OnlineDomain.com Domain Name News & Opinions
.US domain names are some of the cheapest domain names to register and renew. Yet somehow GoDaddy, a US company, has decided that .us domains are a good choice so it can rip off customers and make an extra $10+ a pop.
.US domains cost $19.99 to register and renew at GoDaddy. They are one of the most expensive registrars for .us domains.
Yes, I know. I can choose a different cheaper registrar. And I do. But in this case I can’t as I won a bunch of expired auctions and in order to purchase the domains I need to pay a year of renewal on top of the auction price for each domain. And yes it is $19.99 to renew a .us domain at Godaddy even though you will rarely find a .us renewing for more than $12 at popular registrars.
At Dynadot .us domains cost betweem $7.25 and $7.99 to renew depending on how much you are spending there. DomainCostClub has them at $6.50.
GoDaddy = $19.99 flat
I even tried to find a coupon code. Nothing.
I finally tried to see what discount the GoDaddy Discount Domain Club has for .us domains. Nothing! 0% discount for .us domains!
See what discount they have for .com domains. 53%:
GoDaddy even has a good discount for .uk domains:
I then thought that maybe GoDaddy has an expensive price on .us domains because they just bought Neustar so they are now the .US registry. But that is not the case as GoDaddy has a big discount on .biz domains (that Neustar, now owned by GoDaddy, is also the registry for). And the .biz discount price is a lot closer to the Dynadot price that ranges from $13.75 up to $14.99.
So .us domains ultimately cost more on GoDaddy than .biz domains even thought the .us wholesale price is a lot cheaper than the .biz wholesale price.
I have no idea why GoDaddy, a US company and now the .US registry, is actually discouraging people from registering .us domains and renewing .us domains at GoDaddy.
Only thing I can think off is that they kept prices expensive because of the .US nexus requirement that don’t allow .US domains to be behind WHOIS privacy. So GoDaddy is not earning as much from .us domains as it does from other domains.
And if you don’t have GoDaddy DDC, then the .com, .NET retail pricing is very high indeed. The 1 yr. renewal is tied in with the auction so you have to pay the full renewal price if you don’t have DDC. Retail price is way above other competitors.
You can also take any new gtld and compare pricing at GoDaddy with that of competitors Dynadot or Porkbun. and see GoDaddy charging shocking markups in some cases, up to twice the price of other registrars.
GoDaddy=GoBrokey
I just renewed one yesterday for 19.99 only kept it there because that’s where it’s hosted and was too lazy to update dns. Nice to know I didn’t miss out on club discount, got rid of that…they just need to offer discount to bulk holders for free imo.
Yes, the margin between the wholesale price and retail price for .US on GoDaddy is ridiculous.
Now that they are purchasing Neustar, they have no excuse for keeping that margin in place.
If GoDaddy promoted the extension and charged reasonable prices, it would likely get far more traction. I own and sell many .US domains. The extension has a lot of potential.
Brad
I have the discount club and I renew .us at 7.99
So maybe their website has wrong info…
Yes, mine is the same rate. I think it is just not listed on there.
Still, the retail price is absurd.
Brad
Case in point about how the Nexus requirement isn’t even enforced: you are bold and comfortable enough to make a whole big blog post to the world about getting .us domains when you are based in Greece. Or is there some secret compliance with the Nexus you maintain in the US (I doubt it)?
This is not to attack you in any way, Konstantinos, though I’m sure you’ll probably take it that way regardless.
There is no excuse for not allowing whois privacy, none. Nexus is a fake excuse. There has never been anything keeping appropriate parties from having access to data in a database. Whois contact data is one of the simplest forms of data known to man.
I own a US company John. Just paid my US taxes too.
That’s great and I’m glad to learn you are not just another Nexus cheater. Which still leaves the main problem – no excuse whatsoever for no whois privacy option. Not just “no excuse,” but downright obscene, even nothing less than “anti-American.” With each passing year it becomes more and more blatant. It’s a bit comparable to how we’re the only major country in the developed world that hasn’t “figured out” universal healthcare for instance, (because “they” don’t want to) so that our people just suffer, go bankrupt and die needlessly, while gaslighting everyone with lies about “how are you going to pay for it?” and “we can’t afford it.”
Neustar talked a few years ago about removing the Nexus requirements and introducing whois privacy but then they simply forgot about it.
I used to quote your coverage of that in other blogs. In fact, I even did that right here in my report on “The Truth About .US” at DNW, which is “required reading” for all Americans and optional but recommended reading for internationals:
https://domainnamewire.com/2019/07/18/marketing-a-teenage-tld/#comment-2255828
Konstantinos – they definitely did not forget about it. They merely know what has been known for many decades here – how the public forgets as fast as a fish in a fish tank after it turns away toward something else. Maybe faster. In this case, forgets something hardly anyone even heard about to begin with no less. Just like when .us was even released for public use in 2002, under a rock.
I can confirm too that the renewal price for Godaddy Discount Club is $7.99. Its hard to justify though how they get one to pay $19. I fear that in the next 5 years or so, most popular domain names will have a premium price no matter the extension. That price corkiness is what the alternative route, driven by blockchain technology needs to grow as young people, in the future, will be looking to not spend money on hosting and renewals