Prices Of .com Domain Names Set To Skyrocket

Verisign, the private company which administers the .com domain, will be allowed to increase prices by more than 70 pc over the next decade, Internet registration outfit ICANN has announced. This means the price of the domain names may go up for the first time in eight years.

The regulated price of .com registration has been frozen at sh790.10 ($7.85) since 2012. Consumers don’t normally see the price and may have paid more or less depending on the registrar but this is the price domain registrars ended up paying per registration.

The proposed agreement is expected to result in the price rising up to nearly Sh1358 ($13.50) per domain over the next 10 years.

Verisign, which has a contract to oversee .com domain will be free to raise the price by up to 7 pc every year over most of the next decade with the only exception being during 2024 and 2025 when the firm will be be required to pause price increases.

ICANN has also agreed to remove price restrictions on .org domain names despite a major outcry, .org domains, are normally used by non-profit organizations.

Just as non-profits will be required to pay more for .org domains, businesses or individuals looking to register new .com domains going forward will also feel the weight. The move has sparked a lot of debate and criticism all over the world.

In the end, it may be registrars that feel the biggest impact, followed by developers, and in Kenya that may mean taking bread off another struggling freelancer’s table. It gets worse.