.com Renewal Prices 2026: What 9 Registrars Charge Above Wholesale

Every .com domain costs a registrar the same amount: $10.26 a year paid to Verisign, the registry that runs .com, plus a $0.20 ICANN fee. That makes $10.46 the real floor for a .com renewal price. What you pay on top of that floor depends entirely on where you register.

We compared the listed .com renewal price at 9 registrars against that $10.46 cost. The gap runs from $0 to $12.53 a year. Over 10 years, the same domain costs $104.60 at the cheapest registrar and $206.92 at the most expensive.

Prices were read from each registrar’s official pricing page between September 26 and October 4, 2026, in US dollars. This is a research-based comparison: we did not buy domains at each registrar.

Key Findings

• Renewal markups range from 0% to 120%. Cloudflare charges cost price ($10.46). GoDaddy’s listed renewal ($22.99) is 120% above cost.
• Three registrars stay within $0.62 of cost: Cloudflare, Dynadot ($10.88) and Porkbun ($11.08).
• Over 10 years, the registrar choice is worth about $100 per domain: $104.60 at Cloudflare vs $206.92 at GoDaddy, at today’s prices.
• The cheapest first year is not the cheapest domain. IONOS charges $1 for year one, then $20 a year. GoDaddy’s $0.01 first year requires a 3-year purchase and renews at $22.99.
• The wholesale price rises 7% on November 1, 2026, from $10.26 to $10.97. If Verisign uses every increase its contract allows, it could reach $13.45 by 2029, 31% above today.

What a .com Costs Before Any Markup

Every registrar pays this floor for every .com it sells or renews. Anything above it is the registrar’s markup, which pays for its platform, support and profit, and in some cases for extras such as free WHOIS privacy or SSL.

.com Renewal Price vs Cost, by Registrar

Notes: Namecheap and GoDaddy state that the $0.20 ICANN fee may be added at checkout, so their real renewal is $0.20 higher than listed. Porkbun and Squarespace state that fees are included. NameSilo’s price falls with volume (toward about $10.80–$11.05 at its highest tiers). Cloudflare requires your domain to use Cloudflare’s nameservers.

A higher markup is not automatically bad value. Hover and Squarespace, for example, have no upsells at checkout and include privacy. But for a domain you plan to keep for years, the renewal price is what you actually pay, so it is the number to compare.

First Year vs Renewal: Where the Price Jumps

Three of the nine registrars (Cloudflare, Dynadot and Porkbun) charge the same price in year one and every year after. The others use a lower first-year price:

• IONOS: $1.00 first year, then $20.00 (20x).
• Namecheap: $11.28 first year with its standard discount ($6.79 for new customers), then $18.48.
• GoDaddy: $0.01 first year with a 3-year purchase, then $22.99.

If you only compare the first-year price, IONOS and GoDaddy look cheapest. From year two, they are the two most expensive in this comparison.

What One .com Costs Over 5 and 10 Years

How we calculated it: first-year price plus 4 (or 9) renewals at today’s listed renewal price. Real future costs will be higher at most registrars, because the wholesale price is rising (see below).

The November 1, 2026 Increase, and What Could Follow

Verisign is raising the .com wholesale price from $10.26 to $10.97 on November 1, 2026, a 7% increase, as reported by Domain Name Wire. Verisign’s agreement allows increases of up to 7% in each of the last four years of every six-year pricing period.

Only the 2026 increase has been announced. The 2027–2029 figures are the maximum the contract allows, not a forecast.

Most registrars pass wholesale increases on to customers. At-cost and low-markup registrars (Cloudflare, Dynadot, Porkbun) usually move their price by roughly the same $0.71. Others may round up more. Separately, Verisign has also announced a .net wholesale increase from $10.91 to $12.00 effective March 1, 2027.

What This Means If You Own a .com

1. Check your renewal price, not your first-year price. It is usually on your registrar’s domain settings or billing page. Our guide on why domain renewal prices go up shows where to look.
2. Renew for several years before November 1 if you plan to keep the domain. Most registrars allow up to 10 years of registration at today’s price.
3. Compare the 10-year cost before you transfer. A transfer adds one year at the new registrar’s price and keeps your existing time. See how to transfer a domain.
4. Count what is included. Free WHOIS privacy, DNS and transfer locks are standard at most registrars in this list, but check before you buy add-ons.

For full registrar reviews, see our best domain registrars guide, or put two registrars side by side with the domain registrar comparison tool.

Methodology

• Prices: the standard, publicly listed .com price on each registrar’s official pricing page, checked September 26 – October 4, 2026, in US dollars. Promotional coupons and volume discounts are excluded unless stated.
• Cost floor: $10.26 Verisign wholesale fee plus the $0.20 ICANN fee.
• Markup: listed renewal price minus $10.46, as a percentage of $10.46.
• Multi-year cost: first-year price plus renewals at today’s listed renewal price. It does not include future price changes, taxes or optional add-ons.
• Registrars: nine widely used registrars that publish .com prices. Registrars that bundle a domain only with a website plan (such as WordPress.com) are excluded.
• Limits: prices change often and can differ by country. Always confirm the price on the registrar’s site before buying.

Using This Data

You are welcome to cite or share these figures and charts. Please link to this page as the source: “.com Renewal Prices 2026” by Etemora (etemora.com).

Frequently Asked Questions

Sources

• Verisign .com wholesale increase to $10.97: Domain Name Wire, April 23, 2026
• .net increase to $12.00: Domain Name Wire, August 27, 2026
• Registrar prices: official pricing pages of Cloudflare, Dynadot, Porkbun, NameSilo, Namecheap, Hover, IONOS, Squarespace and GoDaddy (checked Sept 26 – Oct 4, 2026), as recorded in Etemora’s central price registry.

How we put this together: this report is research-based. Every price was read from the registrar’s own public pricing page and the wholesale figures come from the published Verisign announcement as reported by Domain Name Wire. We did not buy domains at each registrar, and we will update this page when prices change.