A .forum domain costs $1.54, then $31.41 every year
A .forum domain is advertised at $1.54 and renews at $31.41. That is 20 times the price on the button, every year, for as long as you keep the name.
What it costs to keep
| 1 year | $1.54 |
|---|---|
| 3 years | $64.36 |
| 5 years | $127.18 |
| 10 years | $284.23 |
From Porkbun, the cheapest of the registrars we hold a figure from over 3 years. One registrar's price is not a market rate, and a premium or reserved name costs more than any figure here — the registry returns the same answer for one as for an ordinary free name, so every quote is a floor.
What each registrar charges
| Registrar | First year | Renewal | 3 years |
|---|---|---|---|
| Porkbun | $1.54 | $31.41 | $64.36 cheapest first year cheapest over 3 years |
| Dynadot | $2.99 | $32.32 | $67.63 |
| Cloudflare | $30.20 | $30.20 | $90.60 |
Porkbun is cheapest on both the first year and the 3-year total, so the advertised price does not mislead on this extension.
Ranked on the 3-year total rather than the first year, and the horizon is printed because a ranking with a hidden one is a guess about how long you mean to keep the name. Registrars we hold no figure from are absent rather than shown as unpriced.
Why the advertised price is not the price
A registrar quotes the first year because that is the transaction it is trying to win. The registry sets the renewal, and it is the same at every registrar that sells .forum — so shopping around changes the first year and barely touches what the name costs you by its third birthday.
That registry is Waterford Limited, which holds the
ICANN agreement for .forum and sets the wholesale price every
registrar resells. Operators run portfolios rather than single extensions, which
is why unrelated extensions land on the same figure to the cent — the tier
belongs to the company, not to the word.
None of this is hidden. It is on the registrar's own page, below the number in the large type. dotsweep leads with it because it does not sell you the domain.
Are you allowed to register a .forum name?
Its ICANN registry agreement contains no Specification 12, the clause that carries community registration policies and their eligibility restrictions. So the contract Waterford Limited signed puts no eligibility condition on .forum, and the registrars selling it are not withholding one.
Checked against the agreement itself on 2026-08-01, one extension at a time rather than assumed from a sibling. This is a fact about the contract and not a promise from the registry: a registry may add its own conditions later, and a registrar can refuse a name for reasons of its own. Premium and reserved names are priced separately from anything here.
Is a .forum name free?
Availability comes from the registry over RDAP, with a WHOIS fallback where a registry publishes no RDAP service. A throttled or unreachable registry is reported as unconfirmed rather than available, which is the one wrong answer that costs somebody money.
curl https://dotsweep.com/check/yourname.forumOther extensions whose renewal is the real cost
.baby .bar .buzz .cards .casino .codes .credit .creditcard .digital .dog .feedback .fit .gold .guru .host .investments .lol .press .shop .site .space .store .vu
Every extension ranked by what it really costs → · API reference →