We have to talk about domain pricing again

It’s once again that time of the year when we must talk about the .COM domain price increase knocking on our doors in September. Unfortunately, the same fate will befall many new generic top-level domains in the coming autumn. On a positive note, you can already register and renew .EU domains at half the cost.

For the last two years, we have been urging .COM domain owners and people interested in registering a .COM domain to renew or register their domains before September 1st, when these domains will be available for new prices. This year’s price increase will add exactly one euro to the current price, plus VAT. We still recommend registering (or renewing) your domain for the maximum possible period in August to avoid a price increase, as this price increase will unfortunately not be the last in this decade.

The .COM domain enjoyed nearly nine years of price stability until US domestic politics intervened in 2021, i.e. the worldview clash between Democrats and Republicans intervened. Donald Trump, after being elected the President in 2016 had his heart set on repealing or reversing most of the legislative acts enacted by his predecessor Barack Obama, including the one freezing the .COM domain price increase in 2012. Thus Verisign, the registry operator for the .COM top-level domain, and ICANN, the authority for Internet resources, agreed under pressure from the Trump administration that the price of .COM domains would rise by 7% in 2021. A price increase of the same order of magnitude also got a green light for 2022 and 2023. Not to scare the market too much, a pause in price increases was also generously agreed upon for 2024 and 2025, but starting from 2026 and continuing up to 2029 Verisign can resume its price rally.

The White House has had a new Democrat host for a couple of years now, but he has nevertheless not applied political brakes to this price rally. This means the .COM domain could be over 50 per cent more expensive in 2030 than it is today. You should also keep in mind the constant change in exchange rates, which in turn may change these prices even more dramatically.

However, as mentioned in the introduction, the .COM domain is unfortunately not the only one becoming more expensive in the autumn. More than seventy new generic top-level domains will get a new price tag in October. Some examples: .PIZZA will increase by €10.75; .LIFE by €3; .MEDIA by €5; .EMAIL by €3, etc. A few exceptions excluded (e.g. .FURNITURE will increase by €57), the average increase for these domains will be between €3 and €10. We will provide you with more detailed information on the new domain prices in good time on our website and/or in a separate personal notification.

To balance out the price increase talk above, you may be pleased to know that you can already register your .EU domain today at a price of €3 for the first year, and renew your existing domain for €4. In conclusion, let us point out that after being stable for many years the domain market has become quite volatile in the post-pandemic period, so we are likely to see more fluctuation in price movements in the future.

You can register a new domain on our website.