How to optimize domain cost for large portfolio

[petimi]

I am curious how others handle their portfolio of domains. Let's say you own a considerable number of domains (50+) and you want to minimize costs but keep flexibility in terms of configuration (like ease of domain ownership change in case of selling the domain). Most of these domains are dormant or waiting to be developed.
Currently I host most domains with Godaddy but their fees are just going higher and higher and looking to lower costs.

The renewal fees for some TLDs like .co domains are quite costly (€39 at godaddy) and i wonder what you guys use for your domains.
Is there a good service with bulk pricing where most TLDs are available, something you tried and recommend?
even a 10-20% price difference can mean hundreds of euros in savings annually.
thanks

[vardan]

Transfer your domains to other registrars, for example Namesilo or Namecheap. Namesilo also has quite good renewal prices.

[ddm]

shared reseller hosting

[sashak]

Hi,
We transferred our domains from godaddy to https://ahnames.com/en/domains (cheap domain names + whois protect for free).

[Cash Bonus]

I've transferred some of my websites to fabulous(.com). It's a great domain registrar at a reasonably affordable price. I also recently renewed a couple of my .net domain names for a year there at the cost of only $29.95 AUD each.

[drifter8]

@petimi - I do have holding some domains t GoDaddy, waiting to be sold or just developed , when I do have some free time left. Namesilo seems fine to me, but I will have some looks around.
If I find some other good places, differing from the up-mentioned, will keep you posted!

[petimi]

thanks all, very useful info. I'll be transferring a domain to Namesilo to test them out.

[Strider1973]

Namesilo backend looks outdated, but it works. Prices are much cheaper than Godaddy, and privacy is free. Certainly a good choice.

Godaddy is just a rip-off. I have still have a few domains there, but most of them I've moved away to other registrars. I just got tired to see that they are increasing prices every year. Half a decade ago they used to offer nice discounts on existing domains, but now they just increase prices.

Oh an Petimi, be prepared to spend a lot of time when you want to transfer out of Godaddy. I guess you will curse a few times. They make it purposely hard to transfer out domains.

For example, first you have to remove privacy before you can transfer out a domain. For this you need a mobile phone number plus the initial email address must be working. If you change your email address be careful not to have the domain transfer locked for 60 days. Oh, and years ago they used to send the auth code in this format:

Your auth code :HICH2832lXCQ

and the ":" was part of the auth code. I'm sure they also made this on purpose.

Godaddy really did everything for me to dislike that company; I just have a few "premium" domains left there.

[universal4]

I have done domain transfers without the use of a mobile phone.

And as for making transfers out of registrars being more difficult, MANY more registrars as well as secondary transparent registrars are making transfers out more difficult, and although it is making it a little more difficult for domain resellers doing higher volumes, in the long term I think we will see far less domains stolen even from those domain owners that might forget or not have a complete handle on locking domains.

One of the registrars I use requires me to authorize transfers in advance almost like withdrawing from a casino LOL

Rick
Universal4

[petimi]

Just want to share one more aspect I'm looking at - in an ideal case the registrar should have VAT on their invoices so that can be claimed back by my accountant (I operate in an EU country).

I will share my findings how this worked out after a couple of months.

Some people might also find it interesting that by purchasing/investing in domains and existing websites I managed to deduct a % of the purchase price per year as a depreciating asset (software). In my country of residence for example they allow full deduction of the price over a 6 year period.
Something to look into for optimizing your taxes

[Strider1973]

Some people might also find it interesting that by purchasing/investing in domains and existing websites I managed to deduct a % of the purchase price per year as a depreciating asset (software).

I think with smaller purchases you could also just deduct the full purchase price as expenses instead of making it complicated by activating it and depreciating it. At least that's how I handle it. You can always argue that the next Google update could make the site worthless. And 6 years seems a long period anyway when looking at the revenue multiples that are usualyl paid.

[petimi]

I think with smaller purchases you could also just deduct the full purchase price as expenses instead of making it complicated by activating it and depreciating it. At least that's how I handle it. You can always argue that the next Google update could make the site worthless. And 6 years seems a long period anyway when looking at the revenue multiples that are usualyl paid.

Yes, I didn't mean small purchases - I mainly deduct it as depreciating assets in case of domain/site acquisitions larger than $10K+ price.

[DanHorvat]

I also vote for Namesilo (and it pays off to check the lowest renewal prices for specific domains such as .co), as GoDaddy is a rip off regarding renewals. That's where they make millions.

Also consider letting go of the domains that aren't realistically getting developed or sold. I know I sat on some for a long time but since I let them expire I never thought about them once.

Nowadays I just keep the domains that do have websites on them, plus a few I'm developing at the moment, and a few valuable ones that are worth a few grand. No domains in my portfolio are low-value without a website.

[Sherlock]

another non-mentioned good registrars without ripoffs

resellerclub - very weird interface, but probably most competitive prices (still the others differ just by few perfcents), they are used as superdomain platform, but even normal users can reg; but as they are really low cost you should expect some fees like for cc transactions or privacy of domains

mrdomain.com/dondominio - really nice user friendly interface, ES/EU based (so they do the VAT thing and they charge you on request without VAT if you are out of EU), they have also many exotic tlds for nice prices, highly customisable

regtons.com - another EU/CZ based (so they do the VAT and they do not charge VAT out of EU), not so nice interface, but capable CS, also exotic tlds for decent prices; discounts for volume, also highly customisable; you can make unlimited sub-accounts for unlimited names, no one cares about your identity, if you pay you are good, my close person is a good friend of owner; they are by far most discreet company, something good in future if you are in gambling, so they cooperate with state agencies only in most blatant cases: they refuse police and such *******, generally cooperate only after court decisions or childporn cases; bitcoin friendly (but so is i think namecheap and namesilo; namecheap however can do KYC anytime)

name.com - US based, again, top notch interface, very intuitive, prices probably highest prices of those 4; little bit like what one would expect from godaddy, but without ripoffs

[MichaelCorfman]

Very recently I noticed that Cloudflare started offering registry services for the lowest price I have seen: $8.03 per year for .com domains.

This is their sales blurb:

Domain name registration is dominated by companies offering large discounts on the initial domain name purchase and then later surprising customers with incremental add-on fees and inflated renewal costs.

Cloudflare Registrar will only ever charge you what we pay to the registry for your domain. No markup and no surprise fees. Security features like two-factor authentication, multi-user support, and a security-focused customer support team gives you peace of mind that your domain is safe.

www.cloudflare.com/products/registrar/

Michael