Top 20 registrar .uk retail prices

[Whois-Search]

.uk multi-year prices as of 13/06/2014 (updated)

• Dickie (freeparking.co.uk) is now selling .uk for $10.05
• 1and1.co.uk is now showing "£5.99 for the first year, then £9.99 per year"
• Domain Monster seems to have gone up a pound to £5.99 ?
• TSO Host is actually the cheapest at £2.79 + VAT (£3.35)
• Eight of the Top 20 now have a .uk redirect

£9.99 (first yr £5.99) www.1and1.uk
£6.99 www.easily.co.uk
£6.29 www.crazydomains.co.uk
£5.99 www.123-reg.uk
£5.99 www.heartinternet.co.uk
£5.99 www.fasthosts.uk
£5.99 www.uk2.net
£5.99 www.domainmonster.uk
£5.92 ( $10.05 ) www.freeparking.co.uk
£5.89 ( $10 )* www.domainbox.com
£5.35 ( $8.98 )* www.enomcentral.com
£5 - £6 www.lcn.uk
£4.99 www.easyspace.com
£4.99 www.names.uk
£4.99 (was £6.49) www.godaddy.uk
£4.77 ( $8 )* www.opensrs.com
£4.45 www.daily.uk
£4.03 ( $6.75 )* www.enom.com
£3 - £4 www.gandi.net
£2.79 www.tsohost.com


.uk price not showing:

http://business.bt.com/domains-and-hosting/domain-registration/
https://www.rrpproxy.net/Domains/TLD_Portfolio/TLD_Info?tld=uk

 

[Edwin]

Great list. Thanks, Andrew!

 

[Edwin]

BTW, the cheapest registrar looks like it might be
http://www.marketwired.com/press-release/new-uk-domains-at-half-price-from-34spcom-1918888.htm

Note the fact that it's a limited time deal and the price will double at renewal time. Basically, they're discounting from a normal 100% markup to 0% markup for a limited time (presumably to build market share)

 

[cm1975]

Interesting to see that they're all charging a premium for the .uk over the price of the corresponding .co.uk.

I wonder how long that will last and if one drops the price, will others follow suit.

 

[Edwin]

I posted the following over on the Nominet forum. Reposting here to save my fingers...

------

It's fair to say, from very early reports, that .uk looks like it will (at first) require more support on average than .co.uk does, because there are a number of issues, including:
A) Handling cases where the .co.uk is at Registrar A, .uk is to be registered with Registrar B
B) Handling cases where there is a need for an "address for service"
C) Handling cases where a slight mismatch in the Whois prevents registration
D) Handling cases where the verification email sent to the Admin contact of the .co.uk (or, more accurately, the domain with the right to the matching .uk) gets filtered, bounces, goes astray etc.
E) Handling other "edge" cases that have appeared because of the way .uk rights verification is implemented
F) Handling other stuff I've left off the list
G) Heading off angry clients who feel they should be entitled to a .uk (for whatever reason) but who don't have a "right" to it

So I can see how a case could be made for charging a little more until some of these teething problems go away through bug fixes, better processes and familiarity (both at the registrar and at the consumer side)

That said, if you shop around you can get them pretty much "at cost" in registrar promotions if the only imperative is price.

 

[DarrenTSO]

Interesting to see that they're all charging a premium for the .uk over the price of the corresponding .co.uk.

We are charging the same for .uk as we do for .co.uk (£4.49 plus VAT for single year, £2.79 plus VAT per year for two years or more).

Just as a caveat, make sure that whoever you do register with doesn't charge for transfers out - there are a few that do now which is a shame.

 

[cm1975]

I posted the following over on the Nominet forum. Reposting here to save my fingers...

------

It's fair to say, from very early reports, that .uk looks like it will (at first) require more support on average than .co.uk does, because there are a number of issues, including:
A) Handling cases where the .co.uk is at Registrar A, .uk is to be registered with Registrar B
B) Handling cases where there is a need for an "address for service"
C) Handling cases where a slight mismatch in the Whois prevents registration
D) Handling cases where the verification email sent to the Admin contact of the .co.uk (or, more accurately, the domain with the right to the matching .uk) gets filtered, bounces, goes astray etc.
E) Handling other "edge" cases that have appeared because of the way .uk rights verification is implemented
F) Handling other stuff I've left off the list
G) Heading off angry clients who feel they should be entitled to a .uk (for whatever reason) but who don't have a "right" to it

So I can see how a case could be made for charging a little more until some of these teething problems go away through bug fixes, better processes and familiarity (both at the registrar and at the consumer side)

That said, if you shop around you can get them pretty much "at cost" in registrar promotions if the only imperative is price.

I can appreciate that there may be additional work involved, but some of that extra effort could happen when a domain is transferred into a registrar.

Yesterday, I was in touch with a director of one of the afore mentioned large registrars. I was told that their pricing was in line with the other large registrars and that they viewed the .uk as a "premium offering" and were therefore priced above the .co.uk.

 

[Whois-Search]

Ok I've updated the list attached to move TSOhost to the bottom and added Enom Central

 

[mat]

I dont know if it is the same for other registrars, but domainmonster for example currently allow multiple year for fresh .uk registrations, but only 1 year registrations for your .uk equivalent.

 

[Geoff Wilson]

I dont know if it is the same for other registrars, but domainmonster for example currently allow multiple year for fresh .uk registrations, but only 1 year registrations for your .uk equivalent.

This is a technical limitation of the checkout process for prior rights, you can simply renew the domain after purchase if you want multi years, .UK is the same price for all years on Domainmonster at this time.

 

[Edwin]

It amuses me how so many registrars, especially the large retail focused ones, beat the wholesale price of .uk down during the consultation from £20 to £10 to the same as the other *.uk 3LD's and then they charge more than they do for *.uk 3LD's under the auspice of .uk 2LD's being a premium product. It's not like it comes with all those extras that Nominet originally suggested it might have come with.

Apples and oranges. When it was to wholesale at £20 the retail price might have stabilised around £40-50 for all we know.