Cheap Registrar for New TLDs?

[PROFRBcom]

I had a bright idea to register one of the new age TLDs.

I went to NameCheap to buy it and even though it was unowned, the price was $3,500 USD!

I gave up on that domain because the price is not worth it for my purposes, and I hate getting ripped off.

This morning, a friend @ GPWA tells me another registrar has it for $30 bucks.

I am a newbie and didn't realize there could be such a price difference so I ran over to that registrar to snag my baby.

Turns out the registrar pulled a bait and switch and the price was $750 USD. More reasonable for sure, but still kinda WTF with the tactics and price in general.

Now I am curious, does anyone have any recommendations for a cheap registrar they have used before? I would like to see if I can register my preferred domain for a more reasonable 2 digit price...

[MJM]

What TLD is this? I"ve never heard of such a thing, sounds a bit outrageous - especially the variance.

[chaumi]

There are reasons...which I could probably tell you if I knew the domain. But I know it's unlikely you would want to share it, at least openly.

If you see a domain that shows big money (ie more than 2 figures) at one registrar, then yes it could vary at others...but not wildly unless they have some sort of deal on.

But the one you're talking about will most likely be a special case/have a specific reason why it's priced where it is

[PROFRBcom]

What TLD is this? I"ve never heard of such a thing, sounds a bit outrageous - especially the variance.

Sounds very outrageous. I am outraged lol!

The specific TLD I want to use is .site

There are reasons...which I could probably tell you if I knew the domain. But I know it's unlikely you would want to share it, at least openly.

If you see a domain that shows big money (ie more than 2 figures) at one registrar, then yes it could vary at others...but not wildly unless they have some sort of deal on.

The variance so far, with only 2 sample sizes, is $3,5000 USD and $750 USD. Now granted, the 2nd price I got is 80% cheaper than the first price, but I think it is still quite overpriced and I would love to register it for a much cheaper price.

This is of course why I am looking for suggestions of other registrars to try.

[chaumi]

OK there's a difference of course on whether a domain is showing a sale price because it's already registered to someone (either an individual or a registrar) and it's them who is selling at that price....and a domain that's free but being sold by the owner(s) of that TLD.

Let's take the 2nd of those....

...and bearing in mind these guys are not daft, they knew what they had potential for (and the value in) the TLD before they went for it (I don't know the exact process to get set up but you can find it with a search)


So often (and I hadn't looked at .site before, but almost certainly it's the same) they would have (at the start) run something like we do (a keyword search probably, but most are obvious anyway)....pulled out all the best ones...and put them into pricing tiers.

So take poker.site. To me it's showing free. That's a massive domain right. But the price is around £10,000, with the same for renewal (and bear in mind, there probably wouldn't be a lot to stop them hiking that each year if they wanted to). Clearly a Tier 1 priced domain. So that's the TLD owners price for that domain (or it's something a bit less but with the registrar adding something on top).

I imagine (don't know for sure but logical) that some registrars may work on the basis of undercutting the price, which they then get back in subsequent years from their cut of renewal fees, which would/might explain the difference you're seeing.

If you went looking for mybestpoker.site, chances are it would be up for $11 or whatever.


Try this.....

https://tld-list.com/tld/site

I haven't looked but it may pay to run through and see if any are wildly cheaper.

I normally just go to either name.com or Godaddy for my domains...but the level you're looking at here is clearly a different game


PS I had a bit of time to look deeper at the results from that link above and sure enough the high priced unregistered ones come up as 'premium domain'....which is TLD speak for 'we know how valuable this is and we're not going to let it go for pennies'

[PROFRBcom]

After looking through many other registrars, hoping to find a cheaper price than $750 here is what I have discovered:

1) I was wrong, it was $5,750 USD, not $750 USD lol. So the 2nd price was almost double the first.

2) Price was all the way up to $7,000 USD.

3) Lowest price was $2,800.

4) These prices were PER YEAR!


So if you have to pay minimum $3,000 a year, you are just leasing the domain. You can't buy it really. It is the same price every year. And no guarantee they won't raise the price year to year unless you lock into a nice long 10 year contract.

What a ******* scam these new TLDs can be!

[Sherlock]

The poker.site is a premium domain as they call it. I am not sure, but probably the premium is paid "only" for 1st year. Then you pay standard renewal .site price, which is single or double digits. At least I hink so.

Those premium newtlds exist, because the registrars do not want to give any {singleword}.newtld for free to resellers that would otherwise registered all the interesting domains in one second and resold them.

The pricing of those premium domains can vary registrar to registrar. There is some base price that the registry demands and then registrars have the surcharge.

Not all new tlds use the premium. For example .lgbt does not and is fully inclusive!

Jokes aside yes, this is full of scam and beware of another one: there are promo prices for registration that can cost as little as 1 USD for 1st year but then there are hefty fees for renewals. So once you start building a site on that domain you are literally extorted.

So always check while registering this bs domains even the price for more years. But even that does not mean that they will not raise your renewal price.

And that is not all - the premium domains are not possible to transfer away from registrar. At least I was not able to get out of name.com.

[universal4]

One method is to find a "friend" that is a Tucows reseller, if Tucows happen to carry the TLD.

If so, the reseller can go into their account and set the rate for that TLD to either zero profit, or an agreed upon rate, and you may save a fair amount, or it may be a TLD that has a HUGE price associated with it, no matter it is purchased. (the reseller can see current pricing and TLD's covered in "storefront settings" > "pricing" )

I took a look in my panel, and do not see .site so I will have to check with Tucows to see if that is a TLD that can be added. With some TLD's, some registrars will allow transfer's in of the domains but not allow first purchase. I have recently run in to a similar situation with a certain country tld.

Looking at IANA, it states the .site is controlled by dotsite inc
https://www.iana.org/domains/root/db

Stats at ntld showed a little over 1.68 million registered, but I do not know how often that is updated or if those are live figures (seems a little low but not sure)

Upon some digging I found what appears to be their original application for the TLD, so the registrars mentioned might also be a place to check for that tld.

* DotSite Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary within the Directi Group. The Directi Group runs various businesses including several ICANN Accredited Domain Registrars (ResellerClub.com and BigRock.com) and Web Hosting companies. With over four million active domain names registered through its registrars, Directi has significant experience (over 10 years) of managing domain name abuse mitigation and rights protection. Directi has been heralded as a white hat registrar and the undisputed leader with respect to abuse mitigation.

Like others have said, some tld's as well as specific names pricing can vary by a lot depending on registrars, how long the tld has been around, and how many of the larger ACTUAL registrars carry the tld.


Rick
Universal4

[Sherlock]

If it is Directi aka Resellerclub, I suggest to register it directly there (the registry and registrar is the same in this case in a way). It is ok registrar btw, just the admin panel is a bit complicated.

[PROFRBcom]

The poker.site is a premium domain as they call it. I am not sure, but probably the premium is paid "only" for 1st year. Then you pay standard renewal .site price, which is single or double digits. At least I hink so.

Nope. These ******* charge $5 grand up front, and $5,000 per year to renew.



You don't own anything, it is all leasing a domain at this point.

Absurdity.

[PROFRBcom]

One method is to find a "friend" that is a Tucows reseller, if Tucows happen to carry the TLD.

I took a look in my panel, and do not see .site so I will have to check with Tucows to see if that is a TLD that can be added. With some TLD's, some registrars will allow transfer's in of the domains but not allow first purchase. I have recently run in to a similar situation with a certain country tld.

I had no idea such a thing was possible Rick. Shame it doesn't work for the TLD I mentioned

Upon some digging I found what appears to be their original application for the TLD, so the registrars mentioned might also be a place to check for that tld.

Like others have said, some tld's as well as specific names pricing can vary by a lot depending on registrars, how long the tld has been around, and how many of the larger ACTUAL registrars carry the tld.

I went to BigRock.com, as mentioned in your quote, and it was even more expensive directly from them.

[chaumi]

Like I said, they know what they've got and the inherent/developed value in it.