How Much Does a Domain Cost? The Cheapest Way to Register One in 2026
By Thomas Lovas Lokoy — researched and drafted with AI assistance, then fact-checked and approved by Thomas before publishing · Editorial policy
The answer in one line
The cheapest way to register a domain is to ignore the first-year price and compare renewal prices, because you pay the first-year price once and the renewal price every year after.
Everything below is the working behind that sentence, using prices read from each registrar's own published price list on 1 August 2026, with Porkbun's list re-read on 4 October 2026. If you are new to the vocabulary of registries, registrars and renewals, what a domain name is and how registration works explains it first.
How much does it cost to register a domain?
For a .com, expect a yearly price in the low tens of US dollars at a mainstream registrar: Porkbun's published list showed $11.08 to register and $11.08 to renew on both 1 August and 4 October 2026, and Namecheap's .com page showed $18.48 to renew on 1 August 2026. Newer extensions are where the price swings: some cost a couple of dollars in year one and many times that at renewal.
This is Porkbun's own published price list, read on 4 October 2026, for the extensions people search for most:
| Extension | First year | Renewal | Renewal vs first year |
|---|---|---|---|
| .com | $11.08 | $11.08 | Same |
| .net | $12.52 | $12.52 | Same |
| .org | $7.98 | $11.84 | Higher |
| .co | $15.76 | $31.20 | About 2x |
| .io | $28.12 | $51.80 | About 1.8x |
| .xyz | $2.04 | $14.21 | About 7x |
| .online | $1.96 | $28.84 | About 15x |
| .store | $2.57 | $43.77 | About 17x |
| .ai | $82.70 | $82.70 | Same |
One registrar's list, one day. Other registrars charge different amounts for the same extension, and every price here can change without notice. The point the table makes does not change: the renewal column is the cost of owning the domain.
On top of the registry's price, ICANN charges accredited registrars a transaction fee of US$0.20 per domain-year, according to ICANN's registrar fees page. Some registrars show it as a separate line, others build it in. Our explainer on the ICANN fee and other invoice lines covers what else can appear at checkout. If this is your first purchase, how to buy a domain name walks through the checkout and the upsells to decline.
Why the first-year price is the wrong number
The standard playbook is a cheap first year followed by a much higher renewal. It works because the first year is what appears in search results, comparison tables and ads, and the renewal is what appears on your card eighteen months later, when switching has become a chore.
Here is how fast the advertised number moves. We read Namecheap's own .com page on 25 July 2026 and again on 1 August 2026:
| Read on | Promotional first year | Standing register | Renew |
|---|---|---|---|
| 25 July 2026 | $10.98 | $14.98 | $18.48 |
| 1 August 2026 | $11.28 | $14.98 | $18.48 |
The promotional figure changed within eight days. The standing rate and the renewal did not move at all.
That is the whole argument. A first-year price is marketing copy with a short shelf life. A renewal price is the product. Any comparison table built on first-year prices — including most of the ones ranking for this query — is comparing the least durable number available.
What we could and could not verify
Being straight about this matters more than filling a table.
Prices we read from the registrar's own published list on 1 August 2026:
| Registrar | .com register | .com renew | Source read |
|---|---|---|---|
| Porkbun | $11.08 | $11.08 | Public pricing endpoint |
| Gandi | $11.00 | $38.38 list | Per-TLD page, USD forced |
| Namecheap | $14.98 ($11.28 promo) | $18.48 | .com pricing page |
| NameSilo | $17.29 | Not published on that page | Published price list |
Registrars we could not capture a price for, and why:
- Cloudflare Registrar publishes no per-TLD figure anywhere. It sells at registry cost, so the price is whatever the registry charges on the day. You see it only after searching inside your dashboard.
- GoDaddy renders in EUR from our egress rather than USD. Storing a euro figure in a dollar column would be a currency error, so we publish nothing.
- SAV.com, Spaceship, Hover, Squarespace Domains, domain.com, eNom, Network Solutions and Register.com either publish no public price table or return a price only after a per-domain search.
- Dynadot and Name.com render their tables in the browser; a scripted read returns an empty shell. (A scripted read of Dynadot's table on 16 October 2026 did return prices, in euros for our connection; our Dynadot review lists them.)
Our comparison table marks these "Not captured" rather than showing a number. A registrar with no captured price is not expensive — it is unknown, and ranking an unknown as if it were a number is how comparison sites end up lying by accident.
Five-year cost, where every input is verified
A multi-year total is only as good as its worst input. One guessed renewal price and the total is fiction with decimal places. So this table covers only the three registrars where we verified both the register and the renew figure on 1 August 2026:
| Registrar | Year 1 | Years 2–5 | 5-year total | Working |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Porkbun | $11.08 | $11.08 × 4 | $55.40 | Flat rate, no step-up |
| Namecheap | $11.28 promo | $18.48 × 4 | $85.20 | $88.90 at the standing $14.98 |
| Gandi | $11.00 | $38.38 × 4 | $164.52 | $149.16 using Gandi's discounted $34.54 multi-year renewal |
Gandi is the clearest illustration of the pattern in this whole article: its first-year .com is the cheapest of the three, and its five-year cost is nearly three times Porkbun's. An $11.00 opening price sitting on a $38.38 renewal.
We have deliberately not computed five-year totals for the other registrars. We do not have verified renewal figures for them, and a precise-looking total built from a guessed component is a fabricated number wearing a maths costume.
Factor in WHOIS privacy separately
Privacy is a line item at some registrars and included at others, and it is large enough to change the ranking.
Namecheap's .com page states privacy is "FREE for life". Porkbun and Gandi include it. Where a registrar charges for it, add that annual fee to every year of your total, not just the first — and check the figure on their own site, because add-on pricing moves at least as often as domain pricing does.
Our guide to what WHOIS privacy actually protects covers what you are buying, which is less than most people assume.
The bulk and transfer angles
Bulk. Several registrars price by volume tier. NameSilo's published list, for instance, quotes a lower .com rate at higher quantities. If you are registering at portfolio scale, read the tier table rather than the headline — the bulk registration guide covers the traps.
Serial transferring. Some people move domains annually to chase first-year promos. It technically works: a transfer adds a year to your expiry. It also risks failed transfers, 60-day locks after registration or a contact change, and the administrative overhead of tracking it across a portfolio. For most people, choosing a registrar with a fair renewal and staying put costs less in total. The transfer guide covers the mechanics.
How to actually get the cheapest domain
1. Decide the extension first. A .com and a .store are not the same market. Renewal multiples on newer extensions can run past 15× the first year — see the Porkbun review for a worked example from a single published price list. 2. Find the renewal price before you buy. If a registrar will not show you one before checkout, that is information. 3. Multiply by how long you will hold it. Five years is a realistic minimum for anything you are building on. 4. Add privacy if it is not included. 5. Check the nameserver terms if you care where your DNS lives — at least one at-cost registrar requires you to use its own.
For the field side by side, see our best domain registrars 2026 roundup, and for how the two most-searched names compare, Namecheap vs Cloudflare Registrar and Namecheap vs GoDaddy. If you are buying for a business rather than a side project, the same prices worked through as a five-year total are in best domain registrar for small business — the cheapest first year and the cheapest five years are not the same registrar.
Prices change without notice. Every figure above was read from the named registrar's own published price list on the date stated (1 August 2026; Porkbun's list again on 4 October 2026) — confirm the current price on their site before you buy.
Your next step
Pick the extension, then compare two registrars on the renewal price for that extension. If you want a mainstream registrar with free WHOIS privacy, check Namecheap's current .com price or Spaceship's and read the renewal line before you pay. New to this? Our walkthrough on registering your first domain covers checkout step by step. If the name you want is already registered, how to buy a domain that is taken covers the costs around the price.
Frequently asked questions
How much does it cost to register a domain name?
A .com at a mainstream registrar costs roughly US$11 to US$19 a year on the published lists we read: Porkbun showed $11.08 to register and renew (1 August and 4 October 2026) and Namecheap showed $18.48 to renew (1 August 2026). Other extensions on Porkbun's list ranged from about $2 in year one (.online, .xyz) to more than $80 a year for .ai.
Why is the renewal price higher than the first-year price?
The first year is often a promotional rate that registrars use to win the sale. The renewal rate is the standing price you pay every following year, which is why it decides what a domain really costs you.
Is there a fee on top of the domain price?
Yes. ICANN charges accredited registrars US$0.20 per domain-year on registrations, renewals and transfers. Some registrars list it separately at checkout, others include it in the price.
Which registrar is cheapest over five years?
Of the three registrars where we verified both the register and renew price on 1 August 2026, Porkbun had the lowest five-year .com total ($55.40), then Namecheap ($85.20) and Gandi ($164.52). Gandi had the cheapest first year of the three, which shows why the first-year price misleads.
Are cheap .online or .store domains worth it?
Only if you have priced the renewal. On Porkbun's list on 4 October 2026, .online cost $1.96 in year one and $28.84 to renew, and .store $2.57 then $43.77. Over a few years they can cost more than a .com.
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