Starting out
What a domain actually costs, and why the advertised price is not it
A domain has at least three prices, and the one on the advertisement is usually the least important of them.
The three numbers
Registration is what you pay for the first year. It is the number registrars compete on, and the number they discount hardest.
Renewal is what you pay every year after. It is set by the registry plus the registrar's margin, and it is what the domain actually costs to hold.
Transfer is what it costs to move the name to another registrar. A transfer adds a year, so it functions as a renewal that also changes who you pay.
How far apart they get
On .com the gap is modest: $1.00 to register, $9.98 to renew, about 898% more. That is normal and not a trap.
The extremes are not modest. Across everything we price, renewals run from $1.00 to $5,499 a year, and the median is $21.00. Some extensions renew at more than thirty times their first year — a sign-up under a dollar against a renewal over thirty. The renewal trap ranks them.
Why the five-year cost is the honest comparison
One year at the registration price plus four at the renewal price. It is not a clever metric; it is just the arithmetic nobody shows you. It reorders the table completely, because a cheap first year on an expensive renewal loses to a boring extension that charges the same every year.
Coupon codes are first-year codes
Nearly every code discounts registration only, and many carry conditions — one per customer, new customers only, transfers from a specific registrar. We show the codes we find with the conditions attached, and a registrar that is only cheapest once a code is applied does win its column — the price you can actually pay is the one worth comparing, and the code is printed beside it. The coupon list is sorted by what each code actually saves.
Before you buy
Check the renewal, not the sign-up. Check whether the extension has restrictions. Check whether a transfer after year one saves more than staying put. And confirm the total at the registrar's checkout, because taxes and payment fees are not in any published price list.