International domain prices are on their way up again

Updates:

• 4 September: We have reduced the increases on .com, .org, .net, .co, .info and other domains.
• 1 September: There will be no change to .au domain prices. We have reversed the increase that was originally announced in this article.

There are times when you don't want to be right. Looking at the domain name industry last year, we wrote that "there’s every indication that registrars will be allowed to add 7-10% to their prices every year". The last time it happened was July 2022.

So it was more frustrating than surprising this week when we were advised that, once again, the amount that we pay to register or renew international domains is going up. This time around we have a stronger American dollar to contend with as well (we pay in USD but charge in NZD), which doesn't help.

So we are reluctantly increasing our own prices for these domains. We're not changing anything to do with .nz domains and, as always, we're doing everything we can to stay competitive.

New prices effective 1 September 2023

These prices will apply to all new domain registrations and to renewals from 1 September. Our most popular non-NZ TLDs are listed here - for others you can check the Register Domain screen.

• .com: $39 $27.95
• .org: $50 $33
• .net: $57 $33
• .com.au, .net.au, .id.au, .asn.au: $78 (2 years)
• .co.uk, .org.uk, .me.uk: $35
• .co: $98 $80*
• .info: $68 $55
• .tv, .me: $119
• .cn: $35

There is no change to .nz or .au domains at $25.95/yr.

* Some .co domains will carry higher, premium prices.

The forces at work

There are a few different things happening to push domain prices up. We wrote an explainer when last year's price rise hit, and in May we asked what a domain's TLD can tell you about its future price, but to quickly re-cap the two biggest factors:

• ICANN, which more or less regulates wholesale prices, is less concerned than it used to be about keeping those prices down.
• Consolidation in the market layer between ICANN and us has reduced competition. We used to have two separate .com suppliers, for example, but they were both bought up by the same private equity investor.

So there's every indication that this is going to be a long-term trend. When you register a domain, you can choose a term of up to 10 years at the current price. If you expect a domain to remain in use for the long term it can be wise to lock it in early.

Working to improve our position

As reported last year, we are doing everything we can to become less of a price-taker in the international domain market. There are a lot of regulatory hoops to jump through so it's not a quick process, but we do have some good news in the (rather long) pipeline.

Main image: Monopoly Top Hat by Rich Brooks is licensed under CC BY 2.0.