Registration vs Renewal: The Real Cost of a Domain

Promo pricing gets you in the door. Renewal pricing keeps you there.

The pricing trap

You see .com for $0.99/year. You buy. Next year, the invoice says $15.99.

This is normal. Registrars use loss-leader pricing on the first year to acquire customers, knowing most people don't transfer.

Registration (first year): The initial purchase. Often heavily discounted via promo codes, bundles, or intro offers.
Renewal: The recurring annual fee to keep the domain. Usually at the registrar's standard retail price.
Transfer: Moving to another registrar. Costs ~1 year renewal fee (extends expiry by 1 year).
Redemption: Recovering an expired domain after the grace period. Expensive (registry fee + registrar markup).

TLD	First-year promo	Standard renewal	5-year total (est.)
`.com`	$0.99 – $5.99	$12 – $16	$60 – $80
`.net`	$5 – $8	$14 – $18	$70 – $90
`.org`	$5 – $9	$14 – $18	$70 – $90
`.dev` / `.app`	$12 – $15	$12 – $18	$60 – $90
`.io`	$30 – $40	$40 – $60	$200 – $300
`.ai`	$60 – $80	$70 – $100	$350 – $500
`.co`	$8 – $12	$25 – $35	$125 – $175

Prices vary by registrar. Always check the current renewal price before buying.

Multi-year registration — some registrars let you prepay 5–10 years at today's renewal rate.
Transfer before renewal — move to a cheaper registrar 30+ days before expiry (avoids redemption risk).
Cloudflare Registrar — sells at wholesale (no markup) for .com, .net, .org, etc. Requires Cloudflare account + DNS.
Watch for price increase notices — ICANN requires registrars to notify you of renewal price changes.