NameSilo: the $3 domains that cost $39 to renew, and the ones that stay flat

NameSilo markets itself on flat pricing and low renewals, and for the classic extensions it earns that reputation — .com is $17.29 to register and $17.29 to renew, and .net is $15.95 both years (checked 2026-10-07). But the cheap headline prices in its first-year catalogue tell a very different story once the renewal invoice arrives. Here is where the gap is widest, using the prices listed on OneYearDeal's NameSilo business page.

The five extensions with the biggest first-year-to-renewal jump

• .store — $5.19 first year, $58.99 on renewal (11.4×).
• .online — $2.99 first year, $38.50 on renewal (12.9×).
• .site — $2.99 first year, $38.50 on renewal (12.9×).
• .live — $3.49 first year, $32.99 on renewal (9.5×).
• .shop — $2.99 first year, $38.99 on renewal (13.0×).

A $2.99 "deal" domain that costs $38.50 a year from year two is more expensive over five years than registering .dev at $10.99 first year and $14.99 renewal would have been — and .dev comes with HTTPS-forced HSTS for free. Five years of .online at NameSilo runs $2.99 + 4 × $38.50 = $156.99; five years of .dev runs $10.99 + 4 × $14.99 = $70.95. The "$2.99" domain costs more than twice as much.

The extensions where NameSilo genuinely stays flat

• .com — $17.29 registration, $17.29 renewal. No jump.
• .net — $15.95 registration, $15.95 renewal.
• .org — $14.99 registration, $14.99 renewal.
• .top — $1.88 first year, $4.88 renewal — a 2.6× jump, but the whole lifecycle stays under $25 over five years.

The mid-tier tells a middle story: .app is $10.99 then $16.99, .me is $9.99 then $19.99, .biz is $7.99 then $23.49, .info is $5.25 then $29.49, .cloud is $5.29 then $25.99, .co is $19.49 then $38.99, and .io is $38.99 then $69.99 — the same .io price pattern we covered in the Porkbun vs Spaceship vs Cloudflare comparison. For the biggest spreads like .io and .online, the renewal-trap arithmetic applies at full force.

Practical take

If you are buying a name you intend to keep, judge it by the renewal column, not the first-year price. On NameSilo the flat trio (.com / .net / .org) and .dev are the extensions where the sticker price is the real price. The $3 class (.online, .site, .shop, .store, .live) is fine for throwaway projects and launches you expect to retire — but at $32–$39 a year to keep, they are poor value past year two, when alternatives with permanent low renewals usually win.

Every figure above comes from the product rows listed on our NameSilo page, harvested from namesilo.com on 2026-10-07.