Registrars compete fiercely on the first year, and often sell below cost to win the customer. The business model depends on renewals, transfers and extras. That is not a scandal, just arithmetic, and once you see it the price pages become easy to read.
The aim is to compare what a name costs over the years you expect to keep it, not what the banner says today.
The four numbers
Compare four numbers: registration, renewal, transfer-in and any fee for privacy or DNS. Registrars love to show the first and hide the others on a separate page.
| Number | What to look for |
|---|---|
| Registration | Usually the promotional one. Check whether it applies to one year only and whether a coupon or a first order is required. |
| Renewal | The price from year two, every year. This is the figure that matters for a name you intend to keep. |
| Transfer-in | What it costs to bring a name from another registrar. A transfer normally adds a year to the expiry date, so the fee often doubles as a renewal. |
| Privacy and DNS | Whether WHOIS privacy, DNS hosting, email forwarding and the like are included or charged each year. |
A worked example
Take three registrars selling the same name, with invented prices. A charges 2 for year one and 18 for each renewal, with privacy included. B charges 12 flat every year, but 5 a year for privacy. C charges 9 every year with privacy free.
Over three years, A comes to 2 + 18 + 18 = 38. B comes to 36 for the name and 15 for privacy, so 51. C comes to 27. The cheapest banner leads to the middle total, and the plainest price page leads to the lowest. Real prices differ, but the pattern is common.
Bundles, prepayment and new endings
A bundle that includes a free domain for a year can be a good deal if you plan to keep both. Read what happens in year two: if the domain then renews at a high rate and the hosting renews at a high rate, the bundle was a discount on the first invoice and nothing more.
Be wary of multi-year prepayment on a registrar you are not sure about, since leaving can cost you the unused years. Moving a domain does not normally refund the remaining term, and a registrar that has gone downhill is the kind you want to leave quickly. Paying one year at a time and turning on auto-renew gives you the same name with an exit.
And note that some newer endings have high renewal prices that make them poor choices for a long-term project. A cheap launch price on a trendy ending can be followed by a renewal many times higher, and because the name is on your business cards by then, you are in no position to walk away.
Costs that appear later
A few charges only show up when something goes wrong. Restoring a domain that has lapsed into the redemption period usually carries a fee well above the normal renewal. Changing the registrant on some endings costs money. Some registrars charge for an authorisation code, or for nameserver changes made through support rather than the panel. None of these is unreasonable alone, but together they decide whether a cheap registrar is really cheap. Skim the fee schedule for the words "restore", "transfer out" and "change of registrant" before you commit.
Try it on your own site
Open the registrar's full price list, not the landing page. Find the line for your ending and write down registration, renewal and transfer. Then go to the checkout with the name in the basket and look at the total before payment, where privacy, taxes and add-ons appear. If a renewal price is not published anywhere you can find, ask support in writing and keep the reply.