Moving a domain somewhere cheaper

The same domain costs different amounts at different registrars — across 451 generic TLDs the gap between the cheapest and dearest we track averages 7.7%, and on some it is far wider. Moving is the only way to act on that, and it is called a transfer.

The thing most people get wrong

A transfer is not a discount on renewing — at almost every registrar the transfer price and the renewal price are the same number. Of the 1445 generic-TLD pairs we hold, transfer and renewal are identical on 1391 — 96% of them. What you save by transferring is not "transfer versus renewal", it is one registrar versus another. Compare the row you are on today against the cheapest row, and that difference is the whole prize.

Where the gap is widest

Generic TLDs we price at three or more registrars, by how much dearer the most expensive is than the cheapest. These are annual renewal prices.

Who is cheapest, most often

Counted across the generic TLDs we track at more than one registrar. It says nothing about support, reliability or how a registrar behaves when something goes wrong — only about list price.

Before you move anything

• Check you can receive mail at the registrant address. The transfer is authorised there. If that address is dead you must change it first — and that change is itself a 60-day lock, so it has to happen well before you plan to move, not on the day.
• Do not start a transfer close to expiry. A transfer takes up to five days to complete and can sit waiting for the old registrar. Renew first if the date is near, then move.
• Expect to lose registrar extras. Email forwarding, URL forwarding and free WHOIS privacy are the registrar's product, not the domain's, and usually do not travel.
• Unlock the domain and get the auth code from the current registrar. Nothing starts until the domain shows as unlocked.

The rules, and who actually enforces them

Generic TLDs only. Country-code registries — .io, .co, .uk, .de and the rest — sit outside ICANN entirely and owe you none of this; their operators set their own terms.

ICANN Transfer Policy as updated 21 February 2024, mandatory for registrars since 21 August 2025. The Transfer Policy Review recommendations have been adopted by the ICANN Board but not yet implemented, so nothing here reflects them. Section references are to that document. Anything you read elsewhere about a policy taking effect in August 2026 refers to one registrar's own platform migration, not to an ICANN change.

Is it worth it?

A transfer costs about a week of waiting and an hour of attention, and it is irreversible for 60 days. On a single domain, a gap under two or three dollars a year is not worth that. Across a portfolio, or on a TLD where the gap runs to tens of percent, it plainly is. The number that matters is the renewal price at the destination, not a cheap first year — a registrar with a low registration price and a high renewal is cheap to enter and expensive to hold.

Prices are list prices read daily from each registrar's own published data; see methodology. Open any TLD page to compare every registrar on it and see whether a rise is scheduled.