Where to buy .com domains at lowest cost
This post will list the prices of registering and maintaining a domain at the most popular domain registrars and hyper-scalers (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud).
Spoiler alert: Microsoft is $2 USD/year (HKD $15/year) if you only need a domain and no DNS resolver. Cloudflare at $11/year is slightly cheaper than Microsoft at $13/year if you factor in DNS resolver costs.
In a future post I will list out the additional common business costs such as website hosting and email.
Details
So what is a domain registrar? A domain registrar is an internet company that manages your domain name, such as, example.com. Domain registrars use Domain Name System (DNS) records to connect your domain name with email, websites, and other web services. Popular domain registrars include GoDaddy, Squarespace, and IONOS, to name a few. The three largest hyper-scalers also offer this commodity service.
What you want to accept during your company formation days is you are targeting for lowest recurring cost for owning your domain. This means what it will cost your business in year 2, 3, or more. Unless you plan to fail in your business after the first year, do not fall for promotional pricing that only applies to the first year.
For simplicity purposes the prices are:
- for three years of domain ownership only.
- exclusive of the costs for serving the domain.
- in US dollars.
Domain ownership-only costs
| Registrar | 1st year | 2nd year | 3rd year | Total Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GoDaddy | $5 | $22 | $22 | $49 |
| Network Solutions | $12 | $29 | $29 | $70 or $46** |
| NameCheap | $12 | $15 | $15 | $42 |
| IONOS | $1 | $20 | $20 | $41 |
| Cloudflare | $11 | $11 | $11 | $33 |
| Amazon (AWS) | $15 | $15 | $15 | $45 |
| Microsoft (Azure) | $2 | $2 | $2 | $6 |
| Google (SquareSpace) | $14 | $20 | $20 | $54 |
** Network Solutions: $46 for 3 years upfront
Domain ownership costs + DNS query costs
Most domain registrars do not charge based on DNS query volume because DNS lookups are generally considered part of the service. However, some providers and DNS hosting services (often separate from the registrar) do impose query-based pricing. There are two components to DNS query based pricing:
1, Queries - typically in units of per million queries at a cost of $0.50 or less.
2, Zone hosting - per zone hosting charges, also typically $0.50 or less.
For SMBs, the ratio of zone:domain is typically 1:1 so I won't elaborate further on what a zone is.
✅ Registrars That Typically Do NOT Charge for DNS Queries
- GoDaddy, Namecheap, Google Domains
These include DNS hosting as part of the domain registration without query-based fees.
⚠️ Services That May Charge for DNS Query Volume
- Cloudflare - Free and Pro plans include DNS without query limits, but Enterprise plans may have query-based billing.
- AWS Route 53 - also $0.50 per zone
- Azure DNS - also $0.50 per zone
- Google Cloud DNS - $0.20 per zone
Total domain costs (ownership + zone + query) for SMBs
Assumptions: 1 zone, 1m queries/month)
Factoring in the hosting costs, Cloudflare is the lowest cost option at $11, which is $2/year cheaper than Microsoft. This is assuming you use Cloudflare's free tier plan for your business. While I was unable to find any definitions for acceptable terms of use for the free tier plan, the description does say it's for personal or hobby use, and not for business use. If Cloudflare does change the terms and conditions in the future, that will be $20/month more ($240/year).
| Registrar | 1st year | 2nd year | 3rd year | Total Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GoDaddy | $5 | $22 | $22 | $49 |
| Network Solutions | $12 | $29 | $29 | $70 or $46** |
| NameCheap | $12 | $15 | $15 | $42 |
| IONOS | $1 | $20 | $20 | $41 |
| Cloudflare | $11 | $11 | $11 | $33 |
| Amazon (AWS) | $27 | $27 | $27 | $81 |
| Microsoft (Azure) | $13 | $13 | $13 | $39 |
| Google (SquareSpace) | $22 | $28 | $28 | $78 |
** Network Solutions: $46 for 3 years upfront
Conclusion
Does that mean should go with Cloudflare because it's the lowest cost? Maybe, if that's what you optimize for and simplicity is important also. Keep in mind the costs above do not include other critical parts of your business: a website, email, business apps (word processor, spreadsheets, etc) and storage for your documents. Cloudflare does not offer email.
Of course you can stitch together multiple low-cost solutions to get the lowest overall cost for your business, but you have to ask yourself whether the savings are worth it versus how much your time is worth and what percentage of your company's cost this portion contributes to. We are only talking about <$30/year after all.
Factoring in other costs like website hosting, email, etc. GoDaddy honestly cannot be beat. You don't need to read to review to understand why. There's a reason why they're the #1 solution for most businesses except enterprises. Take a look at GoDaddy pricing for bundles.
While the Amazon and Google costs seem to stick out compared to the rest, it really isn't that much money over 3 years. You might also be an AWS or Squarespace customer anyway, so there is some value there to you perhaps in receiving fewer bills or having less logins.
Appendix: Screenshots of domain prices
GoDaddy
Network Solutions
Note that Network Solutions has the option for paying up to 5 years upfront. For 3 years upfront, the cost is $46.
NameCheap
IONOS
IONOS has even offered $0 for the first year in the past, but I suspect they took that offer down due to fraud as they cannot make a $0 charge against a payment instrument like a credit card.
Amazon
From Amazon_Route_53_Domain_Registration_Pricing_20140731.pdf
Microsoft
The Hong Kong Dollars (HKD) price is converted at a rate of 7.8 HKD per 1 USD, and rounded up to the next US dollar. $15 HKD / 7.8 = ~$2 USD.
Google (via SquareSpace)
According to Google Domains:
On 15 June 2023, Google entered into a definitive agreement with Squarespace, indicating their intent to purchase all domain registrations and related customer accounts from Google Domains. When the transaction between Google and Squarespace closed on 7 September 2023, all Google Domains users became customers of Squarespace. As of 10 July 2024, all domains have migrated to Squarespace.
References
Pricing: