Verisign, the company that manages the registry database of all .com and .net domains on the Internet, had earlier announced that the registration /renewal fees for .com and .net domains would go up on January 15, 2012.
Verisign will increase the registry fee for .com domain names from $7.34 to $7.85 while the registry fee for .net domain names will increase from $4.65 to $5.11. ICANN, the organization that oversees the distribution of domain names, charges a 18% fee which should further increase the price of .com domains to $8 according to Domain Wire.
This effectively means that, starting January, the various domain registrars – like GoDaddy or Namecheap who sell .com and .net domain names to consumers – will have to pay a higher fee to Verisign and they are very likely to pass that cost increase to consumers.
Thus, if you own a couple of .net or .com domains that are pending renewal, it may be a good idea to renew them in the next 60 days and save some money. And in case you are wondering how some domain registrars manage to sell domain names for as low as $5 while paying a higher fee to Verisign, it’s because they make money by selling other related services like hosting, private whois, etc.