The Domain Renewal Trap: Why a $2 Domain Can Cost $44 a Year

A domain that costs $2.57 to register can cost $43.77 to keep. That is the published price of a .store name at one large registrar: a discounted first year, then the regular renewal price every year after. If you are naming a company, the first-year price is the least important number on the page.

What the renewal trap is

Many domain extensions are sold with a promotional first year. The discount applies once. From year two, the name renews at the extension's regular price, and for a large share of newer extensions that price is several times higher.

We pulled the public list prices of one registrar, Porkbun, for every top-level extension it sells that is in the official DNS root: 530 extensions on September 27, 2026. 304 of them renew at twice their first-year price or more, and 172 at five times or more. The full table, with a search box and a CSV download, is on our domain renewal prices page.

How big the gap gets

These are the extensions founders reach for most often. Prices are per year in USD, from the same snapshot.

Extension

First year

Renewal

Renewal ÷ first year

.store

$2.57

$43.77

17.0×

.shop

$2.06

$31.41

15.2×

.online

$1.96

$28.84

14.7×

.tech

$6.99

$50.98

7.3×

.xyz

$2.04

$14.21

7.0×

.io

$28.12

$51.80

1.8×

.app

$8.75

$14.93

1.7×

.com

$11.08

1.0×

At the other end, .com, .net, .ai, .me and .gg cost the same to register and to renew in this snapshot. (.ai is sold in two-year terms, so its first purchase covers two years.)

Count five years, not one

The fair comparison is what a name costs over the time you expect to keep it. Five years is a modest horizon for a company name. First year plus four renewals, at the same list prices:

Extension

Year one

Five years

.io

$28.12

$235.32

.tech

$6.99

$210.91

.store

$2.57

$177.65

.shop

$2.06

$127.70

.online

$1.96

$117.32

.app

$8.75

$68.47

.xyz

$2.04

$58.88

.com

$11.08

$55.40

The cheapest name in year one, .online at $1.96, costs more than twice as much as .com over five years. The $2.57 .store costs more than three times as much.

Why extensions are priced this way

A low first year is a way to win new registrations; the renewal is where the extension earns its keep. Nothing about it is hidden, since the renewal price is published. It is just rarely the number in the headline. Prices also change: registries adjust their wholesale prices from time to time, and registrars run and end promotions, so treat any table, including ours, as a snapshot.

A five-point check before you register

Look up the renewal price , not only the first-year price, at the registrar you will actually use.
Multiply by the years you plan to keep the name. For a company name, assume many.
Check the term. Some extensions, such as .ai, register and renew in multi-year blocks.
Compare against .com. A flat-priced .com is often cheaper over five years than a "cheap" newer extension.
Turn on auto-renew once you decide to keep it. A name that lapses can be registered by someone else.

How NameSale shows renewal

Every NameSale listing has one fixed, one-time price, and the purchase includes the first year of registration. The listing also shows an estimate of that extension's yearly renewal, which you pay to your own registrar from year two, so you can compare the long-run cost before you buy. You can browse by extension, for example .com names or .io names , and each extension page states its renewal.

Source: Porkbun's public pricing API, list prices in USD fetched on September 27, 2026, limited to top-level domains in IANA's root zone. One registrar's prices, not a market average. Other registrars charge different amounts. NameSale is not affiliated with Porkbun.