan where a buyer who stops paying loses what they were buying and owes nothing more.Read the definition, Allemann wrote on Domain Name Wire on 28 February 2022, which means that a buyer who stops paying loses the name and owes nothing more. As a seller in 2021, Allemann kept the money that had been paid and listed the name for sale again.
Two kinds of buyer sign the same plan, Allemann noted in that article. The first means to own the name and lacks the cash today. The second wants the right to walk away, and is paying for an option.
Read the total by term, not the monthly figure
The venue adds a fee for the buyer, which grows with the term. Afternic published its fee table on 13 July 2023: no fee for 2 to 12 months, 10% for 13 to 24 months, 20% for 25 to 36 months and 30% for 37 to 60 months, on names listed from $495 to $100,000. Afternic wrote that the fee covers its processing and the renewalsRenewalThe 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.
Work it through on a $6,000 name with the 2023 table: the total is $6,000 over 12 months ($500 a month), $6,600 over 24 months ($275 a month), $7,200 over 36 months ($200 a month) and $7,800 over 60 months ($130 a month). Across those terms, the monthly figure falls by three quarters, while the total rises by 30%. Of the two numbers, the venue shows you the monthly figure.
In October 2026 Afternic described the fee as a share of the balance, set by the number of payments, and let a seller require a down payment. The table may have changed since then. Read the table on the venue's own page before you agree, and write the total down.
Elliot Silver, an investor who writes, said on DomainInvesting on 8 May 2025 that the platforms seem to recommend 60 months, and thinks the reason is that they earn more and the figures look better to buyers. In 2025, Silver kept most plans to 36 months, and most names priced under $2,000 to 12 months.
$129,000 listed, $167,700 on a five-year plan
Case- Listed at
- $129,000
- Total over 60 months, 30% fee
- $167,700
- Monthly payment
- $2,795
- Fee on top of the ask
- $38,700
A seller sold mega.xyz through Dan.com's lease to own, at a 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 of $129,000, and the buyer chose to pay over 60 months. Andrew Allemann worked through the numbers on Domain Name Wire on 14 July 2023, the day after the sale closed. With the 30% service fee, the total came to $167,700.
The arithmetic is this. Spread over 60 payments, $167,700 is $2,795 a month, and the fee is $38,700, almost a third of the asking price. On Afternic's fee table of that month, a term of 12 months would have cost $129,000 at $10,750 a month, and a term of 36 months would have cost $154,800 at $4,300 a month. The buyer took the lowest monthly figure and the highest total.
The lesson is that the monthly figure is the venue's number, and the total is yours. Take the term you can carry, write its total beside the fixed price, and ask yourself whether you would pay that total in cash. If you would not, the plan is rent with an option. Choose the shortest term you can afford.
Andrew Allemann, Domain Name Wire, 14 July 2023: Understanding Afternic’s LTO commission structure
A missed payment ends the plan
The plan ends when a payment fails, after a window of time that the venue sets. Allemann asked GoDaddy about that window, and wrote on Domain Name Wire on 15 July 2025 that GoDaddy's terms offer no grace periodGrace periodThe weeks right after a name expires, when its owner can still renew it at the normal price. Many registrars park or auction the name during this time.Read the definition and that the company would not disclose one. The case below shows what followed.
The mega.xyz plan from the case above did not run its course. The buyer made no further payment, Elliot Silver reported on DomainInvesting on 30 August 2023: the name went back to the seller, who kept what had been paid, less the venue's commission, and listed the name again at $189,000.
Cancellations are common. On 1 June 2026 Domain Name Wire reported on the 290 plans that one large seller had at Afternic. Of the plans that had ended, 59% completed and 41% were cancelled. More than a third of the cancellations came after a single payment, and four in five came within six payments. Once a buyer had made the second payment, seven in ten plans completed.
The same 2026 report found that cancellations rose with longer terms, though on little data, and that buyers paying at least $500 a month walked away less often. You can also end a plan early. Afternic lets a buyer pay the balance in one payment and pays the seller at once, Silver wrote on DomainInvesting on 16 September 2025. Ask the venue for the total if you pay early.
Two years of payments, one declined card
Case- Paid over two years
- about $3,000
- Warnings before the end
- three, over at least nine days
- Published grace period
- none
- Outcome
- name returned to the seller
Andrew Allemann reported an email from a GoDaddy customer on Domain Name Wire on 15 July 2025. The buyer had paid for a name on a lease to own plan for over two years, about $3,000 in all, and then went on holiday. During that holiday, the card on the account was declined for the monthly payment.
GoDaddy sent three warnings, each one a failed billing notice, on 23 June, 27 June and 2 July 2025. After that it returned the name to its seller, as its process provides. When the buyer came home, the name was gone.
The arithmetic is short. About $3,000 spread over more than 24 payments comes to under $125 a month. The buyer lost two years of payments and the name itself. Every party lost, Allemann wrote: on a low-priced name, most sellers would rather receive the last quarter or half of the payments than get the name back.
The lesson is that the plan runs on the card, not on your intent. In this case the dates of the warnings suggest GoDaddy gave a window of at least nine days, with no promise of one. Pay from a card that will outlive the term, and read every billing email from the venue on the day it arrives.
Andrew Allemann, Domain Name Wire, 15 July 2025: How should platforms handle late payments in domain lease-to-own agreements?
Seller financing, a loan or equity
The marketplace plan is one of four ways to pay over time that Silver listed on DomainInvesting on 13 March 2019: a payment plan through an 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 service, a lease to own, a loan from a specialist lender, and a purchase option. For any of them, that article recommended engaging a lawyer with domain experience.
Seller financingSeller financingA payment plan agreed directly with a name’s holder, often with an escrow service holding the name until the last payment.Read the definition is a plan agreed with the holder and run through an escrow service, a neutral company that holds the money and the name until both sides deliver. Escrow.com moves the name into its account and transfers it with the last payment, Allemann reported on Domain Name Wire on 5 February 2010. In 2010, Escrow.com generally took plans of $75,000 or more, so ask what its minimum is today.
Escrow.com changed its fees from 31 May 2024, and the change reached its payment plans. The new fees, which Silver published on DomainInvesting on 28 May 2024, are $130 on a $5,000 sale and $1,900 on a $100,000 sale. The name Gem.com moved into Escrow.com's holding account weeks before its buyer announced $9 million in funding, a move Silver read as a payment plan on DomainInvesting on 13 March 2019.
Silver reported Banks.com's filing on DomainInvesting on 16 December 2010: the company apparently raised $600,000 by selling its name to a specialist lender and renting it back. The 2010 report put repayment at $14,273.96 a month for five years, $856,437.60 in all, about 43% more than it raised. When a loan funds a purchase, Silver explained in 2019, the lender pays the seller and holds the name for the buyer.
Paying with equity, meaning shares in your company, is rare. Silver wrote on DomainInvesting on 22 October 2021 of taking shares only as a bonus on top of a cash price, from a founder and a team that a seller believes in, and after a lawyer's review that costs thousands. In Silver's experience, founders who succeed give little of their company to a domain seller.
The two prices you are choosing between
A founder chooses between two prices: a plan on a name someone holds, and a registration of the same word on another ending. A holder's asking price sits far above a registration's cost: in the sales we track, the 12-month median on .com is $810. In Browse's table view, hover a For sale name's Price column: Price now is the listed asking price, and Sold by names who lists it.
Run the full analysis, which counts once against your month's analyses. The full view adds Other endings: the same word on the endings that have a sale in the sales we track over 12 months, each with its state, its first-year price and the registrar behind it. An ending that is free there is a registration, not a plan.
A registration costs what its ending costs. On .com, the median first year across the registrars we price is $11.62 and the median renewal is $13.40. On .io, they are $31.98 and $61.75. Five years of a .com at those medians is a fraction of one monthly payment on the plans above.
The website's availability checker gives the same reading without an account. Each visitor gets one live check a day, with the first year, the registrar behind it and the five-year cost. We compute no plan and hold no money. A plan is agreed on the venue, and its figures are the venue's own.
Before you agree to a plan
Ask the seller or broker about the plan
Send this to the marketplace's broker or the seller's contact before you start a lease to own plan on a listed name.
Hello,
I am interested in [name], listed at [price] with a monthly option. Could you confirm the following in writing:
1. The total over [12 / 24 / 36] months, fees included, and the amount of each payment.
2. Who holds the name during the term, and whether I can point it at my site from the first payment.
3. What happens if a payment fails: how many reminders are sent, over how many days, and whether the payments already made are lost.
4. Whether I can pay the balance early, and what the total would be.
Thank you,
[your name]
Keep the answer with the plan's confirmation email: it is the total you agreed to.
Propose a plan to the holder through Escrow.com
Send this to the holder of a name that is not on a marketplace, when you can pay the agreed price over a year or two but not today.
Hello,
Thank you for the price of [price] for [name]. I can commit to that price, paid over [12 / 18 / 24] months.
I propose a payment plan through Escrow.com: the name would be held in its account for the term, and transferred to me with the last payment. I would cover the escrow fees.
If that works for you, I will ask Escrow.com to set up the transaction and send you its agreement to review.
Kind regards,
[your name]
Escrow.com's agreement sets what happens when a payment is missed. Have a lawyer read it before you sign.
Try it in Browse
Your turn- Open Browse and search for your word. In the table view, on the row of a name that reads For sale, hover the Price column and write down Price now and Sold by. Then open the name and, under Price and cost, write down 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.
- Work out the plan on that price with the venue's current fee table: write the total at 12, 36 and 60 months, and the monthly payment for each.
- Run the full analysis, which counts once against your month's analyses. Under Other endings, write down the first year of the same word on each free ending.
- Set three figures side by side: the fixed price, the plan's total at the term you can carry, and the five-year cost of the free ending. Write down which one your company pays.
Sources
- Kyle Knight, Afternic, 8 June 2026: How Afternic Sellers Can Use Lease to Own to Close More Domain Deals
- Andrew Allemann, Domain Name Wire, 30 July 2021: An installment buyer stopped paying and I’m fine with that
- Andrew Allemann, Domain Name Wire, 28 February 2022: BNPL vs. payment plans for buying domain names
- James Iles, Afternic, 13 July 2023: Afternic is Launching Lease to Own – 4 Things Sellers Can Do Today
- Afternic, 29 October 2026: Introducing Lease to Own down payments: bigger commitment, same flexibility
- Elliot Silver, DomainInvesting, 8 May 2025: How I Choose LTO Length
- Andrew Allemann, Domain Name Wire, 14 July 2023: Understanding Afternic’s LTO commission structure
- Elliot Silver, DomainInvesting, 30 August 2023: Mega.xyz Buyer Opts Out of LTO
- Andrew Allemann, Domain Name Wire, 15 July 2025: How should platforms handle late payments in domain lease-to-own agreements?
- Andrew Allemann, Domain Name Wire, 1 June 2026: Lease-to-own statistics from a large domain portfolio
- Elliot Silver, DomainInvesting, 16 September 2025: Afternic Allows Early LTO Payoff / Payout
- Elliot Silver, DomainInvesting, 13 March 2019: Domain Name Financing Options Are Underutilized
- Elliot Silver, DomainInvesting, 13 March 2019: ZenSourcer Rebrands as Gem with Gem.com
- Andrew Allemann, Domain Name Wire, 5 February 2010: Escrow.com Offers “Payment Plan” Escrow on Domain Transactions
- Elliot Silver, DomainInvesting, 28 May 2024: Escrow.com Announces Escrow Fee Change
- Elliot Silver, DomainInvesting, 16 December 2010: Publicly Traded Banks.com Enters Into Agreement with Domain Capital
- Elliot Silver, DomainInvesting, 22 October 2021: Getting Equity is Not Usually the Answer
This course explains how the trade works. It is not legal or financial advice.