Smaller zones see massive increases; .lotto prices to increase $100/year.
Identity Digital, the largest top level domain company in terms of TLDs under management, is raising prices on October 6.
Standard prices for 231 top level domains will increase between 6% and 220%.
The most significant increases are limited to three domains with few registrations: .forex, .shiksha, and .airforce will see their prices more than double or triple. Each of these namespaces has fewer than 2,000 domains.
As far as larger zones are concerned, here are some notable increases:
- .Church increases 45% to $45
- .Plus increases 31% to $42
- .Chat, .vision, .cool increase 30%
In terms of raw dollar increases, the expensive .lotto domain leads the way. Its price will increase $100 to $1,450 per year.
The median price increase across all domains with price changes is 12%.
But there’s good news for those who want to create a gripe site or have a French business: the price for .gripe and .sarl domains is decreasing from $23 to $5.
All of these prices are wholesale and do not include the registrar’s markup.
Existing registrants can renew for up to 10 years at today’s prices if they do so before the price hike on October 6.
This lack of control over the prices of new (not so new) gTLDs makes me afraid of building a project and then seeing the price increase drastically.
Sadly you’re not wrong. There are no price caps or controls so there’s nothing beyond “logic” to stop a registry operator from hiking up prices every year by insane percentages. As a registrar I cannot absorb these increases so of course I’m going to put up our retail prices.
Sudden price changes only drive people away from other gTLDs other than .com or .org!