In a move that has surprised practically nobody, Verisign has announced that the wholesale fees for .com domain names will be going up.
From September 1st 2022 the wholesale cost for a .com domain name will increase to $8.97 (US dollars). The current wholesale price is $8.39.
The price rise is 7%, which is the maximum that Verisign is allowed under their current contract with ICANN, as Andrew explains.
Verisign does not sell .com domain names directly to the public, so the pricing that you pay is made up as follows:
Wholesale price + ICANN transaction fee + registrar markup
That calculation does not include credit card transaction fees, marketing, staff etc., etc.,
So you can expect to see the retail price of .com domain name registrations rise. However some registrars will offer discounts on registrations and transfers as part of their business model. In other cases the domains are bundled in with other services and not sold separately.
From a registrar perspective the price increase is not welcome, as the current market is quite price sensitive, so passing on the price increase will possibly cause some tensions. Registrars sell many domain names on razor thin margins.
Having said that, the price of a .com domain name is not “insanely high”. While the retail price will rise, it’s still a negligible cost for the average small business.
