Are domain prices going up?

When Verisign, the registry for .com and .net domains, released the report of their Q1 earnings, the results appeared somewhat grim. The company ended Q1 2024 with 172.5 million domains across .com and .net, down 0.27 million from the end of last year. 

Despite a shrinking domain base, Verisign has managed to demonstrate revenue growth through price increases, with another 7% hike set for September 1, 2024. This marks the fourth consecutive year of a 7% price increase for .com domains, which is the maximum allowed under Verisign’s contract with ICANN and agreement with the U.S. government. (Meanwhile, don’t forget to register your .com domains with the old price while you still can!)

As Verisign will not have automatic price increases in 2025 and 2026, the company will need to boost domain registrations to maintain revenue growth. The question remains: Are customers still willing to pay for domain names as prices continue to rise?

Meanwhile, in the Netherlands, the .nl domain has contracted by 1.7% in 2023 – a little more than the 1.3% recorded for the domain market as a whole. Nevertheless, the Dutch preference for .nl, one of the most popular ccTLDs in the world, remains unchanged. SIDN, the registry of .nl, credits the fall in the overall number of .nl domain names to the fact that fewer registrations were renewed at the end of the first year. 

Many registrars and hosting providers offer domain names at a much lower initial cost. When the time comes to renew at the full price, it seems that a growing number of registrants have second thoughts, especially since the price rises introduced in 2022 and 2023 when the cost of energy shot up. The average first-year price of .nl domains across the market is now just 10% of the average renewal price.

How do you cope with this as a hosting provider?

Are your customers registering fewer domains, letting their domains expire, or opting for cheaper or free alternatives?

As a hosting provider, you might be concerned about the rising prices of established TLDs like .com and .nl and the potential decrease in demand. Are your customers registering fewer domains, letting their domains expire, or opting for cheaper or free alternatives? Is this affecting your profit margins, are you reluctant to raise your prices in fear of scaring customers away? Take a look at Openprovider Membership – you get:

• Cost price access: As an Openprovider’s Member, resellers get access to over 1,900 domain extensions at cost price – so you pay the same prices for them as we do at the registry. This allows you to charge some of the lowest prices on the market, even for TLDs like .com and .nl.
• Exclusive discounts: You’ll also get exclusive discounts on bundle-able products to boost your margins and bind your customers to you. Our prices on Plesk licenses are some of the lowest on the market, and our Member-exclusive business email solution gives you access to email boxes starting at just $0.70 per month. 

• Savings for all sizes: Even if you have just a few domains, a Membership can help you save – but we also have tailored solutions for larger portfolios with hundreds of thousands of domain transactions per year. One of our account managers Jesus explains more about how Membership savings work for the smallest Membership tier (Basic S) in this video.

Want to discover the other tiers? Click here to see how much you can save, or read the stories of our existing customers of various sizes.

Ready to start saving?

Become an Openprovider Member and get domain operations at the lowest prices on the market – no hidden charges or service fees, ever. Start saving and stretch your budget further than ever before – even the smallest Membership tier guarantees up to 6X ROI!

We’ll help you get started. Transferring your domain portfolio to Openprovider is simple – our transfer robots have successfully handled over 100,000+ automated domain transfers. We have also done hundreds of registry bulk transfers for European ccTLDs, such as .nl, .be, .fr, and .eu. With our transfer experts, your domain portfolio is in capable hands.