How to Sell a Domain Name
Most domains never sell, and the ones that do sell to someone who was already looking for them. Here is how the market actually works, what the platforms take, and how to avoid the scams aimed at people trying to sell.
September 21, 20268 min readSelling · Aftermarket · Valuation
The short answer. List on more than one marketplace, price it, and use escrow for anything meaningful. Commissions run from roughly 10% to 30% depending on the platform and how you list. The hardest part is not the mechanics, it is that most domains have no buyer at any price, and no amount of listing changes that.
Start with whether it will sell at all
Uncomfortable but useful. Of the hundreds of millions of registered domains, a very small fraction change hands in any given year.
A domain sells when a specific person needs that specific name. That happens when it is short and generic, an exact brand match for a company that exists, an exact-match keyword in a category that spends on customer acquisition, or a real word in a real language.
A domain does not sell because you like it, because a tool valued it at $2,400, or because you have held it for ten years. Holding cost is a sunk cost and buyers do not price it.
Work out what you actually have before spending effort. What Is My Domain Worth covers how appraisal works and where it misleads.
Where to list
Listing in more than one place costs nothing and multiplies exposure, since these networks distribute to different registrar storefronts.
Afternic, owned by GoDaddy, has the widest distribution, syndicating listings across many registrar search results. That reach is its value. Commission is meaningful: reported at around 25% to 30% depending on plan, falling to roughly 15% to 20% if you point your domains at GoDaddy's aftermarket nameservers. There is also a minimum commission per sale.
Sedo is the long-standing European marketplace with a published price list. Commission is around 10% on direct marketplace sales and around 15% on offer or auction sales, which makes it the cheaper option on like-for-like listings.
Dan, now part of the GoDaddy group, popularised clean buy-now landing pages and instalment payments, with commission reported in the 10% to 20% range.
Your own landing page. A simple for-sale page on the domain itself costs nothing and converts the most motivated buyer of all: the one who typed the name directly. Always do this.
Commission structures change, so check current terms on each platform before committing rather than trusting any article, including this one.
Buy now or make offer
Buy now converts better. A price removes friction, and a meaningful share of buyers will not start a negotiation at all. It also caps your upside at whatever you guessed.
Make offer preserves upside and loses volume. Use it when you genuinely do not know the ceiling, particularly when the name could match a well-funded company.
For most names under a few thousand dollars, a visible buy-now price outperforms.
Pricing
Find real comparables. Search completed sales for similar length, extension and category. Three genuine comparables beat any automated estimate.
Ignore the retail-priced outliers. Every category has one absurd sale that everyone quotes. It is not your comparable.
Price for a buyer, not a jackpot. A domain listed at $50,000 that never sells has returned nothing minus a decade of renewals. The same name at $3,000 that sells has returned $3,000.
Discount for illiquidity. Value times the probability of finding the buyer, minus the cost of waiting.
Escrow, and getting paid
Never transfer a domain before payment is confirmed. Never accept payment methods that can be reversed after transfer.
Rough thresholds the market uses:
| Sale value | Typical mechanism |
|---|---|
| Under $5,000 | Marketplace card payment |
| $5,000 to $25,000 | Marketplace built-in escrow |
| Over $25,000 | Escrow.com or equivalent, fees roughly 0.9% to 3.3% |
The escrow pattern is always the same: buyer pays the escrow agent, you transfer the domain, the agent verifies transfer, the agent releases funds. Both sides are protected and the fee is trivial relative to the risk.
Note that a domain cannot be transferred to another registrar within 60 days of registration, of a previous transfer, or of a change of registrant, under ICANN's Transfer Policy. Plan around that, and consider a push within the same registrar instead, which is faster and avoids the lock.
The scams aimed at sellers
The appraisal scam. You receive an offer, often generous, conditional on providing a certified appraisal from a specific provider. The appraisal costs a few hundred dollars and the buyer disappears. There is no buyer, the appraisal service is the scam. A real buyer never requires you to pay a third party they nominate.
Overpayment and reversal. A buyer pays more than the agreed price by reversible means and asks for the difference back. The original payment is then reversed.
Fake escrow sites. A convincing escrow site that is not an escrow company. Navigate to the escrow provider yourself, never through a link the buyer supplies.
Phishing your registrar account. Someone posing as a buyer sends a link to a fake registrar login. Log in by typing the address yourself, always.
The consistent shape: the scam is always about getting money or credentials from the seller before any domain moves. Real transactions move money into escrow first.
Negotiating
Do not open with your floor. The first number anchors everything.
Find out who is asking. An individual and a funded company are different buyers with different budgets for the same name. Your landing page can ask.
Silence is a tactic, not a rejection. Slow replies are normal in this market.
Have a walk-away price and keep it. Renewals are cheap. A name you believe in is not improved by a rushed sale.
Get it in writing. Price, currency, who pays escrow fees, and the transfer method, before anything moves.
Common questions
Where is the best place to sell a domain?
List on more than one. Afternic has the widest distribution through registrar storefronts, Sedo charges lower commission, and a for-sale page on the domain itself catches the most motivated buyer.
How much commission do domain marketplaces take?
Broadly 10% to 30% depending on platform and listing type. Sedo is around 10% to 15%; Afternic is higher but reduces substantially if you use its aftermarket nameservers. Check current terms directly, since these change.
How do I avoid being scammed when selling a domain?
Use established escrow, navigate to the escrow site yourself rather than through a buyer's link, and never pay for an appraisal a buyer demands. Legitimate buyers do not require sellers to pay third parties.
How long does it take to sell a domain?
Usually a long time. Most listed domains never sell. Names with genuine demand can move quickly, but expecting a sale within a year for an average domain is unrealistic.
Should I set a buy now price or take offers?
Buy now converts better for most domains under a few thousand dollars. Make offer preserves upside on names where a well-funded buyer might exist and you cannot estimate the ceiling.
Can I sell a domain I just registered?
You can list it immediately, but it cannot be transferred to another registrar for 60 days after registration under ICANN's Transfer Policy. A push within the same registrar avoids that delay.
Put the research to work.
Check your shortlist across the extensions that matter, then save the strongest names to a project.
Check a domain