Domain name registration

[leen...]

Hi All,

10 years ago I registered a domain with GoDaddy and it cost me around £40 for 10 years. It is now nearing expiry and they are looking to charge me $44 for 2 years. I only really use it for family email so was wondering if anyone knows of a cheaper option (for what they do it seems a lot to me - it is not like they are even hosting / storing anything etc. as I use Google to host the email and default web page)? I assume it is possible to move the domain registration from supplier to supplier?

thanks in advance

Lee.

[Robert]

The price for domain registration has increased significantly over the last few years , mostly I suspect from increased charges by the Domain Registry Nominet (for .uk domains). You can shop around and see what other people beside GoDaddy charge transfer to a cheaper one.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Dunno. Try 123REG

[Robert]

The price for domain registration has increased significantly over the last few years , mostly I suspect from increased charges by the Domain Registry Nominet (for .uk domains). You can shop around and see what other people beside GoDaddy charge transfer to a cheaper one.

[Theo]

ICANN have had a big monopolistic moneygrab too - affects .com and many other domains.

You'll likely find not a huge difference between volume registrars, although one-time offers can be useful.

Theo

[Andy Burns]

That's petty expensive for domain registration alone (assuming a .co.uk)

I used to use 123-reg, but have transferred several domains to amazon, use route53 to register domain $9+vat per year and DNS hosting ¢40 per million queries, then it's easy to use S3 for static site hosting if you need that too, if your site is small it could fit in the free tier (5GB storage, 20,000 GETs and 100GB transfer a month, it's a pittance if you need higher)

[The Natural Philosopher]

These are 123 prices domain annual 1st year co.uk* £11.99 79p info £17.99 79p email £21.99 79p ltd £21.99 79p online £29.99 79p store £49.99 79p uk* £11.99 79p wales £14.99 99p agency £21.99 £2.99 me £17.99 £5.99 photography £21.99 £5.99 net £16.99 £7.99 club £12.99 £7.99 com** £16.99 £7.99 co £29.99 £9.99 org £16.99 £9.99

Hope that helps

[jkn]

Mythic Beasts pricing here:

I have moved domain registrars around quite a bit over the years. It's not a difficult job, although some places try to make it look harder than it is.

[Bob Eager]

The worst one I had was Zetnet. They charged me eother £75 or £100 to release the tag on a domain. I was not happy.

[Robert]

I use Tsohosts for domain registration AND hosting. The registration is about £9 per year (.co.uk) no discount for longer periods but an introductory option for first year.

[Brian Gaff]

I see so many new suffixes. ie .compare .info to name but two, with all these extra choices, it makes me wonder how come they cost more.

Brian

[Theo]

Because domains are a monopoly resource: registries are charging what they think they can get away with, and customers can't move to a different registry without changing their domain. The new names are primarily to 'expand the market' and are pushed by the same people who own .com, etc - not to offer competition. 'Expanding the market' means company.com now has to buy company.xyz, company.app and whatever to protect their brand from squatters - ie it's just a shakedown.

(registries = the owners of .com, .uk, etc. registrars = the people you register your domain example.com with. Registrar fees are a tiny overhead on top of the registry fees).

Theo

[leen...]

Thanks very much all for the info. It does seem like money for old rope. I can see a domain name being worth something (the whole supply and demand thing) so buying one at the start and initial registration fee makes sense. Unless you want hosting;/ email services etc. I struggle to see what you are paying for to keep your domain registered as once it is done surely there is nothing else needed. The amounts they are charging seem ridiculous to me and why the ongoing fee varies by type of domain makes no sense either. I have a .co.uk and a .me one and the .me one seems a lot more expensive.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Indeed there is in general sod all to a registration and even less if it is set to point to your own DNS server

The registration agencies are there to sort out disputes - like people who register things like Amazan.com and micros0ft.com

Actual registrations are handled by a machine level interface. I,e if I want to register "crutchrot.co.uk" I go to e.g. 123 reg, who will take my request, check it doesn't already exist, charge me money, and send a message to NOMINET to create that domain and point it to 123s DNS servers.

The vast majority of domains wont get much traffic, so servers can be very very light indeed.

NOMINET scrape up half the dosh and 123 the rest. Neither should have to do anything involving a human being.

OTOH owning a mail domain that you can take with you when you dump BT internet, is very very valuable.

Many people use gmail or yahoo, but they are not exactly private.

Having your own domain is way better

[Dave W]

To register the name midsurreyramblers.co.uk: UK-cheapest last payment was £10.79 on 01/10/2021. I've been kicked off the committee and don't know the current cost.

[Bob Eager]

I pay (directly to my ISP) a pound a month plus VAT. Cancel when I like. Another pound gets me a GB of web space, although I don't do that much.

[jkn]

Was this recently? I have a feeling there was legislation, quite some time ago, to 'level the field' re charges on this sort of thing. Prior to that there were certainly companies involved in all sorts of dis-information and chicanery to lock you in and prevent an (ahem) free market

J^n

[Bob Eager]

It was a long time ago. It was worth even more then!