Tucows Reduces Wholesale Domain Name Pricing
How’s this for a radical idea: Charge less for each domain, then add more services and features and then fully explain where every penny of each transaction goes. It sounds crazy, but that’s exactly what we’re doing starting today.
Historically at Tucows, we’ve listed two separate fees for each domain name transaction: the domain price charged by Tucows and the ICANN fee charged in addition to the price. Starting on August 25 we’ll list three line items for each new purchase, renewal or transfer: the price we’re charged by the registry, the ICANN fee, and a management fee Tucows charges on each sale.
You won’t be able to see the management fee as a separate line item in your accounts until August 25, but we’ve already implemented the new pricing structure behind the scenes. Effective today our prices are based on this new management fee model. Our new base price for a .COM name, for example, has dropped from $10.05 to $9.20:
Here’s how that price breaks down:
- Cost of a .COM domain name, charged by the registry to Tucows: $6.00
- ICANN fee: $0.20
- Tucows management fee: $3.00
Total: $9.20
.com, .net, .org, .info and .biz all get this cost breakdown treatment and a price drop.
As a customer, what do you get with this management fee? Quite a bit:
- Free Name Suggestion Tool powered by DomainsBot
- 50% of net domain parking revenue
- The ability to sell any of hundreds of thousands of premium domain names
- Access to a library of APIs and web-based tools for provisioning and management of domains
- Technical support.
And starting on September 1st we’ll be adding even more value with:
- Free WHOIS Privacy
- Free Managed DNS
We’re sure you’ll agree that this new pricing structure provides much more clarity into where your money goes when a domain is purchased through Tucows.
[...] For more details, see our news release and our blog article. [...]
Pingback by Global Nerdy » Blog Archive » Tucows Wholesale Domain Names Just Got Cheaper — August 7, 2007 @ 1:58 pm
Nice, but too late. My client’s domains are elsewhere already.
Comment by David — August 7, 2007 @ 5:44 pm
RRC still has the old pricing at https://rrc.tucows.com/wholesale_services/index_html
Comment by Joseph — August 7, 2007 @ 8:51 pm
Okay. It has been updated since that comment!
Comment by Joseph — August 8, 2007 @ 10:25 am
[...] Note the Cost column. That reflects the wholesale cost of the domain if the registration is processed. The wholesale price of a .com domain is currently $9.85, but that’s dropping soon — see this article for more details. [...]
Pingback by Tucows Services » Tucows Developer Blog > Blog Archive » XCP Command #4: sw_register, Part 1 — August 10, 2007 @ 6:27 pm
I’d like to see the management fee be far less… maybe even 0. Hopefully revenues from the additional services can eventually keep TuCows where they need to be and there will be no need to profit from the act of passing a record over to the “registry”.
Comment by Ray Powell — August 15, 2007 @ 12:36 pm
I think it is a great start, we have supported Tucows from 2000 and I do not mind paying the meagre management fee as it goes towards staff salaries that ultimately improve the service and value-add. Well done Tucows!
Comment by Ashul Shah — August 18, 2007 @ 5:54 am
Tucows seems to be finally ‘getting it’ — it is no longer competitive in pricing and services.
Its customer service toward wholesale resellers lags far behind competitors like godaddy.
Hope Tucows management considers improving its services to its wholesale resellers and pricing too, promptly. This is a start. But a looooong overdue start in catching up.
Comment by frustrated reseller — August 18, 2007 @ 7:40 am
“domain name suggestion tool powered by DomainsBot” = silly trinket
“a 50% share of net domain parking advertising revenues” = i must pay for the privilege of getting 50% of revenue from something i don’t use? i really don’t understand why paying you a management fee should enable a service that generates revenue on its own
“and the ability to sell domains from a portfolio of hundreds of thousands of premium domain names from the domain aftermarket” = again, i have to pay for something that i don’t use, and that generates you revenue anyway?
I’m pleased about the price reduction - but as David says, it’s far far too long coming. I’ve lost so many domain registration customers to godaddy over the years it’s not funny. And your ‘transparency’ in the price breakdown is weak.. surely you provide something more valuable than the three points you listed above?
Comment by Chris — August 19, 2007 @ 10:10 pm
Thank you all for the comments, the feedback is greatly appreciated. Regarding our Name Suggestion and Premium Domain Name tools, we’re trying to address an issue customers have to continually wrestle with — although the number of domains registered worldwide continues to increase, the number of “good” names available is depleting.
Also keep an eye out for free WHOIS Privacy and Managed DNS starting September 1.
Thanks again for the feedback.
–adam
Comment by Adam — August 21, 2007 @ 12:24 pm
You get what you pay for.
I’ve heard horror stories of GoDaddy evilness, just go to google and type ‘godaddy stole my domain’ and see what comes up. Their control panel is horrible, and it feels like a used car lot. It feels like you’re pressured into buying more of their crappy service.
Tucows has ALWAYS been good to me. Rock solid.
In the age of wal-marts and chinese toothpaste, I’d rather pay $3 per domain for a management fee then cry about it. $3 isn’t the end of my profit margin - I sell service. (for a lot more)
Comment by Andy Goodwin — August 22, 2007 @ 9:10 am
where is the login? I need to do something with my domain.
Comment by Vince — August 23, 2007 @ 12:12 am
@Vince - If you’re a wholesale customer looking for our web administration system (the RWI), you can reach it by logging in here: https://rrc.tucows.com/. If you’re looking to manage your own domain name and don’t know your who your registration service provider is, please visit our Domain Help page: http://domainhelp.tucows.com/ .
Comment by Leona Hobbs — August 23, 2007 @ 10:29 am
Well said, Andy Goodwin! I’ve always been very happy with Tucows service! As important as price is to remain competitive, even more so is SERVICE. It’s not often, but when I do call for support, it’s been very productive and efficient. Our domain name sales have grown as a result of personal handling. It has also been an education in helping new and existing clients regain control of their domain names from particular registrars. Thank you Tucows!
Comment by Doug McCann — August 24, 2007 @ 9:15 pm
It would be nice to see all wholesale prices as it show Enom.
Comment by Alexander — August 25, 2007 @ 8:56 pm
Technical support!? Ha! Have you tried e-mailing tucows recently? You’re sure of a sarcastic reply . . . that’s if you get one at all!
Comment by Michael Parsons — August 28, 2007 @ 9:31 am
Customer service is precisely the reason I’ve stayed with Tucows, and precisely the reason I wouldn’t go with a completely untrustworthy operation like GoDaddy. Comparing these two companies on a customer service ticket is like comparing chalk and cheese. I do not think that phrase means what you think it means.
I’d like to see Tucows reduce their management fee too, but not if it’s at the expense of quality, and certainly not to a level of €0 with the intention of recouping the costs at other points. Like the low-fares airline industry, low fees equals low quality and zero customer service, and that should be left to others.
adam
Comment by dahamsta — August 29, 2007 @ 5:55 am
We are all glad a price reduction did finally come in. And indeed a fact that domain privacy and DNS management is free. Godaddy charges $8.99 per year for domain privacy after the first year free, and its a pathetic task to actually renew the domain next year WITHOUT the domain privacy. I think I am transferring all my domains from godaddy back intoi Tucows.
Comment by Karan Goyal — September 5, 2007 @ 9:42 pm
I love that OpenSRS is finally getting on the bandwagon! However, WHERE will be make DNS modifications? I haven’t seen anything show up in the admin or in the domain manager yet.
Comment by Tara — September 10, 2007 @ 3:01 pm
Tara — thanks for the comment. DNS still works the same as before: an order must be placed via the RWI2. We’re looking at ways to improve this process.
You can get more information on the ordering process here:
http://documentation.tucows.com/dns_rwi2ug.pdf
Cheers
–adam
Comment by Adam — September 10, 2007 @ 3:50 pm
Regarding: “Tara — thanks for the comment. DNS still works the same as before: an order must be placed via the RWI2. We’re looking at ways to improve this process.”
I hope you improve it because as it stands now it is really inconvenient for a couple of reasons.
I hate having to give all that customer information to create a login to sell anything, especially something that is now free. It is just a pain in the hind end and is a waste of time. I can understand why you would need their login name, password and possibly email address. But why their street address, business name, phone #?
The user should be able to log into their domain and select domain privacy and DNS from their screen. I hope this is going to happen.
As a side note, I ordered managed DNS for one of my domains, but cannot see where one manages the DNS. The order is listed as completed.
Roger
Comment by Roger — September 27, 2007 @ 6:42 pm
Roger — I agree it’s a pain, and we’re looking at different ways to alleviate that pain.
When you say ‘manage’ the DNS, do you mean as a reseller or end user? Please give our support team a call or drop them a line, they will be able to help you out.
Thanks for the comment.
–adam
Comment by Adam — September 28, 2007 @ 9:47 am
We use our own DNS to serve all our clients since long time ago when tucows not even think about provide DNS service, I don’t think we should now change all customers’ domain to use tucows DNS, is it possibile to deduct the management fee so my cost can be more down and compete to other domain resellers in my market ? Also, if it is possibile that you can create an API that can cancel the domain registered within 24 hours ( or maybe longer)? That way maybe we can provide our customers register domain first and pay within 24 hours, that will help and also lock the domain for a while in case the user browse to another site and decide not buying from you although you provide a good tools to help him find a good domain that he can register with.
Comment by James — October 23, 2007 @ 1:36 am
Smart move, although the management fee is high compared with other wholesale registrars out there. To be able to continue registering domains with tucows pricing will probably have to drop a bit more than this.
Comment by Aaron — October 30, 2007 @ 10:25 pm
I’ve used 1and1.com and been satisfied with their domain registration - $7 for premium domains with free privacy. I haven’t needed support so no comment there. I’m not a reseller so maybe this doesn’t apply, but what is the value of Tucows if I can get cheaper domains elsewhere?
Comment by liahona — December 7, 2007 @ 1:05 pm
I’ve yet to use the service from Tucows, but am interested. Everyone keeps claiming that the service at godaddy is crap. I’ve never had a bad experience with their services.
Comment by Maui Girl — January 22, 2008 @ 7:52 pm
it’s not that godaddy is crappy service, it’s that they have not integrity. The blocked the domain of a registrant because myspace.com asked them to!! Illegal and lacking in integrity.
Well ok, they are kind of crappy. I mean they have a sale on .coms but charge me $10 to renew my .com Very sleazy tactic. So no integrity and sleazy.
Now what’s happened to referrals.tucows.com!!!!
How do I transfer my domains? The tucows.com site seems to have gotten away from making things easily available. Cluttered.
Comment by transferee — January 25, 2008 @ 2:00 pm