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Recently new TLD's such as .actor, .agency and many more were introduced. There is a significant price difference between the 'old' and new TLD's.

For example:

I can buy a .com for $9.45 but .ceo costs $75.00. There are differences between the registrars but I can't find them anywhere cheaper.

So why are the new TLD's so expensive? Some are a lot cheaper but the most are very expensive.

Sathiya Kumar V M
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William
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1 Answers1

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This is related to how the new TLD are administered. Old TLDs can be administered by several parties (.com, .org, .net, .biz, etc...) so there is competition in the field because it was viewed as a monopoly when first setup (those TLDs started at $50 back in the day through Network Solutions.)

The new rights to .anythinggoes are purchased by a single entity for $185,000, and that entity then sets up a registry and can charge whatever they like for them.

The competition here is instead with an unlimited number of TLDs, so the owner of said TLDs is counting on .ceo or .momhasthebestcooking being worth something, and changes accordingly.

The question, of course, is how valuable are they really? There is a lot of land rush buying, but it's doubtful most will stay that high.

pk_
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Tami
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    The saying in business is: You can always start off high and price things lower later, but it's more difficult to do the opposite. Likely after the ROI is recouped and sales slowdown, prices will surely drop, along with coupon and promotional offers. – dan Nov 16 '14 at 03:09
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    So it sounds some single entity purchasing .anythinggoes could sell a domain name for any price. Is there anything restricting that single entity from charging $20/year and then 3 years later start changing $1000/year for renewal? It seems like the answer is No, they could change the price at any time. – styfle Nov 03 '17 at 15:23
  • This is completely wrong: "Old TLDs can be administered by several parties" + "The new rights to .anythinggoes are purchased by a single entity for $185,000, and that entity then sets up a registry and can charge whatever they like for them.". Both cases are exactly the same: there is one registry, and then multiple registrars. And in both cases the registry can decide prices. In fact later this year .COM has a price increase. You can find a difference in the number of registrars selling each TLD, and now there is no vertical separation mandatory anymore. – Patrick Mevzek Jun 06 '21 at 05:54
  • @styfle "So it sounds some single entity purchasing .anythinggoes could sell a domain name for any price." That is the case for ANY TLD, even ccTLDs. As for the price change at renewal time, have a look at these other questions: https://webmasters.stackexchange.com/questions/126900/how-to-ensure-i-always-buy-an-informative-domain-in-the-lowest-price-possible, https://webmasters.stackexchange.com/questions/126880/should-renewal-price-of-gtld-will-always-be-identical-to-the-price-of-purchase, https://webmasters.stackexchange.com/questions/127191/are-some-tlds-more-expensive-than-others/127249 – Patrick Mevzek Jun 06 '21 at 06:00