--- title: "Domain Renewal Prices: .com Compared | Digital Hosting" url: https://digitalhosting.com/articles/domain-renewal-prices description: ".com renewal prices compared across registrars — from Cloudflare's $10.46 at-cost to Gandi's $38.38. Verified July 2026, with 5-year cost math per registrar." lang: en --- Domain Registrars Comparison # 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. Last updated: September 7, 2026 By: W. Miller (https://digitalhosting.com/about#authors), Editor, Digital Hosting — reviewed independently by the Digital Hosting editorial team. 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 from $10.46/yr (.com) renews at $10.46/yr — at cost Verified September 2026 Check current pricing (https://www.cloudflare.com/products/registrar/) At a glance ## Comparison table ### Cloudflare Registrar: https://digitalhosting.com/providers/cloudflare-registrar At-cost renewals Premium Pick Starting price Ease 4 of 5 Performance 5 of 5 Support 3 of 5 Migration Included Email Not included See current pricing: https://www.cloudflare.com/products/registrar/ ### Porkbun: https://digitalhosting.com/providers/porkbun Best low-cost registrar with great UX Best Overall Starting price from $11.08/yr (.com) renews at $11.08/yr Verified September 2026 Ease 5 of 5 Performance 5 of 5 Support 4 of 5 Migration Included Email Paid add-on See current pricing: https://porkbun.com/products/domains ### Namecheap: https://digitalhosting.com/providers/namecheap Most domain registrations Best Domain Registrar Starting price from ~$10.98 first year (.com) renews at ~$14.78/yr Verified September 2026 Ease 5 of 5 Performance 4 of 5 Support 4 of 5 Migration Included Email Paid add-on See current pricing: https://www.namecheap.com/domains/ | Provider | Best for | Starting price | Ease | Performance | Support | Migration | Email | Get it | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Cloudflare Registrar (https://digitalhosting.com/providers/cloudflare-registrar)At-cost domain renewals for existing Cloudflare users | At-cost renewals | from $10.46/yr (.com) renews at $10.46/yr — at cost Verified September 2026 | Ease of use: 4 of 5 | Performance: 5 of 5 | Support: 3 of 5 | Included | Not included | See current pricing (https://www.cloudflare.com/products/registrar/)Non-affiliate recommendation | | Porkbun (https://digitalhosting.com/providers/porkbun)Modern 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/yr Verified September 2026 | Ease of use: 5 of 5 | Performance: 5 of 5 | Support: 4 of 5 | Included | Paid add-on | See current pricing (https://porkbun.com/products/domains)Non-affiliate recommendation | | Namecheap (https://digitalhosting.com/providers/namecheap)Most domain registrations | Most domain registrations | from ~$10.98 first year (.com) renews at ~$14.78/yr Verified September 2026 | Ease of use: 5 of 5 | Performance: 4 of 5 | Support: 4 of 5 | Included | Paid add-on | See current pricing (https://www.namecheap.com/domains/)Non-affiliate recommendation | Providers in this guide ## Our picks, scored Best for renewals At-cost domain renewals for existing Cloudflare users 4.7 Editor score Pricing #### 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 Registrar (https://www.cloudflare.com/products/registrar/) Best overall registrar Modern domain buyers who want low renewals and a clean UI 4.8 Editor score Pricing #### 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 Visit Porkbun (https://porkbun.com/products/domains) Best mainstream registrar Most domain registrations 4.5 Editor score Pricing #### 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 Visit Namecheap (https://www.namecheap.com/domains/) ## The 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 We recommend keeping registration separate. If you ever change hosts, your domain stays under your control without a tense transfer. 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. Check current pricing: https://www.cloudflare.com/products/registrar/ 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.: https://digitalhosting.com/best-domain-registrars - Hosting Renewal Price Index → The same intro-vs-renewal analysis across hosting, email, and domains.: https://digitalhosting.com/articles/hosting-renewal-prices - Porkbun vs Cloudflare Registrar → The two flat-renewal leaders, head to head.: https://digitalhosting.com/articles/porkbun-vs-cloudflare Written and reviewed by W. Miller (https://digitalhosting.com/about#authors) — 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 (https://digitalhosting.com/affiliate-disclosure) and how we test and score providers (https://digitalhosting.com/how-we-test). ## Structured data ```json [ { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "WebSite", "name": "Digital Hosting", "url": "https://digitalhosting.com" }, { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "Organization", "name": "Digital Hosting", "url": "https://digitalhosting.com", "logo": "https://digitalhosting.com/og-image.png", "email": "hello@digitalhosting.com", "description": "Independent hosting review site — comparisons for web hosting, VPS, WordPress hosting, business email, and domain registration. 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