Independent marketplace intelligence

Most domains sell for the wrong price on the wrong platform.

The same .com averages $748 on GoDaddy and $13,745 on Sedo — an 18x gap. Where you list is the single biggest lever on what your name earns. We help you pick the right venue, price with real comps, and stop leaving money on the table.

$986
Avg. sale · 2026
18×
Venue price gap
113K+
Sales analyzed
Same .com. Five venues.
2026 avg. sale price
Namecheap Budget
$485
DropCatch Drops
$691
GoDaddy Volume
$748
Afternic Distribution
$3,571
Sedo Premium
$13,745
A 28× spread for the identical extension. Venue fit isn't marginal — it's the biggest determinant of what your domain earns.
The market truth

Three things nobody tells you before you list

Most "best marketplace" guides are paid placements. Here's what the data actually says.

01

Median ≠ average

The median domain sale is around $549. The average is $986 and climbing — a few six-figure sales drag the mean up. Price against medians or you'll wait years.

02

Dan.com is gone

GoDaddy retired Dan.com on June 27, 2025 after a $69.6M acquisition. Guides still recommending it are outdated. The aftermarket reshuffled — and most advice hasn't caught up.

03

Thursday beats Saturday

Thursday averages $1,089 per sale at peak volume. Saturday drops to $792. Timing a listing is a real, measurable lever — and it costs nothing.

New guide · 11 min read
Dan.com is gone. Your pricing probably broke with it.

The platform shut down on 27 June 2025 at 9% commission. Its inventory moved to Afternic at 15–30%. If you never recalculated your floors, you may now be listed below your own minimum — and nothing warned you.

Read the guide →
Venue matching

Match the name to the marketplace

No single marketplace wins everything. Premium .com belongs on Sedo. Expired names belong on DropCatch. Listing in the wrong place means the right buyers never see it.

1

Value it against real comps

Pull 5–10 recent sales of similar names — same length, same TLD, same keyword category. Take the median, not the mean. Automated appraisers disagree by 3× or more.

2

Pick the venue by tier

Premium .com ($5K+) → Sedo or Afternic. Standard .com → GoDaddy. Aged or expired names → DropCatch. European ccTLDs → Sedo's deep liquidity.

3

Set the pricing strategy

Buy Now converts faster; Make Offer extracts more on unique names. Multi-list premium inventory across two venues — distribution is the most underused lever there is.

Verified against official price lists · Oct 2026

The two most-quoted "lowest fees" are both wrong

Fee comparison posts copy each other, and the errors have compounded. We went to the official pricing pages. Two of the industry's most repeated numbers do not survive contact with the source.

Claim #1 — repeated everywhere
Spaceship 5% Actually 10%

Spaceship raised standard seller commission to 10%, and it is not hidden — the founder confirmed it publicly. Multiple 2026 comparison pages still show 5%, 6% or 5–8%. Notably, the 10% can be split with the buyer by chat, which almost no guide mentions.

Claim #2 — the "zero commission" legend
Dynadot 0% Actually 10%

Dynadot's own help pages state plainly: "commission fee is 10% of the sold price." The 0% myth conflates two things — Dynadot charges the buyer nothing, and a seller who finds their own buyer and uses a payment link pays 5%. Neither makes marketplace sales free.

Where you sell Rate you actually pay What the internet says Catch
Sedo — Buy Now + parked 10% Correct Must be Buy Now and parked with Sedo. $60 min (cat. 1)
Sedo — standard sale 15% Vague Make Offer, auction, or BIN without parking. This is the default.
Sedo — SedoMLS network 20% Vague Auto-promoted. More reach, double the cheapest rate.
Namecheap Market 10% Correct Flat, no tiers. Auto transfer included.
Spaceship SellerHub 10% Wrong — says 5–6% Rates changed; guides didn't. Splittable with buyer by chat.
Dynadot — marketplace 10% Wrong — says 0% 5% only if you bring your own buyer via payment link.
Afternic — GoDaddy nameservers 15% Correct $15 minimum. Requires pointing DNS at GoDaddy's aftermarket.
Afternic — other nameservers 25% Understated Your DNS silently decides this. Most sellers never check.
NamePros — forum 0% Correct Truly zero — but you arrange escrow yourself and it's wholesale pricing.
Your own lander 0% + escrow Correct Escrow.com runs 0.89–3.25%. You own the buyer acquisition problem.

Rates verified against Sedo's official price list, Dynadot's help centre, Namecheap's support KB and reported Spaceship changes. Excludes taxes, banking and currency fees. Confirm current terms before listing — providers do change these without notice, which is precisely the problem.

Featured names

Hand-picked inventory

A curated set of names we've screened for brandability, extension fit and realistic resale comps. Every listing links straight to the venue where it's actually for sale.

Every listing searches live Sedo inventory — no dead links, no stale prices.

Payout calculator

What does your domain actually net you?

Enter your expected sale price and pick a venue. See the commission, the minimum floor, and what lands in your account — before you list.

Sale price $5,000
Marketplace commission —
Escrow & fees $0
You net $0
Seller floor: — — the lowest you can accept and still clear your target. Set your Afternic floor 20–30% under Buy Now.
Minimum fees bite at the low end. Sedo charges the greater of 10–20% or $60 (category 1 TLDs) / $200 (category 2). On a $300 sale, that $60 minimum is effectively 20%. The calculator applies it automatically.
List it on Sedo ↗
FAQ

Questions sellers actually ask

How much is my domain worth? ⌄
Start from comparable sales, not gut feel. The 2026 median sale is roughly $549 and the average $986, but both hide enormous variance. Pull 5–10 recent comps of similar names — same length, same TLD, same keyword category — and take the median. Then sanity-check against an automated appraisal, knowing it will quote retail while auctions return wholesale.
Where should I list my domain? ⌄
By tier and extension. Premium .com above $5,000 → Sedo or Afternic. Standard .com → GoDaddy. Aged or expiring names → DropCatch. .ai portfolios → Namecheap, where the data shows the strongest volume. European ccTLDs like .de and .nl → Sedo. For high-value inventory, list on two venues: Afternic for distribution, Sedo for liquidity.
Is it worth listing on more than one marketplace? ⌄
Yes, for anything above the volume tier. Distribution is the most underused lever on sell-through rate. Just be careful with Buy Now pricing across venues — a name that sells on two platforms at two prices creates a transfer problem. Use Make Offer or align prices exactly.
Why is my commission so much higher than advertised? ⌄
Afternic's headline rate is 15%, but only if your nameservers point to GoDaddy's aftermarket system. Otherwise it's 25% flat, with a 30% ceiling for some configurations. Your DNS setup silently determines your take-home — that's why the calculator above matters.
How do I get started as a beginner? ⌄
One name at a time. Register or acquire something you'd actually build on, list it with a real comp-backed price, and learn the negotiation rhythm before scaling. Portfolios of 10–50 domains realistically clear $500–$2,000 a year part-time. It compounds with discipline, not volume alone.

Find the right venue in 30 seconds

Free, no signup. Enter your domain tier and we'll point you at the marketplace that pays the most for it.

Open the calculator → Browse Sedo ↗