Where to sell a domain, and what each venue costs you

The honest answer to "where should I sell my domain" is: it depends almost entirely on what the domain is worth. A name likely to fetch £300 and a name likely to fetch £30,000 belong in completely different venues, and using the wrong one costs you more than any commission line ever will.

Below is what each channel actually charges, what that charge buys, and where the real money leaks out.

Match the venue to the price band first

Commission percentages are the least interesting variable. What matters is whether the venue puts your name in front of buyers who can pay your number.

• Under about £500. Volume venues and auctions. The buyer pool is other domain investors and price-sensitive small businesses. You are optimising for liquidity, not price.
• £500 to roughly £25,000. Curated marketplaces with buy-it-now pricing and a landing page on the domain itself. Most end-user sales happen here. Inbound enquiry does the work.
• Above roughly £25,000. Brokered sale, or an outbound approach to a shortlist of companies for whom the name is strategically obvious. At this level you are selling to one or two plausible buyers, not to a market.

Putting a £40,000 name into a liquidation auction will get you £900. Putting a £400 name with a broker will get you a polite decline and six months of nothing.

Marketplaces: what a 10-20% commission actually buys

The mainstream domain marketplaces sit in a broadly similar band. Commission on a completed sale typically runs somewhere between 10% and 20% depending on the platform, whether you have exclusive listing, and sometimes on the sale price itself. Some tier it downwards for higher-value sales. Several add or waive fees depending on whether the buyer found you through a distribution partner. Rate cards change, so check the current one before you list rather than trusting a figure you read in a forum in 2019.

On Names.com, sellers pay 15% on a completed sale, and nothing otherwise. Buyers pay no fee. There is no listing charge, no renewal of a listing, and no cost if the name sits unsold for two years.

What that commission buys, on any decent marketplace, is worth naming plainly:

• Distribution. Your name appears where people search for domains, not just on a page you control.
• A parked landing page. A meaningful share of domain sales start with someone typing the name into a browser to see if it is taken. If they land on a for-sale page with a price and a buy button, you have a transaction. If they land on a registrar holding page, you have nothing.
• Escrow and transfer handling. Neither side has to go first. On Names.com, funds sit in escrow until the name moves.
• Buyer trust. A stranger will wire five figures to a marketplace. They will not wire five figures to your PayPal address.

That last point is the one sellers underprice. Removing buyer fear is most of what you are paying for.

Brokers: 10-20%, but on a different kind of deal

Brokers usually charge in a similar percentage range to marketplaces, sometimes with a minimum fee or a retainer on large mandates. The percentage looks the same on paper; the work is not.

A broker does outbound. They identify who should own the name, reach the right person, manage a negotiation that may run for months, and hold a price line you would probably fold on. For a name where two or three companies are the realistic buyers, that is worth every point of commission, because the alternative is that you email a general enquiry inbox and never hear back.

Brokers are selective, though. Most will decline anything they cannot see clearing a five-figure sum, because the effort per deal barely changes with price. If a broker passes on your name, treat that as free valuation feedback.

Auctions: fast, cheap to enter, brutal on price

Auction venues charge commission in a broadly comparable range to marketplaces, sometimes with a small listing fee, sometimes tiered so smaller sales pay a higher percentage. The economics are not the problem. The audience is.

Auction buyers are overwhelmingly resellers. They are bidding on what they can flip the name for, minus their margin and their holding cost. That means auction prices tend to land at a fraction of end-user prices for the same asset. That is not a flaw, it is the point: you are trading price for speed and certainty.

Auctions make sense when you want the name off your renewal list this month, when the domain is genuinely generic and liquid, or when you have a portfolio to thin. They make no sense for a single strong brandable you have been holding for years.

Selling direct: the cheapest headline rate, the most expensive in practice

You can list a name on your own page, negotiate by email, and pay nothing but escrow. Escrow services typically charge low single-digit percentages, often under 1% on larger transactions, with a floor of some tens of pounds on small ones. Split or shifted to the buyer, it is close to noise.

Here is the unglamorous part. Direct selling costs you in ways that do not appear on an invoice:

• Discovery. No distribution means no inbound. You are relying on people guessing your name and finding a for-sale page.
• Trust friction. Serious buyers ask who you are. Some walk rather than find out.
• Negotiating alone. Most first-time sellers anchor low, then concede fast. A 20% price mistake dwarfs a 15% commission.
• Time. Hours of email, verification, transfer coordination and chasing.

Direct works well in one specific case: a buyer has already approached you unprompted and named a number. At that point you do not need distribution, only a safe transfer mechanism.

The costs nobody puts on the rate card

Before you pick a venue, price these in.

• Holding cost. Renewals compound. A name held ten years at typical .com renewal rates has real cost sunk into it, and that cost does not raise its value by a penny.
• Exclusivity terms. Some listings lock you in for a period or apply commission to sales you sourced yourself. Read the clause about buyers who contacted you before you listed.
• Payout timing. Expect a hold after transfer completes. Days, sometimes a couple of weeks. Plan cash flow accordingly.
• Transfer mechanics. A domain inside a 60-day post-registration or post-transfer lock cannot move. Check this before you accept an offer, not after.
• Currency and tax. Cross-border sales attract conversion spread, and proceeds are usually taxable. Talk to an accountant if the number is meaningful.

A simple way to decide

Ask three questions. First, can you name specific companies that would obviously want this domain? If yes, and the number is five figures or more, go brokered or outbound. Second, is the name brandable and priceable at a number a founder would pay without negotiating? If yes, list it buy-it-now on a marketplace and let inbound find you. Third, do you just want it gone? Auction it and accept the discount.

The mistake that costs the most is not picking the venue with the higher commission. It is picking a venue whose buyers cannot afford your name, then lowering the price until they can.