Clouds are rising.
Registrants of .cloud domain names are in for a surprise when it’s time to renew them.
The registry behind .cloud just notified its registrar partners that it is doubling the wholesale price of renewals from $7.50 to $15.00 beginning April 1, 2021. Registrars typically add a markup to the wholesale price.
Oddly, it appears that the first-year price of .cloud domains has actually been higher than renewals until this change. The wholesale new registration cost had been $15.00, but in practice, people rarely paid this much due to promotions. For example, GoDaddy currently offers .cloud domains for $1.99 for the first year.
.Cloud will remain less expensive than many other new top level domains. Still, I wonder if registrars need to change the wording they use in domain search results. Many registrars currently show the first year price and then “renews at” for the renewal cost. Based on what we’ve seen with new top level domains, this should probably read “Renews at X, unless the registry jacks up its prices.”
Source: (https://domainnamewire.com/)
