NameBest

Registration · aftermarket · membership

Domain pricing: what you pay to register, buy, or bid

A domain does not have one price, it has three, depending on how you get it. Register an available name and you pay a yearly fee. Buy one from its owner or win it at auction and you pay what it is worth to you. Hold a portfolio and you can add a membership. Here is exactly how each one works.

Available

Registration

Names nobody has claimed yet

The yearly fee for the name

  • Pay the standard yearly registration fee for the extension you choose
  • The exact price is shown on the search result before you commit
  • Renew each year for as long as you want to keep the name
  • DNS, nameservers, and renewals handled in the same account
  • Transfer names you already own in and pay the same renewal terms
For sale

Marketplace and auctions

Names someone already owns

The agreed price, plus commission when you sell

  • Buyers pay the listed price, the accepted offer, or the winning bid
  • Sellers pay a commission only when a name actually sells
  • An AI appraisal sits beside every listing and lot, so you have a reference
  • Escrow holds the money until the name is transferred to the buyer
  • The yearly registration fee still applies once the name is yours
Investor

Membership

Investors and portfolio holders

A paid tier for people who hold names

  • Portfolio tracking: values, renewal dates, offers, and cost basis
  • Bulk appraisal across a whole portfolio, not one name at a time
  • Auction alerts and back orders on names you are watching
  • Expiry pipeline monitoring so you see a drop before it happens
  • Optional. You can register, buy, and sell without it.

Exact registration pricing depends on the extension and is shown on the search result before you commit. Aftermarket names cost whatever the owner will accept. Every account is paid, and you only pay for what you register, buy, or hold.

Why two names cost wildly different amounts

What actually sets the price of a name

The same six letters can cost a few dollars a year or a life-changing sum, and the difference is rarely the letters. It is who already owns them, and what other people would pay to have them.

Available

Nobody owns it

You pay the registry's standard yearly fee for that extension, and that is it. The price varies by extension, and some registries flag certain names as premium and charge more. Whatever it is, you see the number on the result before you commit.

For sale

Someone owns it and will sell

Now the price is a negotiation, not a rate card. It depends on length, extension, keyword demand, and how attached the owner is. The AI appraisal gives you an independent estimate to weigh the asking price against before you make an offer.

In auction

The market decides in public

Expired and dropped names go to auction, where the price is whatever the last bidder will pay. Set a ceiling using the appraisal, then stick to it. Auction rooms are where discipline earns more than enthusiasm.

Not sure which applies to your name? Search it and the result will tell you, or read the domain name FAQ.

On every account

Search, appraisal, and escrow come standard

Whether you register one name or hold two hundred, the same machinery runs underneath: one search across all three markets, an estimate on every name, and escrow on anything you buy from another owner.

One search, three markets

Registration, marketplace listings, and live auctions come back in the same result, so you never pay more than you had to because you only checked one of them.

AI appraisal on every name

An estimated range on any name you search, so you can weigh an asking price or set a bid ceiling. It is decision support, not a guarantee.

Escrow on aftermarket buys

Money is held until the name is transferred into your account. Neither side has to trust the other on a handshake.

Renewals in one calendar

Every name you register, buy, or transfer in renews from the same account, on one bill, with one set of reminders.

Registration fees renew yearly · sellers pay commission only on a sale · membership is optional

Before you spend anything, read this

The appraisal on a name is an estimate. It is built from comparable sales, length, extension, and keyword demand, and it exists to help you decide, not to tell you what a name will fetch. Domain values move. Names sell for far more and far less than their estimates, and plenty of names never sell at all. If you are buying to invest, size your spending accordingly, and treat any number you see here (ours included) as one input rather than a forecast.

Pricing questions

Quick answers before you buy a name

There are three things you can pay for. A yearly registration fee if you register an available name, the agreed price if you buy a name from its owner or win it at auction (sellers pay a commission on the sale), and an optional paid membership if you want portfolio and investor tools. Every account is paid, and you only pay for what you use.
It depends entirely on the name and the extension. An unregistered name costs the standard yearly registration fee for its extension, which is usually modest. A name someone already owns costs whatever the owner will accept, which can be anything from a few hundred dollars to a very large number. The exact registration price is shown on your search result before you commit.
Yes. Listing a name costs you nothing to hold, and we take a commission when the name actually sells, whether that is through a listed price, an accepted offer, or an auction. If it never sells, there is no commission. You still pay the yearly renewal fee to keep the name registered.
No. You can register a name, buy from the marketplace, and bid at auction on a standard account. Membership is for people who hold names and want the investor side: portfolio tracking, bulk appraisal, auction alerts, and expiry monitoring. Plenty of buyers never need it.
It gives you a reference, not an instruction. The AI appraisal is an estimate built from comparable sales, length, extension, and keyword demand, and it is decision support only. Names sell above and below their estimates all the time, and many never sell. Use it to sanity check an asking price, then decide for yourself.

See the price of your name in one search

Type the name you want. If it is unclaimed, you will see the yearly registration fee. If someone owns it, you will see whether they are selling and what the appraisal says. If it is at auction, you will see the bidding.

Talk to us

Register · buy · bid · escrow on aftermarket purchases