Are there any $1.00 or less .com domain registrars?

[othellotech]

Domainsarefree.com is owned by Globat. It may very well be that their goal is not necessarily to sell domains, but to promote their other services (like hosting). Domain registering has a low markup and is increasingly used as a loss leader. I don't really follow their pricing policy, but they might want to increase the number of opportunities to contact the customers (like yearly) and push additional services.

A number of the biggies like 1&1 sell domains at below cost in order to bombard you with offers for their other services - in volume it can work, but its a risky tactic.

To the OP - you have to ask why someone would sell you something for $6 less than it costs them to provide it - what are the downsides ?
poor/no support ?
possible loss of domain if they go bust ?
etc.

A long time ago (well 1996) I registered a .com through a cheapy domain reseller at below the then price of $70, they went bust, had their email addresses etc down for all the contacts, and them as admin.

Whilst the company was in administrative liquidation, none of the domains were renewed that they'd been paid to do, and eventually the domian was lost, grabbed by a squatter who wanted (and AFAIUI still does) expect $10,000 for it

So all the branding, advertising, incoming weblinks, letterheads and business cards and potentially important emails were all lost - just to save $10/year !

Remember you generally get what you pay for ...

 

[Artashes]

Rob, sorry to hear about your story. That's one position nobody wants to be in. I guess a lesson well learned. Unfortunately there are still hundreds, if not thousands of consumers who fall for the same low-cost promises and end up losing more than what they saved.

 

[ldcdc]

So all the branding, advertising, incoming weblinks, letterheads and business cards and potentially important emails were all lost - just to save $10/year !

Ouch! Talk about a hard learned lesson..

 

[bandboy]

Expecting domains for less than market price (average) is ridiculous. It is better to go without domains rather than put all your hard work promoting domain, only to be lost to someone else who will then make money on effort you invested on domain lost.

I don't think any sensible reseller would sell .com for less than $6.25 atleast, except Yahoo small business. Again, yahoo small business has autorenew policy in place and CC used is charged automatically.

 

[Artashes]

I don't think any sensible reseller would sell .com for less than $6.25 atleast, except Yahoo small business. Again, yahoo small business has autorenew policy in place and CC used is charged automatically.

At least we know Yahoo! isn't going out of business anytime soon. Domains is probably not the main source of their income.

 

[bandboy]

At least we know Yahoo! isn't going out of business anytime soon. Domains is probably not the main source of their income.

Yeah, but then why would they still sell domains for paltry $1.95 and bear the loss?
Loss leader concept still doesn't impress me or may be i am not thinking that way.

 

[paivifabritius]

i had register with ***********.info they usually offer at 1.99

 

[Brooke-TP]

Expecting domains for less than market price (average) is ridiculous. It is better to go without domains rather than put all your hard work promoting domain, only to be lost to someone else who will then make money on effort you invested on domain lost.

I don't think any sensible reseller would sell .com for less than $6.25 atleast, except Yahoo small business. Again, yahoo small business has autorenew policy in place and CC used is charged automatically.

When you consider merchant fees and salaries for support staff $6.22 (ICANN recently lowered their per domain fee) even becomes less than cost.

 

[Noel_Colo-UK]

I would not buy any domains that were only $1 it is not sustainable with all the fees. Chances are you would only lose out in the long run so spend the extra few dollars

 

[vishi]

i don't think there is any such registrar who use to give .com @ $1.00, u can only get it with some hosting packages, so its useless to search just .com domain at this price

 

[Brooke-TP]

i don't think there is any such registrar who use to give .com @ $1.00, u can only get it with some hosting packages, so its useless to search just .com domain at this price

Admittedly we did at one point in time offer domains for less than cost. They were $5.00 a year and we did not require that hosting be purchased with the domain. The idea was that losing a couple of dollars on each domain was less expensive than some more traditional advertising methods, so that when it was time for a customer to choose a hosting provider they would think, "Gee, I should go with that company I got my domain from."