Domain Appraisal Cost for Buyers and Sellers

A domain appraisal costs anywhere from nothing to $2,500 a name. Automated estimates from GoDaddy, Atom and EstiBot's guest tier are free. Sedo charges $99 for a report with comparable sales, a documented human appraisal from Media Options costs $2,500, and subscription tools for people who value names every week run from $29 to $149 a month. Which one is worth paying for depends on what the number has to do: sort a list, back up an offer, or stand up in front of an accountant or a court.

This page is for someone about to spend money on a name, or about to ask for money for one. It lists what each appraisal option costs today, what you get back for the fee, and which kind of appraisal fits which decision, so you do not pay $2,500 for a number a free tool would have given you, or rely on a free number when a lot of money rides on it.

How much does a domain appraisal cost?

Expect $0 for an automated estimate, about $99 for a marketplace report, $20 to $150 a month for a subscription tool, and $1,500 to $2,500 for a documented appraisal written by a broker. The price tracks how much human judgment goes into the result and whether the report is meant to be shown to someone else.

Prices were read from each provider's own pages or, where the site blocks automated reading, from reviews published in September and October 2026. EstiBot does not offer refunds according to those reviews, so confirm the current plan page before you subscribe.

Is a paid domain appraisal worth it?

A paid appraisal is worth it when the price of being wrong is bigger than the fee. On a name listed at $800, a $99 report can eat an eighth of the deal and will rarely change your decision. On a $20,000 negotiation, the same $99 for a set of real comparable sales can move the outcome by thousands, because you can show the seller where your number came from.

The cases where people regret paying are predictable. They buy a $2,500 certificate to decide whether to register a hand-reg name, or they pay for a written report on a name they already know they will not sell for under a fixed figure. The cases where people regret not paying are equally predictable: a founder accepts a $35,000 ask on a two-word .com with no evidence either way, or an investor sells a one-word .ai at a free tool's estimate that never accounted for how wide the AI buyer pool has become.

Are free domain appraisals accurate?

Free appraisals are rough guides. They are built on keyword volume, length, extension and past sales, which makes them fairly steady on plain keyword .com names and unreliable on brandables, new extensions and anything priced in the five figures. Two free tools can disagree by a factor of ten on the same name, and the figure can change overnight when a tool updates its model.

That is not a reason to ignore them. It is a reason to use them for what they are good at, which is sorting a long list into "look closer" and "skip". The number you put in an offer email or a listing should come from something you can explain, and that means comparable sales you can name.

What should a domain appraisal report include?

A useful appraisal answers three questions: what is the number, why, and what is it based on. Before paying for any report, check that it gives you all of these.

• A single price and a time frame. "Worth $5,000" means little without "within six months". A price for a quick sale and a price for a patient one can be very different.
• Reasoning you can read. The keyword, the extension, who would buy it and what holds the number down.
• Comparable sales with venue and date. Names of the same length, structure and extension, sold recently, at prices you can check.
• An honest gap. If no comparable sales exist in that price band or extension, the report should say so instead of stretching a weak match.

That checklist is how we built our own domain appraisal tool, because we price our own portfolio with it every day and need to defend those prices to buyers.

Which appraisal should you pay for?

Match the appraisal to the decision rather than to the size of your budget.

• You are buying one name and the seller named a price. A single automated appraisal with comparable sales is enough to tell you whether the ask is in range. If the ask is in the five figures, add a second opinion from a different source.
• You are setting buy-now prices on names you own. You need consistent valuations across many names, so a subscription with history and export beats one-off reports.
• You screen drop lists or auctions daily. You need volume, not reports. EstiBot's lookup plans are made for this; we compare them in detail on our EstiBot alternative page.
• You need the number for tax, an estate, a divorce or a lawsuit. Pay for a documented human appraisal from an established broker, because the report has to stand up when someone else reads it.
• The domain is part of selling a whole website or company. The name is only one asset. You will also want to value the whole business, not just its domain, since revenue and traffic usually outweigh the name itself.

How do I get my domain appraised?

Type the name into an appraisal tool, read the number and the comparable sales, and decide whether the stakes justify a second opinion. For most buyers and sellers that takes a few minutes. Our appraisal page values the first name free with no account, then Broker and Portfolio plans add 100 or 1,000 appraisals a month with saved history and CSV export. For a documented report, Sedo and Media Options both take orders by form, and Sedo's turnaround is up to 5 business days.

How to spend less on appraisals

Run free estimates on the long list first and only pay for the names that survive. Value names in batches on a plan rather than buying one-off reports if you price more than a handful a month. And when you are buying, look at what similar names are actually listed for: a catalogue with prices on every name, such as our premium domain price bands, is market evidence you can read for free. If you want to understand which features push a valuation up or down before you pay anyone, our guide to how much a domain name is worth walks through length, extension, keyword and buyer pool.

Does a domain appraisal tell me what a buyer will pay?

No appraisal guarantees a sale price. It tells you what similar names have sold for and what a reasonable ask looks like. The real price is set by one buyer who wants this name now, which is why a name can sell well above its appraisal to a funded company and sit for years at the same figure with no takers. Use the appraisal to set a range and a walk-away point, then let the negotiation do the rest.