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This question is a follow up for this question

As far as I understand, the Israeli Internet association (ISOC-IL), always sold domains with Israeli ccTLDs (.*.il), whether directly or indirectly (through its representatives or through the representatives of domain-registrar companies supervised by it), by unified price policy (I believe around 80 NIS per year), with the virtue of first come, first served policy (FCFS | in Hebrew: כל הקודם זוכה).

Hence, renewing the domain after one or two years (while two years is the maximal period of buying) was always in the same (unified) price.

I understand from this answer to the previous question that *.il domain pricing is often radically different than common (but after the ISOC-IL 2016 reform to allow each seller to price domain differently it might no longer be true).

But as someone who so far bought about 30 ccTLDs and never bought even one gTLD I wondered what about renewal (type of buying): Should renewal price of gTLD will always be identical to the price of purchase?

If not, perhaps staying with ISOC-IL even for gTLDs is good, because the price will allegedly be the same.

  • The question you link to, and its answers, certainly do not say anything about .IL and if its model is standard or not, I do not see from where you take this conclusion. More generally, please see the PS in my answer to this very own question. – Patrick Mevzek Dec 25 '19 at 18:37

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The pricing of a given domain depends on the registry and the registrars. Most registries have the same price for registration and renewal, but especially with new gTLDs, registries sometimes run promotional sales where first-year registration can be significantly cheaper. Also some ccTLDs have different prices, for example .pl costs 10 PLN to register and 40 PLN to renew (at the registry).

At the registrar level, registration is usually cheaper than renewal, because the aim is to get more users to buy a domain with the hope that they will stay and pay more for renewals in the future. Some registrars are selling the first-year registrations heavily under the registry price, and some go as far as giving them out for free.

On the other hand, there are some TLDs (usually the "exotic" ccTLDs) that cost more to register than to renew, because of the "setup fee", or in recent times, many new gTLDs registries have "premium" keyword lists for which you pay a significantly larger price upfront but then renew at a regular price (but it's not a rule, sometimes you have to pay a premium each year). Those usually include short domains (2-, 3-char) and lots of dictionary keywords.

To sum up, in today's TLD landscape, all scenarios are possible and there are no rules set in stone regarding the TLD pricing.

pb_
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Should renewal price of gTLD will always be identical to the price of purchase?

No, not in all cases.

For at least the following reasons, which is certainly not an exhaustive list:

  • gTLDs are started in phases, starting with a sunrise. Sunrise prices are often higher (but not always, Google Registry has lower sunrise prices than during standard availability for example for some TLDs), but then renewals are normal price
  • after sunrise you may have EAP, which is just at the start of the general availability but to deter some bad behaviors (this is registry reasoning) prices are higher at registration than later at renewals.
  • some domain names are premiums and registries have two different models: in one the registration price (higher than standard, because premium) remains the renewal price, in another the renewal price is just a one time extra fee, the renewal is then standard (and registries change regularly both the premium prices and which domains are premiums or not)
  • some registries give incentives (as a cashback for examples) for domains being DNSSEC enabled (.NL does this if I recall correctly), but then of course this goes to the registrar which may or may not pass the discount to the end client; hence each year depending on if the domain remains properly DNSSEC configured or not, its price can change.
  • in the same way, some registries have different prices for bare ASCII domain names vs IDNs, and it may be only for the first year registration, and not the renewal
  • there are many regular promotions where 1-year registration are lower prices (but not second year or later if you buy immediately for multiple years), but then the renewal is standard
  • even in ccTLDs, models vary; in some (ex: .FR) they have to (contractually with the government) to run as a non profiting company; hence prices will be adjusted each year, normally going down, hence the renewal of a domain could cost less than the registration
  • on top of all the above you have to understand that registrars are free to set their own prices and do promotion at some given point in time for some given TLDs; registrars will often give promotions for new registration and transfers (both mean more domains for them) while registries have promotions mostly for new registrations (a transfer between two registrars does not change the amount of domains at the registry level, so this is not something interesting for a registry)

So, in the same way, as your other question on prices in TLDs, there is no reason to try finding a common rule or a stable behavior: nothing can be guaranteed, and it all depends on the specific TLD, registry, registrar and moment of time where you want to buy a domain name.

PS: I honestly do not understand you have so many questions where you seem to ask for TLDs but as the same time you concentrate on .IL with which you seem to have issues. I think your questions would be better if you separate issues, and do not mix .IL into your question as it is often irrelevant (at least in this question and the other one about prices). You can not really compare TLDs, each one run with its own rules, so you can take them into account when shopping around but besides that rules in TLD1 can not apply in TLD2 even if you would like to.

Patrick Mevzek
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  • PS: I honestly do not understand you have so many questions where you seem to ask for TLDs but as the same time you concentrate on .IL Hello; beyond the fact that personal comments should be placed in comment section, I don't understand how you concluded I am focused on .il (IL); I am really not; I worked with ISOC-IL from habit and I just bring it as an example. With all my hate to the state of Israel, their internet association quite suites my moral stances about domain pricing (but probably not on many other things). –  Dec 26 '19 at 11:53
  • I think I shouldn't be even seemingly attacked for my domain pricing philosophy, I believe. –  Dec 26 '19 at 11:53
  • "how you concluded I am focused on .il (IL);" all your questions mention it, even when irrelevant to the question – Patrick Mevzek Dec 27 '19 at 06:20
  • "With all my hate to the state of Israel, their internet association quite suites my moral stances about domain pricing (but probably not on many other things)" things like this is completely irrelevant and offtopic here. You are entitled to your own opinion but this has nothing to do when asking questions about TLDs. Like I said I suggest you keep your question precisely ontopic by removing every personal statement like this from them. – Patrick Mevzek Dec 27 '19 at 06:21
  • Patrick, not "all my questions" "mention" it; I have asked 81 questions here and perhaps only in about 5 it is mentioned. Perhaps you failed to recognized a relevance or I mis explained a relevance. –  Dec 27 '19 at 06:25
  • I am not sure if I agree or not about the particular example you brought; I am likely to agree a different phrasing should have been used. –  Dec 27 '19 at 06:26