Why are ie domain names so expensive

scoobynutta22b

Had a browse through some .ie domain names today and it struck me that they were a lot more expensive than .co.uk or .com names. Anyone know the reason for this, and where to get 'cheap' .ie names from?

dahamsta

Their prices were reduced last year but very few providers brought retail prices down at the time, it just didn't happen for some reason. However the prices just came down again, and I'd say providers will feel the need to drop their prices this time around. I certainly will be.

adam

scoobynutta22b

They've come down:eek: Jesus. What were they before!

They seem to be 3 or more times expensive than the .co.uk or .com addresses.

dahamsta

I seem to remember that at one point they were IR£121 retail (£100+VAT), which would be about €153.

adam

layke

Because we live in the Rip off republic where regulators fail at regulating.

don't ever buy a .ie just go .com/eu/net/org/info etc... they cost me just €8 ex VAT a year.

dahamsta

That's really not the best advice, there are valid reasons for buying IE, such as image (an IE domain ostensibly proves the company is Irish, although there are exceptions) and SEO (an IE will likely bump you in Google's Irish results).

And, as has been mentioned, the price is continually on the way down. You should be seeing IE domains for €30-35 retail shortly, if not less (many domains will be sold below cost for promotional purposes).

adam

oceansapart

dahamsta wrote:

And, as has been mentioned, the price is continually on the way down. You should be seeing IE domains for €30-35 retail shortly, if not less (many domains will be sold below cost for promotional purposes).

adam

Indeed , I picked one up recently from digiweb.ie for just under 30quid

Moonbeam

www.iedr.ie

it is alot harder to register a .ie domain then a .com .net or .org

And there are also different prices depending on your status as a reseller or an individual and how many domains you buy.

To become a reseller and start getting discounts you need over 10 domains,if you register your domain through one of the bigger resellers it is cheaper for you as most pass on the savings.

they have a lsit of resellers on their website

Zascar

http://blacknight.ie/ie-domain-names.0.html - €45

femur61

I appreciate that if one has .ie it looks better but we have a .com and it is ranked top of Google, I was told last weekend that actually a .com will rank higher on Google.

RoadKillTs

Letshost are usually the cheapest for .ie domains. 12.50 at the moment.

bycikas

.IE has some regulations as far as i remember you must be company registered in Ireland... Sorry if wrong, but if i am correct, then i would say it is good idea of having .IE regulated and therefor having price a bit higher.


Some time ago in my home-country our domain .LT was costing fortune, no with years behind domain cost about 1-2 eur per year so i'd say same gonna happen with .IE , but hopefully regulation will stay there

91011

.ie is regulated & controlled. You have to show you're entitled to use the name either though similarity to your business or via a registered business name.

Due to the checks they carry out - which ensures genuine businesses are not passed off by others - the costs is a bit higher.

In google.ie search it will rank higher due to association with country.

also, many people see .ie as a safe domain to do business with due to the checks that are done on those taking a .ie domain

finally .co.uk is a uk name - 60 million people, .com is a world domain, billion+ market. - Economies of scale.

robinph

91011 wrote: »

finally .co.uk is a uk name - 60 million people, .com is a world domain, billion+ market. - Economies of scale.

Economies of scale is not what makes it cheaper for .com and .co.uk, it's not as if they can manufacture the domains cheaper because they are doing them in bulk with cheap labor. If anything the larger market should make then more expensive due to less availability from many more names having already been sold than for the .ie domains.

Eoin

layke wrote: »

Because we live in the Rip off republic where regulators fail at regulating.

I've had my problems registering .ie domains, but I don't think it's the worst of processes. We're not the most expensive, and at least it's for the right reasons - protecting our domain names, not just out for pure profit.

layke wrote: »

don't ever buy a .ie just go .com/eu/net/org/info etc... they cost me just €8 ex VAT a year.

Those TLDs might not be appropriate for the website in question though.

bycikas wrote:

.IE has some regulations as far as i remember you must be company registered in Ireland... Sorry if wrong, but if i am correct, then i would say it is good idea of having .IE regulated and therefor having price a bit higher.

There are other ways of getting a .ie domain, but certainly having a company or registered business name is the easiest way to get approved.

dahamsta

femur61 wrote: »

I appreciate that if one has .ie it looks better but we have a .com and it is ranked top of Google, I was told last weekend that actually a .com will rank higher on Google.

As someone has mentioned, it depends on the circumstances. If that person told you that a .com will always rank higher in search results, then they're not someone you should be consulting about search engines; because they're talking out their hat.

ShayMurphy459

When i do a search in google i tend to look for .ie results, both in the organic results and the google adverts, because at least i know the service will be available in Ireland, and they do tend to be reputable sites. I wish other domains were regulated properly because I reckon there would be a lot less fraud on the internet generally.

R3al

femur61 wrote: »

I appreciate that if one has .ie it looks better but we have a .com and it is ranked top of Google, I was told last weekend that actually a .com will rank higher on Google.

.ie domains will feature mostly in Irish searches (searches conducted by people in Ireland looking for services/products/information in/about Ireland) and will feature less prominently in International searches, for instance when you conduct a search it would be quite rare for non Irish ccTLDs to be returned in the list of results such as website addresses ending in .nl Holland or .fr France, whereas .com, .net etc are universal and not country specific and therefore will be returned in searches regardless of the location of the search user

Having said that a domain TLD does not improve search engine rankings, .coms may sometimes be first and other times .ie may be first, the main factors that influence a websites listing on search engines are quality content and incoming links (there are numerous other factors but these are the main ones)

The reason Google is the No1 search engine in Europe is because it generally returns the information you are looking for in the first few results, therefore the best way to ensure that your website is in the first few results is to be the website containing the best information about a subject