There are lots of ways to start a business: you could drive a taco truck around your city, set up a coffee stall park, or run a luxury fashion brand from a shining storefront on Main Street. Or you could enter the virtual world, and run a thriving e-commerce business right from your living room.

But no matter where your business is located, there’s one piece of property you have to have: a domain name is the virtual real estate that lets your customers find you online.

What is a domain name? It’s the address portion of every website, comprising two parts: a memorable mid-section (like Atom) and an extension or TLD like .com. Our domain name is atom.com. What’s yours going to be?

Whether you’re selling truck tacos, online courses, or literally any other goods or services, your domain name is an important part of your wider brand. Your domain name helps customers find you and remember your business when they’re hankering for some picante Mexican food. A good domain name will emphasize all the strongest elements of your brand, and reinforce customer trust and loyalty 

Starting a business can be expensive, so you’re probably wondering: how much does a domain name cost? 

The truth is, there’s no fixed price for a domain name: like property in the real world, the value of a domain name depends on multiple factors. In this article, I’ll walk you through domain pricing so you can make the best choice for your brand. Let’s go.

Unregistered vs Registered Domains

The first thing to know about domain cost is that domain names can essentially be split into two categories: unregistered domains and registered domains.

These categories exist because of how domain names are created and sold. They’re managed by domain registries, and the ultimate owner of all domain names is ICANN, the non-profit organization that manages the domain name system.

When a domain name is “bought” from ICANN, it’s more like starting a lease for a property, and you can renew that lease every year to keep using the domain. This is called domain registration.

Every domain name you’re familiar with is registered, and therefore owned, by someone. We registered atom.com, Google registered Google.com, and the government registered Whitehouse.gov. If you’re buying a registered domain, you’ll purchase it from an individual or business and they’ll transfer the registration to you.

Unregistered domains are all the domains nobody has thought of yet. These can be purchased from ICANN through domain registrars. This usually costs between $10 and $60 per year, but prices vary and you can often find a bargain with an introductory offer.

But the internet has been around for a while now and most of the strong domain names have been registered already. There are over registered 350 million domain names, and almost half of these feature the .com domain extension.

That means there aren’t many appropriate unregistered domains for ambitious brands.

If you want a strong, concise, and brandable domain name, with a reputable extension, you’ll likely purchase a registered domain from someone else. In this case, rather than registering an “unowned” domain for a small fee, you’ll buy a valuable piece of virtual real estate at a fair price.

What price will be depends on a few things, so let’s dive into domain cost.

How Much Does a Domain Name Cost?

An unregistered domain name typically costs between $10 and $20 per year, or more for certain extensions like .io and .ai. However, most unregistered domain names will be a poor platform for your business.

A strong, brandable domain name will start at around $2000, and most premium domains cost between $5000 and $10,000. There’s no upper limit to how much a domain name can cost — the most expensive domains ever sold have cost tens of millions of dollars.

A look at the Atom marketplace reveals some trends:

<$2000: Brandable domain names with trustworthy extensions like start in this price range. These domain names are mostly longer combinations of English-language words (such as FoxandTiger.com) or they are blends or transmutations like Thrivyo.com or CertiWise.com. While all these names will work for the right business, they may lack a clear connection to industries and are less likely to be centered around popular English-language words or instantly recognizable words or concepts in Latin languages. 

$2000 – $5000: Most domains on Atom’s Premium Domain Marketplace fall into the $2,000 – $5,000 range. These domains contain industry-specific keywords (such as Fitnomics.com or Datalis.com) and are packed with evocative words that inspire emotion and feeling in your customers. These domains are often blends and transmutations based on a root keyword.

$5000 – $10000: Domains in this price range start to feature clear, industry-relevant English language words either alone or in combination. Femininity.com, OptimumReach.com, and PureMeal.com are good examples of the kind of immediately brandable and highly memorable domain names in this price bracket.

>$10000: Domains over $10,000 will usually contain English-language words and be clearly connected to popular, profitable industries: CreateWealth.com, HomeDelight.com, and CoOffice.com are some strong examples of domains in this price range.

>$50000: Domains over $50,000 will likely be ultra-premium, single English language words like Persevere.com, super-short domains such as BRB.com, or industry-defining domain like Hotels.com. 

While you need to make sure you assess every cent, the return on investment from a premium domain can be the difference between business success and floundering failure.

5 Factors That Influence Domain Pricing

When you’re starting a business, there’s a big difference between a $10 domain and a $10,000 domain. So what determines the cost of a domain name?

1. Domain Length:

Short domain names tend to cost more because they are easy for users to remember and search for.  Short domains are at such a premium that all three- and four-letter .com domains were registered long ago!

Take a look at the most popular websites and you’ll notice a trend: the average domain length for the top 10,000 websites is eight letters, while among the top 100 websites, it’s six. Premium domain names are usually under 13 characters.

2. Brandability:

The brandablity of a domain name indicates its strength to a new business. Spelling, pronunciation, and the emotional associations of a name all play into brandability. Colors and other evocative words like “fresh” or “bliss” will make a name more brandable, such as in blissbirch.com or freshcheeks.com, and will likely be more expensive.

3. Keywords and Industry Relevance:

Industry-specific keywords industries will make domain names more expensive because these words signal immediately to customers the purpose of your business, and make them more easily found through search engines. Thanks to the presence of the keyword coffee, Titancoffee.co may be more expensive than similar domains like titanbeans.co or titanroasts.co.

4. Domain Extension

The domain extension or TLD (top-level domain) is a major factor in domain pricing. .com domains are the most valuable and remain the gold standard in trust and memorability. 

There are over 1500 extensions, but only a small selection is worth considering. Partysupplies.com could cost a six-figure sum, while partysupplies.pizza might be available for a $10 registration fee. However, customers are unlikely to remember or even find a domain with a new extension, and they place less trust in these domains. Think about the domain names of your favorite brands, and you’ll spot the patterns.

5. Recent Sales and Market Trends

The market is the final determination of domain cost: ultimately, a domain is worth what someone will pay for it. That means recent sales of similar domains can make a domain more expensive, while market trends (such as those around the -ify and -ly suffixes popularized by Spotify and Officely) also determine domain pricing.

What are the Best Alternative Extensions?

If you’re looking for ways to find an affordable domain, you have to consider alternative extensions. There’s a lot to choose from — alongside the ones you’re probably familiar with like .com and .org there are hundreds more. These extensions go from .ai to .xyz, via .pizza, .beer, and .bible! As you can guess, most of these extensions don’t have a serious reputation.

Domain extension is an important choice. 70% of consumers don’t trust new extensions and only a few have proven themselves, captured customer trust, and become legitimate and recognized extensions for businesses.

Our premium domain marketplace is tightly curated by naming and domain experts to ensure that only the strongest domains are up for sale. We allow the following extensions:

• .com
• .io
• .org
• .co
• .ai
• .xyz
• .vc
• .net
• .ly
• .gg

Some of these extensions, such as .gg, only make the cut if combined with single English-language words.

Others, such as .org, co, and .io are increasingly popular and gaining customers’ trust in a range of industries. .io is well-trusted by younger tech-savvy consumers, but older demographics don’t recognize it.

And .ly is a popular extension thanks to naming trends led by startups like Officely and Cloverly. These brands use the extension within their business name, and hence domains like Trend.ly and Cloak.ly can be used by brands called Trendly, and Cloakly.

Choosing the Best Domain Name for Your Business

In today’s digital world, your domain name is almost as important as your business’s name, and ideally, the two should match exactly. That means you need to consider your domain name possibilities before you choose your business name.

Choosing the perfect domain name is a lot like choosing a business name. You need to consider user perception, memorability, and the overall brand tone you’re going to take. So…

Be Brandable: Your domain name must be memorable, easy to spell, and easy to pronounce so people can recommend you to their friends. On top of that, your name should tell your customers about the character of your brand — playful, creative, prestigious, or disruptive.

Don’t Use Numbers or Special Characters: While domain names can be composed of letters, numbers, and hyphens, you should avoid using numbers and hyphens in your name. Customers aren’t used to seeing hyphens in legitimate websites, so roamingtacos.com will be perceived as more trustworthy than roaming-tacos.com.

Add a Trustworthy Extension: Use a trustworthy and recognized extension. If you can’t get the .com version of your business name, .co, .org, and .io are popular options.

Check for Trademark Conflicts: Make sure your name is yours and yours only. Trademark conflicts occur if someone in your industry is already using a similar name, and can lead to lengthy legal battles and confused customers. Squadhelp’s Trademark Checker Service gives you peace of mind.

Need some ideas? Our AI-powered business name finder can kickstart your creativity — and show you which available domain names match your ideas!

Wrapping Up

Whether you run your business out of a rusty old truck, a shiny shop front, or from your living room, your customers will be looking for you online.

So how much does a domain name cost? There are domain names available for a $10 registration fee and others that cost tens of millions of dollars.

A better question is how much should you spend on a domain name. Budgeting is important, so remember that premium domain names start at around $2,000, many brandable names with strong extensions are in the $2,000 – $5,000 range, and if you’re looking for a single-English-word or category-defining .com, you’ll spend many times those numbers.

If you want and expect to make money a few weeks, months, or years down the line, a name and domain that get you noticed and build buzz are key to your long-term project, so the initial outlay on your domain should reflect your business goals. 

It might seem like a big investment, but changing your domain name later in (your business) life can be far more costly. A strong domain name provides a huge return in terms of customer recognition and your long-term brand.

FAQs

Any domain pricing questions left over? Take a look here.

How much does a domain name cost?

An unregistered domain name costs between $10 and $60 per year, depending on the extension. Most premium domain names cost between $2000 and $10,000.

How do I know if a domain has been registered?

You can check if a domain name has been registered using ICANN’s Lookup tool. You’ll find information about the domain owner and where the name is registered.

How do I permanently buy a domain name?

You can’t permanently buy a domain name, but as long as you renew your domain registration every year you’ll own your domain forever. ICANN, the organization that manages the Domain Name System, is the ultimate owner of all domain names.

Why are domains so expensive?

An online presence is essential for every business, and domain names are online real estate. A premium domain name is easy for customers to find and remember, enhances trust, and is the foundation for a strong brand.