.Site is an appealing generic, but pricing on premiums is a big turn-off.
Five top level domain names become available for registration this week.
The most notable is .Site, a good generic domain name that launches Wednesday. Radix, the same company that owns .website, is behind .site. What does this mean for the value of .website domain names now that an arguably better and shorter domain has come along?
Radix certainly thinks .Site is better. Some registrars are offering first year registrations for about $20, but expect renewal prices to be in the $35-$40 range.
The registry is also really proud of its “premium” domains.
For example, recycle.site, data.site, gold.site, call.site, wallstreet.site and whisky.site are all priced at over $10,000 retail.
Yacht.site, whiskey.site, swimming.site, longisland.site and talk.site are each over $5,000.
PER YEAR!
Imagine the good .com you could get for your site for under $50,000 compared to paying $50,000 over five years for one of these .site domains.
It doesn’t make sense to me.
And what happens when .web comes out?
I’ve come across a handful that haven’t been marked as premiums. I think I’ll stick to these.
Another big release this week is .News, which is already setting records for Rightside in terms of sunrise and Early Access.
Also on Wednesday, Donuts releases .cafe and .express in regularly-priced general availability.
.Love debuts on Thursday with fairly limited registrar coverage. I’ve found pricing in the $30-$40 range. There are some premiums, but it appears most geo domains are priced at standard prices.
Note: the original version of this article neglected to mention .news. It has been added.
Richard Funden says
The registries that are exaggerating with their implementations of Premium renewals fees will sooner or later be forced to accept the reality.
John says
Premium renewals on new gTLDs are pretty appalling. Especially when they are around 100% of the first year price instead of something like 50% or 25%.
Robbie says
Don’t buy into this grandfathered crap, this is a liability for life, leave it alone, and it will be 99 cents in 6 months