There are three ways to buy a domain name: register one nobody owns, buy one someone else owns, or catch one as it expires. I’ve bought names all three ways. Most of mine come from the first and third routes, and I’ve only bought from an owner a couple of times.
Here’s how each one works, what it costs, and where people get burned.
1. Register a new name
If nobody owns the name, you can register it in a few minutes at any registrar: search for it, add it to your cart, and pay. I register most of mine at GoDaddy.
The catch is the renewal price. It’s common for a registrar’s first-year price to be lower than what it charges to renew, so check the renewal price before you buy. You’ll pay that every year after the first, and over a few years it matters more than the first-year deal.
Once the name is yours, do four things:
- Turn on auto-renew. Registrars have to send at least two renewal reminders, about a month and a week before expiry, but a missed email is the easiest way to lose a name.
- Turn on the transfer lock (often called registrar lock), so nobody can move the name to another registrar without you unlocking it first.
- Secure the account with a strong password you don’t use anywhere else and two-step authentication.
- Use an email address that doesn’t depend on the domain. My rule: never make the account contact an address at the same domain. If the domain lapses, its email stops working, and the renewal notices go nowhere. ICANN gives the same advice.
2. Buy a name someone already owns
This is the route I’ve used least, so I’ll stick to how it works.
Check whether it’s already for sale. Many names listed for sale on Afternic show up right in GoDaddy’s search results with a Buy Now price, and some also offer Lease to Own, which lets you pay in monthly installments. If there’s a price, the decision is simply whether it’s worth it to you.
If it isn’t listed, contact the owner. Even when the owner’s details are hidden, there are ways to reach them. I covered those in how to find who owns a domain. Keep the first message short:
- Say you’re interested in buying the name and ask whether they’d consider selling.
- Don’t explain your big plans for it. The more valuable the name sounds to you, the higher the price tends to go.
- Ask them to name a price, or make a modest first offer you can raise later.
- Expect silence. Plenty of owners never answer, and one follow-up is enough.
Or pay a broker to do it. GoDaddy’s Domain Broker Service charges a non-refundable $99.99 per domain plus a 20% commission on the sale price. The broker keeps your identity anonymous and negotiates between the minimum and maximum you set, but GoDaddy says it can’t guarantee it will get the name.
Know what it’s worth before you offer. I use the framework in domain name valuation to set my ceiling before any conversation starts.
Close it safely. Pay through an escrow service (I typically use escrow.com) or the marketplace’s own checkout, never by sending money straight to a stranger and hoping the name arrives.
One more thing to know: under ICANN’s Transfer Policy as it stands today, a registrar can refuse to move a name to another registrar within 60 days of a previous transfer, and a change of owner triggers a 60-day transfer lock unless the registrar lets you opt out. So if you buy a name and want it at your own registrar, you may have to wait. ICANN’s Board approved changes to these transfer rules in June 2026, but they don’t have an effective date yet.
3. Catch a name as it expires
When an owner doesn’t renew, the name doesn’t become available right away. The registrar may give the owner an auto-renew grace period of 1 to 45 days to renew. If the name is then deleted, the registry holds it for a 30-day redemption grace period, during which only the owner can restore it. Only after that does it drop and become available to everyone. (To see where a name is in that cycle, start with its expiration date. If it’s your own name that lapsed, you may still be able to transfer it.)
That gives you two chances to get it:
- Expired-domain auctions. Some registrars, GoDaddy among them, auction their customers’ expired names before they ever drop. At GoDaddy, for example, an expired GoDaddy-registered name appears in its Expired Domains Auction about 26 days after expiry, and in a final closeout auction about 36 days after.
- Backorders. If nobody buys it and the name drops, a backorder service tries to register it the moment it’s released. At Dynadot, if more than one person backordered the same name, it goes to an auction between them. GoDaddy stopped selling new backorders in August 2024 and now points buyers to its auctions and its Domain Broker Service instead.
I use most of the big platforms: GoDaddy, NameJet, SnapNames, Namecheap, and Dynadot. In my experience, GoDaddy is the most accessible, so it also has the most competition. A backorder is an attempt, not a guarantee. The good names attract a lot of backorders and bidders.
Leave your ego at the door. If you bid on an expiring name, don’t get into a bidding war, especially over a domain that isn’t worth that much. Before you place your first bid, put a value to the domain and set your ceiling. If the bidding goes over it, let it go. There will be many more domains worth your time and money.
The three routes at a glance
| Route | What you pay | How fast | Main risk |
|---|---|---|---|
| Register a new name | The registration fee, then the renewal price every year | Minutes | A cheap first year that hides a higher renewal |
| Buy from the owner | Whatever the owner accepts, plus fees (a broker adds a fee and 20%) | Days to weeks, if the owner answers at all | Overpaying, or a deal that never closes |
| Catch it as it expires | The winning auction bid or the backorder price | About a month or more after the name expires | Losing to other bidders, or getting caught in a bidding war |
Whichever route you take, decide what the name is worth to you before you start, and stick to it.
Top photo: Thomas Lefebvre / Wikimedia Commons (CC0).
Sources
- 10corp: Understanding domain pricing
- Dynadot: What is a backorder?, How do I bid in your backorder auctions?
- ICANN: 5 things every registrant should know about the Expired Registration Recovery Policy, How to protect your domain name against hijacking, Transfer Policy, Board resolutions of June 7, 2026
- Afternic: Lease to Own in GoDaddy search
- GoDaddy: Domain Broker Service, What happens after domain names expire?, GoDaddy phases out domain backorders
