If you are tracking a potential .com domain price increase in 2026, the answer is no longer as simple as it looked.
As of September 1, 2024, Verisign’s wholesale fee for .com domains is per year.
Then, after the November 2024 renewal of the .com Registry Agreement, Verisign says the current six-year pricing period began on October 26, 2024, with price increases of up to 7% allowed in each of the final four years of that term. In other words, 2025 was a pause, but 2026 puts .com price movement back on the table.
This is not only a .com story. In the Netherlands, SIDN says the 2026 basic registry price for a .nl domain is €4.38 excluding VAT, and it explicitly notes that it adjusts prices annually as its own goods, services, and personnel costs rise
Add .net, where Verisign is contractually allowed to raise prices by up to 10% annually through mid-2029, and the broader picture becomes clear: registry costs are not uniformly exploding, but upward pressure is real enough that web hosters, MSPs, and digital agencies should treat pricing as a margin and renewal-planning issue, not a background detail.
Domain prices increase selectively, even as the market stabilizes
Verisign reported 169.8 million .com and .net registrations at the end of Q1 2025 (down 1.5% Y.o.Y), but by Q3 2025 it reported 171.9 million (up 1.4% Y.o.Y).
Separately, Verisign’s DNIB data says total domain registrations across all TLDs reached 368.4 million in Q1 2025 and 386.9 million in Q4 2025.
So the current trend does not exactly draw a shrink; instead, it is something closer to registry fees remaining firm while demand shifts unevenly across TLDs and markets.
Is there a .com domain price increase in 2026?
The renewed .com Registry Agreement runs through November 30, 2030, and Verisign says the current six-year period began on October 26, 2024.
Under that agreement, .com prices may rise by up to 7% in each of the final four years of the six-year period. That does not guarantee a 2026 increase, but it does mean the contractual path for further increases is open again.
SIDN and .nl pricing show the pressure is broader than .com
SIDN’s official 2026 registry price for .nl TLDs is €4.38 excluding VAT.
SIDN also states that it adjusts prices annually because its own costs rise year on year. Meanwhile, SIDN’s market reporting shows .nl contracted in 2025, ending the year at almost 6.06 million names, while cancellations outpaced new registrations.
That is evidence for a broader point: registry pricing and renewal behavior increasingly interact, especially when customers prune portfolios or centralize web properties.
What a .com price increase means for web hosters, MSPs, or digital agencies
A registry-level increase does not just affect acquisition pricing, but compounds across renewals, existing portfolios, and bundled services.
For businesses managing hundreds or thousands of domains, the real issue is about whether your pricing model absorbs those changes without turning renewals into a margin leak.
How do you cope with this as a hosting provider?
As a hosting provider, you might be concerned about the rising prices of established TLDs like .com and .nl and the potential decrease in demand.
Are your customers registering fewer domains, letting their domains expire, or opting for cheaper or free alternatives? if you’re reluctant to raise your prices in fear of scaring customers away? Take a look at the wholesale pricing model built over Openprovider Memberships
- Cost price access: as an Openprovider’s Member, resellers get access to registration, renewals and transfers for domains at cost price – so you pay the same prices for them as we do at the registry.
- Exclusive discounts: you’ll also get exclusive discounts on bundle-able products to boost your margins and bind your customers to you. Our prices on Plesk licenses are some of the lowest on the market, and our Member-exclusive business email solution gives you access to email boxes starting at just $0.70 per month.
Even if you have just a few domains, a Membership can help you save.
More about how Membership savings work for the smallest Membership tier (Basic S) in this video:
Want to discover the other tiers? Click here to see how much you can save, or read the stories of our existing customers of various sizes.
Protect yourself from TLDs’ price increase in 2026
Become an Openprovider Member and get domain operations at the lowest prices on the market – no hidden charges or service fees, ever. Start saving and stretch your budget further than ever before – even the smallest Membership tier guarantees up to 6X ROI!
We’ll help you get started. Transferring your domain portfolio to Openprovider is simple – our transfer robots have successfully handled over 100,000+ automated domain transfers. We have also done hundreds of registry bulk transfers for European ccTLDs, such as .nl, .be, .fr, and .eu. With our transfer experts, your domain portfolio is in capable hands.
