What Does A Domain Cost? Tips For Budget Planning

Companies and the self-employed can hardly do without their website these days. If you want to increase your sales, win new customers, or present products effectively, a company website is an important tool. More and more websites are also being created in the private sector, for example, to be able to share hobbies with other people.

Individuals usually have less budget for creating a website than companies. There are also financial differences between freelancers, start-ups, and corporations. But what unites them all: You need a domain for your website so that users can access the website at all. However, Internet addresses are available in different price ranges. Why is that?

Why Are There Price Differences For Domains?

Although the Domain Name System(DNS) – the telephone book of the Internet, so to speak – is infinitely large, who would want a cryptic sequence of numbers and letters as a web address? Concise terms or phrases are usually quickly assigned and very popular. In addition, different top-level domains (TLDs), i.e. domain endings, enjoy different reputations.

This is also reflected in the price. While traditional endings such as. com .de are among the most popular domain endings, newer TLDs are developing slowly. Finally, there are also various domain providers. Although their price differences are usually not blatant, some dealers always have special offers. While price shouldn’t be the only factor when choosing a domain provider, it’s definitely worth comparing multiple providers.

So that you also understand what you are paying for, we will briefly explain the structure of a domain: Each domain consists of various components which together – technically speaking If you take a look at the browser line, the domain (read from left to right) begins after the protocol

Third-level domain: subdomain; denotes a sub-area; for websites mostly www
second-level domain: domain name; freely selectable; often contains the brand name or the designation of the web project
top-level domain: domain extension; TLDs are limited; there are two types:
Country code top-level domains (ccTLDs): country-specific or related to regions; eg B. .de, .us or .eu
Generic top-level domains (gTLDs): generic; relate to subject areas; eg .com, .org, or .edu

When you buy a domain, choose the top and second-level domains. Subdomains, on the other hand, can usually be chosen freely.

How Much Does A Domain Cost?

When it comes to domain prices, you have to differentiate between addresses that are still free and domains that have already been assigned. For the latter, the prices – depending on demand – can be enormous. For many users, however, the costs of domains that are still free are more interesting. These are based exclusively on the desired top-level domain.

Older top-level domains are quite cheap in comparison and are therefore the first choice for many. However, you have to remember that many combinations are already taken. New TLDs offer a lot more choice. Alternatives to the .de domain can also be better tailored to a specific offer. For example, a .io domain is very suitable for IT start-ups.

Below we present prices for various top-level domains. Since there are small price differences from registrar to registrar, you will find price ranges in the table, which in turn refer to the costs for one year, or look directly at the domain prices from IONOS. Domain providers often also offer entry-level discounts: You pay significantly less in the first year and only have to calculate the full tariff in the following year.

What Factors Should Be Considered When Buying A Domain?

How to buy a domain? First, choose the provider you want to buy your domain from. There you have the choice between different domain types. The domain providers (registrars) then contact the TLD owners (registries) ICANN, DENIC, and Co.

InterNetX
IONOS
STRATO
Sedo
united-domains

Whichever provider you choose, find out exactly what services you are paying for. All costs and services are not always apparent at first glance.

Setup Fees: Some providers charge a one-time fee for registering a domain. Although this is usually small, it must not be forgotten.
Auto-Renewals: Domains are usually registered for one year. Some providers automatically renew the contract at the end of the year if you don’t cancel beforehand. This surprises some customers but ensures that the domain and thus the website is not suddenly offline.
Multi-domain discounts: It may be worthwhile for you to buy multiple domains at once. Registrars often offer special tariffs for this.
If you also need web space, e-mail address, and SSL certificates anyway, you should think about buying a package.

When planning your budget, don’t forget that in addition to the costs for the domain, the creation of the website can also be associated with costs!

Buy Assigned Domains

What do you do when the desired domain is taken? You can of course search for a different combination, change the desired name, or switch to an alternative TLD – but that doesn’t always have to be necessary. Because often there are no active websites (anymore) on the domains that have been assigned and the owners of the domain are more than happy to sell the Internet address for a profit. If the domain owner doesn’t already have a clear idea of a price, make an offer yourself. The domain value derives largely from the popularity of the domain. Here are some popular domains that have sold for millions of dollars:

business.com (2007): 345 million
lasvegas.com (2005): 90 million
carinsurance.com (2010): 49.7 million

Of course, few domains come with such costs. But these top sellers show how the value of an existing domain is measured:

For one thing, memorability is an important factor. Business.com is probably the most obvious domain when it comes to the business world, especially in English.
And last but not least, it is also about securing domains from the competition. For example, the domain lasvegas.com was bought by the owners of vegas.com to avoid user confusion.

How Much Should You Spend On A Domain? 3 Examples

The following sample scenarios all come from a professional environment. For hobby projects that are not dependent on traffic and a good Google ranking, you should simply look for the cheapest offer.

Freelancers

Let’s say you work as a freelance actress and voice actress. Your marketing budget is most likely low and you want to use your homepage primarily as an online business card where future clients can find out more about you. So that you don’t burden your finances too much, a .de domain is sufficient. Since your name is also your brand, you should include it in the domain.

Startups And SMEs

As a start-up, you place different demands on your company’s appearance on the World Wide Web. You want to be represented as well as possible and use SEO options profitably. That’s why you shouldn’t just secure one, but several domains at the same time.

In this way, you are found by potential customers and give the competition less opportunity to hinder your marketing. Let’s assume that the start-up is from the IT industry, then in addition to the classic addresses .com and .de, .io and .app, for example, are also possible.

Large Company

But that’s not enough. To protect your brand, you should buy as many domains as possible – and that can also mean buying domains that have already been taken. The prices here can vary greatly, depending on how well-known the domain is and how high the demand is.