How much does it cost to buy a domain name

The simple answer is, the cost of domain depends on the domain extension and the domain registrar . Common domain extensions like .com, .net, .org, .site costs between $1 to $35. The costs varies from registrar to registrar. There are more pricing factors to be considered while registering your domain. Read on to find out more.

common domain extensions and their best prices. from tld-list.com

Domain names is your little real estate in the wast web. Getting your own domain is the starting point of your web building journey.
So how much does it cost to get own your domain name?

At one time, the costs of all domain names were the same that was $70 to register the name for the first two years then $35 year after.

However, with the increased competition in the domain market this price has dropped significantly. Today, you will probably pay less than $10 per domain name and some will even go ahead to charge you less with bulk buying and combination offers. What most people do not realize is that there is catch in the low price. These are the costs associated with the domain name that are not projected in the promotions.

For example, at the moment, there are promotions that will give you your first .com domain for as low as $0.99 However, the renewal fee is $14.99 Whereas at some other registrar, you can register new domain for $7.99 and renew for $8.99.

The price varies with domain extensions

Good .com domains (somename.com) are still the most coveted domain name extensions. However, you need to realize that good .com domains are difficult to get. Most common .com domains would already have got registered.
However, worry not. There are a number of new domain name extensions you can try luck with
(like .site, .xyz , .online, .website and so on)

When you look for the domain name registration price, don’t just look for the first time registration fee. See the other costs as well- like renewal fee and the whois privacy fee.

.com domain price and other fees comparison from tld-list.com

Some of the costs involved in a domain name registration include the following

First time registration fees

Domain name registration is just the first time expenses you have to incur for having a domain name. The registration fee with a domain registrar can vary from one company to another depending on the deals they running. You may purchase a domain name for as little as $0.99-$35 but this definitely does not include the renewal fee for the same.

Yearly renewal fee

In order to keep your ownership of the domain, you have to keep renewing the domain year after year.(or buy renewal for up to 10 years at a time). The concept that you are buying a domain name is not completely correct since you can never buy a domain name permanently. What you do
is rent the name for a particular period of time.

If you do not renew, the domain gets expired and other people can register that name and the name becomes theirs.

The price of renewing your domain name should range around $6 -$15 annually. These prices differ between registrars hence if you would have to find out both the registration fee and the renewal fee.

Domain transfer fee

Suppose you found a cheaper price at another registrar. You can transfer the domain to the other registrar. However, there is a transfer fee that you have to pay for the transfer of registrars.

Domain privacy fee

When you register a domain in your name, you are to enter your contact address (including your email address, phone number and physical address). This information will be available to anyone who checks the domain records. You can find the whois records of any domain from whois services. It is ICANN rule that the address should be kept current and updated.

There is one problem with this setup. You can get spammed with offers. Some people scrape the
whois records and send unsolicited spam messages to those email addresses and even phone numbers.

I remember getting a dozen or so hosting offers almost a day after registering a new domain name!

There is a service that the domain registrars offer to prevent this. That is called Domain privacy.

Domain privacy also called WHOIS protection hides the domain registrant’s personal information from the public.
The whois protection companies use a ‘proxy’ address that is displayed in the domain records.

Spam and privacy concerns are one of the most common reasons domain owners prefer privacy protection.

However, whois privacy does not come for free (at least not for all domain registrars). There is a fee associated , if you choose whois protection. This fee varies from registrar to registrar.

So for example, if I am buying a domain name with godaddy (their current offer of 0.99 does not apply to me since I already have domains with them), and domain period of 10 years with domain privacy enabled, here is the total cost.