Domain Selling Fees: GoDaddy Auction Fees, Afternic Commission and Sedo Fees
Commission is the largest cost in any domain sale. Check what a name is worth first, then read what each venue would keep.
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The short answer
Domain selling fees at the major marketplaces run from 7.5 percent to 30 percent of the sale price, and listing a name is almost always free. GoDaddy and Afternic charge a flat 15 percent when the domain points at Afternic, Dan or Uniregistry nameservers and a flat 25 percent when it does not, with 5 percent more if Afternic Boost is active and a $15 minimum on every sale. Sedo has published 10 percent on direct fixed-price sales rising to 20 percent through its partner network. Atom.com runs 7.5 percent on Standard listings and 30 percent down to 15 percent on Premium, depending on price. Flippa is the one venue that charges a non-refundable fee before anything sells. On a $20,000 name the gap between the cheapest and dearest route is about $3,000, and for most sellers the single largest lever is where the nameservers point.
Last updated August 2026 · GoDaddy and Atom.com rates re-verified this month from their own published pages
Domain marketplace commission compared
Rates below are the seller's side. Where we could not open a company's own fee page this month, the row says so rather than printing a number we cannot stand behind.
| Venue | Seller commission | Up-front cost | How well we could verify it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Afternic / GoDaddy | 15% on Afternic, Dan or Uniregistry nameservers, 25% otherwise, plus 5% with Boost active. $15 minimum | None to list | Primary. GoDaddy's own newsroom, effective 1 Feb 2023 |
| GoDaddy Auctions | Same 15% or 25% nameserver rule, $15 minimum | Membership to bid, commonly reported at $4.99 a year | Commission primary. Membership price third-party only |
| Sedo | 10% direct fixed price, around 15% on marketplace offers and auctions, 20% via SedoMLS. Minimum applies | None to list | Long-published rates. Sedo's price list blocked us this month and one 2026 source reports 10/8/6% tiers |
| Atom.com (ex-Squadhelp) | 7.5% Standard, 15% Plus, Premium 30% to $4,998 then 25%, 20% and 15% above $75,000. Atom Pay 1.35% to 4.5% | None to list. $100 minimum transaction | Primary. Atom's own help centre, re-read this month |
| Flippa | Success fee widely reported at 10% under $50,000, easing to about 7.5% and 5% on larger deals | Non-refundable listing fee, reported from about $29 to several hundred by tier | Third-party only. Flippa's pricing page blocked us and sources disagree on the tiers |
| Independent broker | Typically 10% to 20% of a completed sale | Retainer of roughly $99 to $500 on some desks | Market convention, not a published schedule |
| Private sale via Escrow.com | No commission. Escrow only: 2.6% to $5,000 with a $50 minimum, 2.4% to $50,000, 1.9% to $200,000 | None | Escrow.com's published schedule, effective 31 May 2024 |
| Domainsdealer | 12% on Investor, 8% on Pro Broker, negotiated as low as 5% for brokerages | Flat plan from $39 a month billed annually | Our own published pricing |
We sell domains, so treat the last row as an interested party and check the others yourself. Two of the rates above genuinely beat ours in specific situations, and it is worth saying which. Atom's 7.5 percent Standard listing is cheaper than anything we offer if you are happy with less distribution, and Flippa's success fee falls to about 5 percent on six-figure deals, which is the lowest headline rate in this table. Sedo's 10 percent direct fixed-price route is also cheaper than our Investor plan on a single name. Where a flat plan plus 8 or 12 percent wins is on a book of names rather than one sale, because the percentage does not climb with your success. Our full terms are on the domain broker fees page.
What you actually keep at $2,500, $20,000 and $100,000
Percentages are abstract until you put a number against them. These are the commission amounts only, before any escrow or transfer cost, at three prices that cover most of the market.
| Route | You keep on $2,500 | You keep on $20,000 | You keep on $100,000 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Afternic at 15% | $2,125 | $17,000 | $85,000 |
| Afternic at 25% | $1,875 | $15,000 | $75,000 |
| Afternic at 25% with Boost | $1,750 | $14,000 | $70,000 |
| Sedo direct fixed price at 10% | $2,250 | $18,000 | $90,000 |
| Sedo via SedoMLS at 20% | $2,000 | $16,000 | $80,000 |
| Atom.com Premium | $1,875 (25%) | $15,000 (25%) | $85,000 (15%) |
| Atom.com Standard at 7.5% | $2,312 | $18,500 | $92,500 |
| Domainsdealer Investor at 12% | $2,200 | $17,600 | $88,000 |
| Domainsdealer Pro Broker at 8% | $2,300 | $18,400 | $92,000 |
Read the table as a spread rather than a ranking. The distance between the best and worst row on a $20,000 sale is $4,500, which is more than most investors make on a good month, and none of it depends on negotiating harder with the buyer. It depends on where the name was listed and how it was configured before the offer ever arrived. Our own two rows carry a monthly plan on top, so on a single sale in a year they are not the cheapest option in the table; they get cheaper the more names you move.
The nameserver rule is the biggest fee decision most sellers never make
GoDaddy restructured aftermarket commission on 1 February 2023 and set a single condition: a flat 15 percent if the domain points at GoDaddy-brand aftermarket nameservers, which means Afternic, Dan or Uniregistry, and a flat 25 percent if it does not. GoDaddy described the change in its own newsroom as roughly a 5 percent decrease against the averaged structure that preceded it across its four marketplaces. For an individual seller that framing is only true if the nameservers are pointed correctly, and plenty are not.
The gap is 10 percentage points of the entire sale price, permanently, on every name in the portfolio. It costs nothing to close. Changing nameservers is a DNS edit at the registrar, it takes a few minutes, and it does not move the domain anywhere or interrupt anything. The reason it gets missed is that the setting lives in a place people only visit when something breaks, and nothing about a listing warns you that you are on the 25 percent side of the line.
The catch worth knowing is that pointing nameservers at a parking or aftermarket provider means that provider now serves whatever sits on the domain. If a name is running a live site or email, do not point its nameservers at an aftermarket provider just to save commission. For an undeveloped investment name, which is what most of a portfolio is, there is no downside and the saving is real. Since the ad revenue that used to justify parking has largely gone, domain parking is now mostly worth doing for exactly this reason rather than for the ads.
Afternic Boost sits on top of whichever rate applies and adds 5 percent, so a correctly configured name goes from 15 to 20 percent and an unconfigured one from 25 to 30. Boost buys wider distribution into registrar search results. That is a real service and sometimes it is what produced the buyer, but it should be a deliberate choice rather than a setting you discover on the invoice. The full walkthrough of listing and configuration is in selling a domain on GoDaddy.
The costs that are not commission
Commission is the headline, but four other line items decide what actually lands in your account.
Minimum commissions. Afternic applies a $15 floor. On a $2,000 sale that is invisible. On a $50 sale it is an effective 30 percent, double the headline rate. Sedo applies a minimum too. If a large part of your book sells in the low hundreds, model the floor rather than the percentage, because below roughly $200 the minimum is the fee.
Escrow. Inside a marketplace this is already covered by the commission. In a private sale it is the main cost, and Escrow.com's current schedule starts at 2.6 percent up to $5,000 with a $50 minimum, then 2.4 percent to $50,000 and 1.9 percent to $200,000. The widely-repeated 0.89 percent domain rate was retired when the tiered schedule took effect on 31 May 2024, and a surprising number of guides still quote it. Who pays is negotiable and a split is common. There is more detail in domain escrow.
Listing fees. Rare in domains and normal in website sales, which is the source of most confusion. Flippa charges up front and does not refund it if the asset fails to sell. That is a defensible model for a business listing that needs verification work, and an expensive one for a single domain, which is why most domain sellers use it only for names attached to a running site.
Payment plans. Several venues let a buyer pay monthly, which closes deals that would otherwise die on price. It also means the seller waits, and the terms decide what happens if the buyer stops paying. Read that clause specifically. On some platforms a missed payment suspends the domain and a run of them voids the contract entirely.
One thing that costs nothing worth stating plainly: transferring a domain between registrars to complete a sale adds a year to the registration term rather than restarting it, and a same-registrar push is instant and free. Neither should appear on your cost sheet. The mechanics are in transferring a domain to a new owner.
Choosing on fees without choosing badly
The lowest commission is not automatically the best outcome, and this is where fee comparisons usually mislead. A venue takes a percentage in exchange for putting the name in front of buyers. Afternic's 25 percent rate is expensive, but Afternic's distribution reaches registrar search results at the moment somebody is trying to register a name that is already taken, which is the highest-intent moment in this market. A 10 percent commission on a name nobody sees is worth nothing at all.
A workable rule: choose the venue on distribution for names you actually expect to sell, and optimize the fee within that choice. For most portfolios that means listing broadly, then spending the ten minutes on nameservers that moves the rate from 25 to 15 percent. Fee optimization beyond that produces smaller gains than getting the price right, and pricing is where most sellers leave real money behind. Start by finding out what the name is worth with a domain worth calculator and check what similar names actually sold for in domain sales history.
Above roughly $10,000 the calculation changes again, because a broker who negotiates well can move the price more than the commission costs. That is the argument for paying 15 or 20 percent to someone who will hold a line you would not, and it is covered in selling a premium domain. Below about $5,000 a broker rarely pays for themselves and a marketplace listing does the same job for less.
Questions people ask about domain selling fees
How much commission does GoDaddy take on a domain sale?
GoDaddy and Afternic charge a flat 15 percent when the domain points at GoDaddy-brand aftermarket nameservers, meaning Afternic, Dan or Uniregistry, and a flat 25 percent when it does not. An additional 5 percent applies if Afternic Boost is active at the time of sale, and every sale carries a $15 minimum commission. GoDaddy announced the model in its own newsroom effective 1 February 2023.
What are Afternic fees?
Afternic charges no listing fee. It takes 15 percent of the sale price if the name uses Afternic, Dan or Uniregistry nameservers and 25 percent if it does not, plus 5 percent more with Boost active, subject to a $15 minimum. Afternic and GoDaddy Auctions share one commission model because GoDaddy owns both, so the nameserver rule decides your rate on either venue.
How much does Sedo charge to sell a domain?
Sedo has long published 10 percent on direct fixed-price sales, around 15 percent on marketplace offers and auctions, and 20 percent when a name sells through the SedoMLS partner network, with free listing and a minimum commission. We could not open Sedo's own price list to re-verify this month, and one 2026 third-party source reports a tiered 10, 8 and 6 percent on fixed price instead, so confirm the rate in your account before you list.
How much does Atom.com charge to sell a domain?
Atom.com, formerly Squadhelp, publishes 7.5 percent on Standard listings, 15 percent on Plus listings, and a tiered Premium rate of 30 percent up to $4,998, 25 percent from $4,999 to $49,999, 20 percent from $50,000 to $74,999 and 15 percent above $75,000. Bringing your own buyer through Atom Pay costs 1.35 to 4.5 percent. Names held in Premium for two continuous years qualify for reduced rates.
Do domain marketplaces charge a listing fee?
Most do not. Afternic, GoDaddy Auctions, Sedo and Atom.com all list names for free and take their money as commission when the name sells. Flippa is the notable exception: it charges a non-refundable listing fee up front, reported between roughly $29 and several hundred dollars depending on tier, which you pay whether or not the asset ever sells.
What is the GoDaddy auction membership fee?
Bidding in GoDaddy Auctions requires a membership commonly reported at $4.99 a year. That fee lets you bid on expiring and listed names; it is separate from the selling commission, which follows the same 15 or 25 percent nameserver rule as Afternic with a $15 minimum. GoDaddy does not publish the membership price on a page we could verify directly, so treat the figure as commonly reported. What the auction itself charges a seller is covered in how much GoDaddy Auctions charges.
How much does it cost to sell a domain name?
Budget 10 to 25 percent of the sale price at a mainstream marketplace, plus escrow if you sell privately. The spread is wide enough to matter: on a $20,000 sale, 15 percent leaves you $17,000 and 30 percent leaves you $14,000. Listing is usually free, so the real cost is commission, and the single biggest lever on most portfolios is where the nameservers point. A $10,000 sale worked through line by line, including tax, is in how much it costs to sell a domain name.
Who pays the escrow fee on a domain sale?
It is negotiable, and in private deals the buyer commonly pays or the two sides split it. When you sell through a marketplace the escrow cost is already inside the commission, so you do not pay it twice. Escrow.com charges 2.6 percent up to $5,000 with a $50 minimum, 2.4 percent to $50,000 and 1.9 percent to $200,000 under the schedule that replaced its old flat domain rate in 2024.
Is it cheaper to sell a domain privately?
On paper yes, because you replace a 15 to 25 percent commission with an escrow fee near 2 percent. In practice a private sale only happens if a buyer already found you. Marketplaces charge for distribution, not paperwork. The usual answer for a real portfolio is to list everywhere and keep the escrow route for the rare inbound offer that arrives directly.
What percentage do domain brokers take?
Independent brokers typically take 10 to 20 percent of a completed sale, and some add a retainer of roughly $99 to $500 that is either credited against commission or forfeited if no deal closes. Buy-side brokerage is priced differently: GoDaddy Domain Broker Service charges an upfront fee published between about $99.99 and $119.99 depending on the source, plus 20 percent of the negotiated price. The full breakdown is in how much a domain broker costs.
Does Afternic Boost cost extra?
Yes. Afternic Boost adds 5 percent to whichever commission rate already applies, so a name on approved nameservers moves from 15 to 20 percent and a name without them moves from 25 to 30 percent. The surcharge is applied when Boost is active at the moment of sale. Whether it pays for itself depends entirely on whether the extra distribution produced the buyer.
What is the minimum commission on a domain sale?
Afternic and GoDaddy apply a $15 minimum commission, which only bites on cheap names: on a $50 sale the $15 floor is an effective 30 percent rather than the headline 15. Sedo also applies a minimum. Atom.com sets a $100 floor on the transaction itself rather than the commission. Below roughly $200 a sale price, minimums matter more than percentages.
Before you pick a venue
Fees only matter once you know the number they apply to, so price the name first with a domain worth calculator, then compare venues on distribution as well as rate in where to sell domain names. If your names already sit at GoDaddy, selling a domain on GoDaddy walks through the configuration that decides your rate, and Flippa alternatives covers what changes when a listing fee is involved. For a whole book rather than one name, domain portfolio management covers the renewal-versus-list decision, and our own terms are on the pricing page.
Price the name before you argue about the percentage.
Comparable sales, the signals behind the number, and no account required.