Domain Renewal Prices: Where a .com Stays Cheap
First-year domain pricing is marketing; renewal pricing is the product. This deep dive compares what a .com actually costs to keep, year after year — the numbers behind our best domain registrars rankings.
Disclosure: No link on this page earns us a commission. Where we do have a paid link elsewhere on the site, the page says so.
Summary verdict
The renewal-price verdict
Cloudflare Registrar renews .com at $10.46/yr — wholesale cost, zero markup — and Porkbun at a flat $11.08/yr, per our September 2026 verification. Namecheap renews around $14.78 after an ~$10.98 first year, and Gandi is the cautionary tale: $11 to register, $38.38 to renew. Over five years, that's roughly $53 at Cloudflare versus $164 at Gandi for the same domain.
Top pick
Cloudflare Registrar
At a glance
Comparison table
Cloudflare Registrar
At-cost renewals
- Starting price
- from $10.46/yr (.com)renews at $10.46/yr — at costVerified September 2026
- Ease
- 4 of 5
- Performance
- 5 of 5
- Support
- 3 of 5
- Migration
- Included
- Not included
Porkbun
Best low-cost registrar with great UX
- Starting price
- from $11.08/yr (.com)renews at $11.08/yrVerified September 2026
- Ease
- 5 of 5
- Performance
- 5 of 5
- Support
- 4 of 5
- Migration
- Included
- Paid add-on
Namecheap
Most domain registrations
- Starting price
- from ~$10.98 first year (.com)renews at ~$14.78/yrVerified September 2026
- Ease
- 5 of 5
- Performance
- 4 of 5
- Support
- 4 of 5
- Migration
- Included
- Paid add-on
| Provider | Best for | Starting price | Ease | Performance | Support | Migration | Get it | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Cloudflare RegistrarAt-cost domain renewals for existing Cloudflare users
|
At-cost renewals | from $10.46/yr (.com)renews at $10.46/yr — at costVerified September 2026 | Ease of use: 4 of 5 | Performance: 5 of 5 | Support: 3 of 5 | Included | Not included |
See current pricingNon-affiliate recommendation
|
|
PorkbunModern domain buyers who want low renewals and a clean UI
|
Best low-cost registrar with great UX | from $11.08/yr (.com)renews at $11.08/yrVerified September 2026 | Ease of use: 5 of 5 | Performance: 5 of 5 | Support: 4 of 5 | Included | Paid add-on |
See current pricingNon-affiliate recommendation
|
|
NamecheapMost domain registrations
|
Most domain registrations | from ~$10.98 first year (.com)renews at ~$14.78/yrVerified September 2026 | Ease of use: 5 of 5 | Performance: 4 of 5 | Support: 4 of 5 | Included | Paid add-on |
See current pricingNon-affiliate recommendation
|
Providers in this guide
Our picks, scored
Cloudflare Registrar
At-cost domain renewals for existing Cloudflare users
- Pricing
- from $10.46/yr (.com)renews at $10.46/yr — at costVerified September 2026
Pros
- +Wholesale pricing with no markup
- +Free WHOIS privacy
- +Tight integration with Cloudflare DNS
Cons
- −Requires a Cloudflare account
- −Limited TLD selection compared to large registrars
Confirm current pricing on the provider's site.
Visit Cloudflare RegistrarPorkbun
Modern domain buyers who want low renewals and a clean UI
- Pricing
- from $11.08/yr (.com)renews at $11.08/yrVerified September 2026
Pros
- +Low renewal pricing across most TLDs
- +Free WHOIS privacy and SSL
- +Modern, ad-free dashboard
Cons
- −Smaller brand than Namecheap or GoDaddy
- −Phone support not offered
Confirm current pricing on the provider's site.
Visit PorkbunNamecheap
Most domain registrations
- Pricing
- from ~$10.98 first year (.com)renews at ~$14.78/yrVerified September 2026
Pros
- +Competitive first-year and renewal pricing
- +Free WHOIS privacy
- +Reasonable UI for managing many domains
Cons
- −Upsells during checkout
- −Some TLDs cheaper elsewhere at renewal
Confirm current pricing on the provider's site.
Visit NamecheapThe three renewal-pricing models
At-cost: Cloudflare charges the Verisign registry fee plus the ICANN fee and nothing else — $10.46/yr at our July 2026 check, rising to roughly $11.17 after Verisign's announced November 2026 wholesale increase. When the wholesale price moves, the retail price moves by exactly that amount.
Flat: Porkbun ($11.08), Dynadot ($10.88), and Hover ($18.99) charge the same price to register, renew, and transfer. Hover's flat rate is high, but it's honest — no first-year bait.
Promo-then-standard: Namecheap (~$10.98 first year, ~$14.78 renewal) and Gandi ($11 first year, $38.38 renewal) discount year one and recover it later. Namecheap's ~1.35× step is defensible given its tooling — and notably its renewal rate came DOWN from the ~$18.48 we tracked in July 2026; Gandi's 3.5× step is the steepest registrar markup we track.
Five-year cost of one .com, at published July 2026 rates
Cloudflare: about $52.30. Dynadot: about $54.40. Porkbun: about $55.40. Namecheap: about $85.20. Hover: about $94.95. Gandi: about $164.50. Same domain, same DNS records — the only variable is the registrar's renewal policy.
Multiply by a portfolio and the numbers stop being trivia: ten domains for five years spans roughly $523 (Cloudflare) to $1,645 (Gandi). This is why our registrar rankings weight renewal price above almost everything else.
Best fit for
- +Owners budgeting what a domain costs to keep, not just to buy
- +Portfolio holders where a $7/yr renewal delta multiplies across dozens of domains
- +Anyone who's been surprised by a renewal invoice
Consider another option if
- −You want the full registrar rankings with DNS and usability weighed in — that's our best domain registrars page
- −You're comparing exotic TLDs — renewal patterns here are verified for .com specifically
- −You need aftermarket or premium-domain brokerage
Questions readers ask
FAQ
Ready to move forward?
Cloudflare Registrar is our top pick for this category.
Check current pricing on the provider's site — promos and renewal rates change frequently.
Keep reading
Related on Digital Hosting
- Best Domain Registrars — the full rankings →The category page: every registrar we cover, scored on more than renewal price.
- Hosting Renewal Price Index →The same intro-vs-renewal analysis across hosting, email, and domains.
- Porkbun vs Cloudflare Registrar →The two flat-renewal leaders, head to head.
Written and reviewed by
W. Miller — Editor, Digital Hosting
W. Miller is the founder of TetraCore, LLC, the software company that owns and publishes Digital Hosting, and has spent 35 years in software development, technology and related services, including cloud and hosting. The uptime monitoring and price-collection infrastructure behind this site's original research is built and run in-house.
See our affiliate disclosure and how we test and score providers.