How Much Does It Cost to Renew a Domain Name?

Do you want to know how much it’ll cost to renew your domain name?

You can register domain names for cheap and even get one for free with your hosting plan but these offers usually last only for the first year.

So when it comes time to renew it, you may be surprised with a high renewal price.

In this post, we’ll walk you through how much domain renewals cost and give you tips on how to get the best deal.

Here’s what we’ll be covering today:

• Why You Need to Renew Your Domain on Time
• Cost of Renewing a Domain Name
• Hidden Costs of Domain Name Renewals
• Why is Domain Renewal More Expensive?
• 4 Ways to Save on Domain Renewal Cost

Let’s start with why renewing your domain name is important.

Why You Need to Renew Your Domain on Time

When you buy a domain name, you only register it in your name for a set amount of years.

Once this period expires, your domain name goes back on the market and anyone can buy it.

Your site will go offline and you stand to lose traffic, rankings, and revenue.

If you lose your domain name, you could end up spending a lot of time and energy trying to get it back. You should also know that there are many domain brokers that are watching domain names that are set to expire, especially top-level domains that are valuable.

If a domain name is SEO-friendly and would rank well in search engine results, it’s likely that there will be many takers as soon as the domain registration expires.

Now if you’ve trademarked the domain name, then no one else can use it. But this won’t stop competitors from grabbing the expired domain at the first chance they get.

To avoid all these problems, it’s best to renew your domain name before the expiry date.

See our guide: How to Get Back Your Expired Domain Name

Now, let’s dive into the cost of renewing your domain name.

Cost of Renewing a Domain Name

The average renewal price for a .com domain is between $10.98 and $55.98 per year.

Some domain name registrars display the renewal cost when you are buying a domain name so you’re aware of how much it’ll cost to keep it after the first year.

When you buy or renew a domain name, there are a number of factors that play a role in its value.

1. TLD: The extension of your domain name like .com, .net, .biz, and .org.
2. Domain registrar: The place you bought the domain name from like Bluehost, Domain.com, or GoDaddy.
3. Time period: How long you choose to renew the domain name for.
4. Premium domain: If you bought a premium domain, then your domain name registration cost will be much higher than your renewal fee.

So domain name renewal costs will vary. If you check different registrars, you’ll most likely see different costs to register and renew the domain.

Some domain registrars like GoDaddy offer massive domain name discounts for the first year. But these come with conditions.

Firstly, you’ll need to register it for 2 years and only 1 year is discounted. Added to that, their cost of domain renewals are much higher.

Why is Domain Renewal More Expensive?

Domain registrars offer upfront discounts on the first year to make it easier for people, especially small businesses, to get started with a website.

Web hosts like Bluehost throw in a domain name for free when you sign up for a web hosting plan. So it’s affordable to launch a website.

We won’t lie though, it’s a popular marketing tactic to acquire customers. Because once you buy the domain name, there’s a high chance that you’ll start a website and renew the domain name.

But registrars need to pay a fee to ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), the organization that governs the internet and manages almost all the domains on the market.

So if domain registrars want to do business, they have to charge you a fee that makes their business profitable.

Hidden Costs of Domain Name Renewals

Domain renewals can be inflated by hidden costs of services or addons you may have selected while buying the domain.

You don’t necessarily need to pay for these again especially if you have opted for cheaper services that do the same thing.

1. WHOIS and Domain Privacy

ICANN requires every domain owner to provide their contact information which is then added to a public record called the WHOIS database.

This includes you name or company name, address, phone number, and email address.

They do this so that others can contact you to buy your domain name, resolve copyright issues, pitch potential business partnerships, and more.

While there are upsides to the WHOIS database, it can also lead to spam and fraudulent emails and phone calls.

This is why many domain registrars sell an addon called Domain Privacy Protection which typically costs an additional $9.99 per year.

When you buy it, the domain registrar will hide your info and display their company’s data instead.

However, due to privacy laws, especially in the EU, much of the info in the WHOIS database had been redacted. So you may not need this service at all.

The problem is that often registrars automatically add it to the cart. You have to remove it if you don’t want to pay for it.

2. Business Email Accounts (Email Domains)

You may have to opted to purchase professional business email addresses.

But you can actually get a free business email address with most web hosting companies.

Also, there are plenty of marketing services that usually charge a lot lesser and give you more features that you’ll need for business and bulk marketing emails.

3. Addons

Domain registrars offer all sorts of addons like marketing tools, VPNs, security scans, backups, WordPress installers, website builders, eCommerce features, and more.

If you bought these services/tools and don’t need them anymore, you should make sure you remove them from your cart to bring down the renewal cost.

4 Ways to Save on Domain Renewal Cost

If you search for good deals on domain renewals, you’ll find many results that may be deadends and scams.

Truth be told, it’s not easy to save on renewal costs but we’ll give you 4 ways that you can actually use:

1. Lock in for a longer period

The best way to save on renewal costs is by locking in your domain name for a longer period of time. This means you’ll register the domain name at the current rate. So you won’t have to worry about domain prices increasing every year.

You can pre-pay for up to 10 years which guarantees that you will have a domain name for 10 years

2. Choose a Trustworthy Domain Registrar

Cheap domain names are known to come with higher renewal costs. But this isn’t the case with all domain registrars.

Bluehost and Domain.com have excellent domain registration and renewal rates that don’t skyrocket every year.

Both registrars are great places to buy a new domain name because in the long run, you’ll save on domain name costs.

If you’re unhappy with your current domain registrar, you can always transfer your domain name to another.

3. Transfer your Domain

If you can find a better domain registrar that’s offering you a better renewal cost, you can transfer your domain name to them. Some registrars do it for free, others charge you a domain transfer fee that on average is about $9.99.

The process is automated so you simply need to request a transfer and pay the renewal cost, and the domain registrar will handle the rest for you.

4. Save on Addons

Some registrars like DreamHost and Namecheap offer free domain privacy with their domains.

Bluehost offers BIG savings by giving you a free domain (for 1 year with reasonable renewal rates), free SSL, and free CDN with its hosting plans.

GoDaddy offers a free website builder. And Domain.com offers a hosting plan and website builder starting at just $1.99 each.

So you can definitely reduce renewal costs by picking a domain registrar that offers the biggest savings for you.

Before we wrap, we’ll leave you with this pro tip. Always set your domain on auto-renewal.

If you don’t want to do that, make sure you at least set domain renewal reminders.

This way, you’ll never lose your domain because you missed a renewal date.

And that’s all for today. We hope you found this post on domain renewal costs helpful.

Next, if you want to switch to a cheaper domain name, see our guide on How to Change Your Domain Name: A Step-by-Step Guide.

Also, you’ll definitely want to read these posts:

• 8 Best Websites to Buy SSL Certificates in 2022
• Domain Name Privacy: Why You Need It and Where to Buy
• Top 10 Website Builders (Comparison & Expert Review 2022)

These posts will help you save on the cost of addons that include SSL, domain privacy, and website builders.