Compare the Best Domain Auction Sites
Our recommendation for the best domain auction site is Namecheap because it’s secure, incredibly user-friendly, and reasonably priced. Start listing domains on Namecheap today.
If you’ve always liked the idea of flipping houses but have zero interest in remodeling, you might want to try flipping domain names. A desirable domain name is a powerful asset that the right person will pay good money for. But where do you find people who need the domain names you’re selling?
Domain auction sites. We researched all the domain auction sites on the web, carefully reading reviews and testing tools. The five sites below stood out as the best of the best.
The Top 5 Best Domain Auction Sites
Each of the five domain auction sites on our list comes with different strengths. Thanks to its intuitive UI, commitment to security, and fair pricing, Namecheap is the best overall domain auction site. Start selling—or buying—today.
- Namecheap — Best overall
- GoDaddy — Best all-in-one domain management
- NamePros — Best for finding a domaining community
- Sedo — Best for parking and selling domains
- Flippa — Best for selling domains from established websites
Let’s take a look at why you might need these domain auction sites and what we love about them.
Match Your Scenario to the Right Domain Auction Site Solution
Here you’ll find a breakdown of what to consider when you’re looking for a domain auction site. We’ll also offer a variety of scenarios you might find yourself in and match a domain auction site to each scenario.
- You want to learn more about domain investment and dip your toes into it slowly
- You want to buy a bunch of domains and save them for later
- You need to find out how much your established domain is worth
- You want to learn about domain auctioning by looking at hard, cold data
- You want to host your website and sell domains from the same place
You want to learn more about domain investment and dip your toes into it slowly
Best Option: NamePros
NamePros offers a place to buy and sell domains, but the heart of NamePros is its forum. Covering topics from industry news to how to start selling domains, NamePros conversations are active every day. The forum is basically Reddit but for all things domain-related.
Another great choice: Namecheap
There’s no true comparison to the NamePros forum, but Namecheap provides a slightly different way to ease your way into domain investing with its robust help center. You’ll find:
- A complete Namecheap knowledgebase
- Guru Guides — expert guides from Namecheap’s in-house pros
- Blog articles
- How-to videos
- Online masterclasses
Take a look around. You’ll be a pro at domain investing by the time you’re done exploring the Namecheap help center.
If you want to take a slow approach to domain auctioning, pay attention to:
- Community input: does the site offer you a way to buy, sell, and chat with other domain investors?
- Learning tools: what tools exist to help you build your knowledge on smart domain auctioning and investing?
You want to buy a bunch of domains and save them for later
Best Option: Sedo
Domain parking offers a way to earn money and test the popularity of a domain before selling. To park a domain, you purchase an available domain and park it with a service like Sedo. When people visit your domain, they won’t see an under-construction sign.
Instead, they’ll have a page of ads to click—plus a banner inviting them to buy the domain. Parking with Sedo is free. The company also takes care of setting up advertisements on a page. When a visitor clicks on the ad, you get paid—and Sedo takes a cut.
Another great choice: GoDaddy
If you don’t want to bother with ads, GoDaddy offers simple domain parking so you can save a domain for later. Or, you can use its CashParking tool, which offers domain parking. GoDaddy takes a bigger cut than Sedo: 60 to 80% of revenue.
If you want to park domains before auctioning them off, keep these points in mind:
- Profitable parking: does the auctioning site offer domain parking for the purpose of generating revenue from ads?
- No-ad parking: can you choose not to participate in for-profit parking?
- Fees: does the site charge a fee for parking? How much of a cut does it take from ad revenue?
You need to find out how much your established domain is worth
Best Option: Flippa
Flippa’s domain valuation tool analyzes data gathered from thousands of domain and website sales to determine the value of your domain name. Best of all, the valuation tool is free—and you can use it as many times as you want.
Just make sure your domain is at least 12 months old before you get started.
Another great choice: GoDaddy
GoDaddy also offers a domain valuation tool. It’s so quick and easy to use that you can enter multiple domains in one sitting. This can help you get a picture of how your domain compares to others with a similar name or target audience.
Are you looking for domain name valuation? Keep these points in mind:
- Valuation methods: what methods does the valuation tool use to determine the value of a domain? Does your domain name meet the criteria?
- Cost: is it free to find out the value of your domain, or do you have to pay a fee?
You want to learn about domain auctioning by looking at hard, cold data
Best Option: Namecheap
Our research team loved how easy it is to browse recent sales on Namecheap. When you click on one of the expired listings, you get to explore all the data related to the auction and sale.
In the screenshot below for the domain name dogcarehelp.com, you’ll see a list of bids, the final bid price, a sale date, the year the domain was registered, and how many keyword searches it gets per month.
Another great choice: GoDaddy
With GoDaddy, you can get plenty of data about current auction listings, from how many bids a listing has to estimated monthly site traffic for each domain.
If you want to learn more about domain auctions by looking at data, pay attention to:
- Type of data: can you see the number of bids that people put into a listing? Is post-sale data available to everyone, or just pre-sale data?
You want to host your website and sell domains from the same place
Best Option: GoDaddy
GoDaddy makes it easy for you to search interesting domains, buy ones that haven’t been taken, and turn them into websites—if you want. You can also buy a couple of domains and then develop one into a website for your business. GoDaddy offers it all: domain registration, web hosting, and website building.
Use GoDaddy’s CashParking tool to profit off the domains you don’t turn into websites until you decide to auction them off.
Another great choice: Namecheap
Namecheap offers a website builder for shared hosting websites. If you’re not interested in shared hosting, Namecheap-powered EasyWP comes with WordPress hosting and site-building.
If you want to host a website and manage domains from the same place, pay attention to:
- Tools offered: can you buy, sell, and auction domain names, as well as build and host a website?
- Pricing: how much does the domain auction site charge for domains, hosting, and website building?
Domain Auction Sites Company Reviews
In this section, we’ll dig into each domain auction site and find out why it made our list—and what it’s extra good at. Let’s get started.
Namecheap – Best Overall
Namecheap offers a place for users to purchase unclaimed domain names at a low price. If you want to build a website with a Namecheap registered domain, you can. Or you can hold onto it, keep an eye on the auctions in Namecheap Marketplace, and auction it off when the time is right.
If you’re just starting in the world of domain investing, you’ll find that Namecheap is easy to navigate. You can easily configure your domain in the Domain Name System (DNS) from within your Namecheap dashboard.
While Namecheap has been offering top-notch domain registration and auctioning for years, some reviewers have expressed dissatisfaction with Namecheap’s customer service. Also, its web hosting is fine, but there are definitely better options out there.
What Makes Namecheap Great
Namecheap is one of the most user-friendly domain auctioning sites out there. If you explore Namecheap Marketplace, you’ll notice that active auctions are separated into several categories:
- Popular – the most active auctions with lots of bids
- Closeouts – domains you can get for just a few dollars
- XYZ – domains to grab for Web3 projects or startups
- SEO Friendly – domains that’ll show up in search results
- App, Dev, SH, and Link – explore unusual domain names
- Short & Sweet – domain names with just a few letters
- Buy Now – domains you don’t have to bid on
- Single Word AI – the ideal domains for AI startups
- Completed Listings – take a look at what recently sold, and for how much
Once you’ve poked around for a while, you’ll probably know what types of domains you want to buy. Create a free Namecheap account and search for your desired domain. While many are already taken, some aren’t.
In the screenshot below, you’ll see my search for doglifelite.com. It’s available—but Namecheap will pull up a bunch of related alternatives just in case. Buy the one you want and then decide whether to auction it off or park it for a while.
As you probably noticed from the screenshot above, pricing varies depending on which domain you’re purchasing. But in general, unclaimed .com domains cost around $7.88 a year. When it’s time to sell—or buy—Namecheap takes a 10% cut of the sale price.
Learn more about Namecheap’s other services in our detailed review.
GoDaddy – Best All-in-One Domain Management
Established over 20 years ago, GoDaddy is a time-tested domain registering, web hosting, and website building service. If you want to commit to domain investing from every angle, GoDaddy gets you there.
Let’s say you purchase seven domains with a decent appraised value. With GoDaddy, you can develop one of these into a website for your company or brand. If one of the domains came with an especially high appraised value, sell it with Afternic, GoDaddy’s extensive domain marketplace.
Take a couple others and park them with GoDaddy CashParking—which includes a free membership to GoDaddy Auctions. Place one or two domains on GoDaddy Auctions and watch the bids roll in.
Whatever you want to do with GoDaddy and domains, you can do it. It can be slightly confusing to navigate between Afternic, GoDaddy Auctions, and GoDaddy CashParking, but this is a minor complaint.
What Makes GoDaddy Great
Like any other type of investment avenue, domain investing can be confusing when you’re just starting out. I love that GoDaddy offers all the tools you need to get serious about domaining.
But it also comes with invaluable resources. In addition to a comprehensive knowledge base that’s all about domain investing, you can join the GoDaddy Community.
Here you’ll get the chance to connect with other domainers, browse conversations, and ask specific questions.
Unclaimed domains start at $0.01 a year. GoDaddy Auctions costs $4.99 per year, and you can list as many domains as you want. GoDaddy takes a 20% cut on domains that sell for $0 to $5,000.
Learn more about GoDaddy in our detailed review.
NamePros – Best for Finding a Domaining Community
Do you want to join a community that lives and breathes domain investing? Enter NamePros. With over one million domainers on NamePros’ forums, you won’t find a community more dedicated to domaining.
Here’s a sampling of NamePros’ discussion topics:
- Domain Industry News – 166.8K posts
- Niche Domain Discussion – 319K posts
- Domain Buying and Selling Discussion – 184.7K posts
- Domain Traffic and Parking Monetization – 59K posts
- Domain Beginners – 102.4K posts
The already-impressive post counts grow every day. With NamePros, you’ll get answers from real-life domainers who actually want to help you. Even better? Once you’re a pro, you can return the favor.
What Makes NamePros Great
Even though its focus is the NamePros forums, NamePros also offers its own buying and selling marketplace. This doesn’t stop NamePros domainers from asking questions about non-NamePros transactions, though.
The forums address questions from around the domainosphere. Whether you have a question about parking domains on Sedo or you’re concerned about a GoDaddy Afternic listing, NamePros probably has a thread on it.
We also love that if you want to pay for a membership, you can get professional domain appraisals—ones that aren’t solely AI-powered but have a real person behind the final estimate.
You can sign up for a free account today and upgrade to an Insider account for $10 a month to get the full benefits of NamePros.
Sedo – Best for Parking and Selling Domains
Sedo offers domain buying, selling, and appraisals, but my favorite Sedo tool is its domain parking service. Here’s why: for every domain you park on Sedo, you’ll get detailed analytics on its performance.
This data can be incredibly helpful when you decide to list a previously parked domain for sale. Sedo includes traffic information on its listings. If your domain has garnered steady traffic while parked, you’ve got an extra selling point under your belt.
And it’s not like Sedo puts random advertisements on your parked page. Instead, it selects ads that align with the domain name.
One thing to keep in mind is that some reviewers expressed frustration when Sedo blocked their domain parking accounts—because they promoted a parked domain on social media. This goes against Sedo’s terms, so make sure you read the fine print and adhere to all the rules that apply to your situation.
What Makes Sedo Great
It’s free to park domains with Sedo. The company works with an advertising partner to drive clicks from your website, and before it pays your share, both Sedo and the advertising partner take their cut. It’s not clear how much this cut is, which is a drawback.
Still, you won’t pay any noticeable fees or commissions on your end.
When you’re ready to sell a domain, Sedo helps you move it out of parking and list it on the Sedo marketplace using auctions, trades, or fixed-price sales. You can also submit domains to Sedo’s bi-monthly GreatDomains Auctions. For these, a Sedo brokerage team reviews and accepts select domains for a super-charged, widely promoted auction.
Sedo takes a 10% cut of every fixed-price sale and %15 of every auction. Learn more about Sedo’s pricing before you get started.
Flippa – Best for Selling Domains from Established Websites
With Flippa, you can sell domain names and entire websites alike. Flippa bases its valuations on past domain and website sales within the Flippa marketplace. It analyzes:
- Buyer interest – how many people express interest in domains like yours
- Age – the amount of time a domain has been active
- Category – the type of top-level domain (TLD) you’ve entered into the appraisal
One downside to Flippa is that you’ll need to have owned a domain for at least 12 months before getting an accurate appraisal.
This is partly because Flippa specializes in appraising websites using historical sales and traffic data, and it analyzes domain value using the same tools.
That’s why Flippa is best for people who have decided to move their website business to a new domain—from Love.com to Love.me, for example—and want to sell the old domain. With a wealth of data behind the previous domain, Flippa can come up with an accurate valuation.
What Makes Flippa Great
First, a note on what Flippa isn’t great for. If you want to buy, park, and then sell domain names, choose a different tool on this list.
From what we found in our research, Flippa won’t even give you a valuation for a domain that isn’t backed by an established website. But for those established sites that are moving on to a new domain name, Flippa is the ideal place to sell the old domain.
In this screenshot, pay attention to the age of these domains. Most are at least 15 years old!
When you’re ready to sell, choose a Flippa listing package that fits your needs. The pricing begins at a one-time fee of $29 plus a 4% cut of the sale.
Quick Sprout Domain Auction Sites Related Content
Do you want to learn more about how to start flipping domains or auctioning off domains you already own? Here’s a list of our best resources related to domain auctioning.
Domain Auction Sites Guides and How-Tos
Domain Auction Sites Related Top Lists
The Top Domain Auction Sites in Summary
After spending days digging into the intriguing world of domaining, Namecheap won out as our top pick for domain auctioning. But the other domain auction sites on our list all come with strengths as well. Explore each of the domain auction sites to find out which one works best for you.
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