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Having just jumped from Google to Nameheap this is more than mildly frustrating.
edit: apparently this is the result of Verisign putting up their wholesale prices
Cloudflare is also upping prices. Since Cloudflare sells domains at cost, I expect domain prices have simply increased.
Aside from the obvious fighting and bidding over an already claimed single domain name, what factors into the inherent pricing of a domain?
The domain registry (basically owner of the domain ending) sets the price.
Edit: Though it should be mentioned there's a power above them (ICANN) that has to approve the price.
Wholesalers squeezing buyers because they can.
I just tried to check the pricing of domains at cloudflare and they just don't have a list. You need to transfer a domain to see the price. So I will probably stay with inwx for the time being.
It’s accessible here, but I believe you have to log in to view it: https://dash.cloudflare.com/d7138cf214ac65bec690a57a66bb66ec/domains/pricing
Edit: Here is a screenshot of the page https://imgur.com/a/wL0bEde
This isn't only namecheap. Porkbun notified me about it a couple of weeks ago:
Verisign — the registry behind .com and .net — is set to increase wholesale pricing on .com domains industry wide on September 1. This has become an annual trend, and we expect the .com price will steadily increase through 2029. This increase affects every registrar that offers .com domains, not just us.
Not for nothing, but pork bun has been great for me.
As others mentioned, Verisign administers the .com space and they’re raising prices. https://www.politico.com/news/2022/04/09/website-domain-more-expensive-00023524
I do like to keep track of the budget gTLD renewal prices at tld-list.com and use that for my personal use. I have an offbeat domain I registered for 10 years for something like $25 a few years ago.
Is that even possible now? When I attempted buying a domain for 10 years, it showed me the numbers as if I had renewed the domain 9 times instead of 10 times the purchasing price.
Yeah, depends. Sometimes they’ll run a deal to multi-year registration as like a bill discount. Seems more rare these days. I look up a good renewal rate on www.tld-list.com and then have to actually go to the registrar and make up a fictional name and then see if it even allows registration for more than a year and what the cost is for 10 years.
The prices are going up for every provider. It’s across the board. Porkbun.com too.
I believe they are seeing higher prices for those domains so they are passing it along. Email I received from Namecheap.com:
We partner with many registries to bring you a wide range of top-level domains, but occasionally their prices increase, which means we need to increase our prices too.
On September 1, 2023, the domains registry for .COM and .XYZ will implement universal price increases of up to 9% for .COM renewals, and up to 9% for .XYZ renewals, registrations, and transfers.
If you want to take advantage of the current price tag, renew your .COM and renew, register, or transfer your .XYZ domains before September 1, 2023.
It always puzzles me when technology gets more expensive. Processors and storage are cheaper, why does it cost more for them to have a database entry for a domain that's updated every X years?
Because capitalism means that you always have to keep making more money year over year even if you're not doing anything more than you ever were. So sometimes the only way to do it is to squeeze your customers even harder.
Fees, random support networks with people from Poland to Paraná, and whatever else of an enigma of a mess agency qualm qualm demands I swear...
I've been with namecheap a long long time now. They rarely raise prices and it's usually because upstream costs go up and everyone is raising prices. I'm a happy customer and ain't switching. I don't get bothered for endless upgrades. I only get emails when my domains come up for renewal or on the very rare occasion this happens.
Upstream costs are indeed going up as you implied, and Namecheap has razor thin margins.
Part of the deal with services providing bare-minimum prices is that the consumer takes on supplier costs when they arise. Same in all thin-margin businesses.
I don't know enough bout registrars to know for sure, but I don't know if this is namecheap's doing. This is the only increase I've seen in years, I think those actual domains have gone up in price. I may be wrong though
I know there are other factors it just feels like the only people getting screwed are the little guys. In Canada the rates that third party ISPs pay and charge are dictated by the giant telcos. Our regulating body even allowed the telcos to raise prices to the point where reselling is no longer viable. Fucking the little guys again.
I mean, just make sure you're blaming the right people is really what I was trying to say
Get a .ca domain (assuming you're Canadian), it's the same price as a .com and the prices don't change much since they're controlled majorly by the govt.
https://domainnamewire.com/2023/02/09/verisign-announces-another-com-price-hike-2/
Verisign (NASDAQ: VRSN) today announced a 7% increase in .com prices to take effect on September 1, 2023.
...
Under its agreement with ICANN and the U.S. government, Verisign is allowed to increase prices by 7% per year in the last four years of every six-year contract term. This will be the third hike of this contract term, and the company is expected to increase .com prices to $10.26 in 2024.
Would be nice if ICANN changed the agreement a tad .
Ugh. Constant corporate nickel and diming in every facet of life.
And before anyone comments "bUt thAt's caPitaLism", yes, we know. It sucks.
I couldn't be arsed with this kind of thing and just renewed for 10 years.
I might do so as well to avoid the next decade of shopping around.
Prices will only go up.
Nothing like a week and a half notice, eh? I honestly don't care for how much control over the internet Cloudflare has, but I've been extremely happy with them since transferring my domains over to them a few years back.
They make it super easy to turn off catching and DNS proxy if you're worried about that, too. And they at least make their goals clear.
They don't provide free services out of the goodness of their hearts, but because some users will go back to their company and convince them to get their paid services.
It's the same reason a lot of software is free for college students and educators.
Yeah, it's honestly a decent business model as it works
Can't decide if I just want to renew everything for as long as possible to delay the price increase or just move to a different registrar.
.coms are going up across all registrars, as the wholesale price is increasing. If you have a domain you know you'll want to keep, it's a best practice to renew it for several years at once.
Use Cloudflare. They are the cheapest out there because they don’t add a markup. After the Verisign increase the new price will be $9.77.
I got this same email. Of course the only domains I own are .com and .xyz. Going to lock in as many years as I can before September.
laughs in .dev
Ugh .dev domain costs are ridiculous
I signed up at gandi.net earlier this year. I even read their Wikipedia, which said they merged with another company in February. Still went ahead, because they had email included in the cheap domain name. A month after I got the mail they'll be increasing prices too. Not sure if I'll go somewhere else now, or if I'll just start paying for email (4€/month or something)
go cloudflare, renew for 10 years. nobrainer.
@diffuselight @nik282000 Seconding cloudflare, last I checked most if not all domains are sold at-cost.
I heard .org domains were preferred to avoid these kind of price hikes, how true is this?
It's administered by a nonprofit (Public Internet Registry) which cap the wholesale price to ~$9 per year. There was a proposal to remove the price cap and transfer the management to a an investment firm a few years ago and it was met with uproar so it was canceled.