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The short version
- What it is: a low price for the first year, with a much higher renewal price in smaller type, and sometimes a longer term you have to buy to get it.
- Why it works: the first number you see sets your idea of the price. The renewal is a problem for future you.
- How to beat it: find the renewal price before you buy, and add up the years you plan to keep the name.
- At Chill Domains: one list price, the same to register and to renew. A .com.au is $20 a year inc GST, and renews at $20.
What does intro pricing look like?
A big, friendly first-year price, a struck-out “was” price beside it, and a line of grey type underneath. The grey line is where the real offer lives.
- 1The headline price is for the first year only.
- 2The renewal price, the two-year term you must buy, and the missing GST are all in the small grey line.
- 3The saving is measured against the seller’s own price. That’s a pattern of its own: a discount against the seller’s own price.
What does the 99-cent domain really cost?
Add GST and follow it for five years. The two-year term means year two is paid on day one.
| Year | Price inc GST |
|---|---|
| Year 1 | $1.09 |
| Year 2 (paid up front, with the two-year term) | $38.49 |
| Years 3, 4 and 5 | $38.49 each |
| Five years | $155.05 |
That’s $31.01 a year inc GST on average, for a name advertised at 99 cents. Nothing on the offer is false. It’s the order that does the work: the smallest price is in the biggest type, and the one you’ll pay most often is in the smallest.
Why does it work on us?
Psychologists call it anchoring: the first number we see becomes the reference point for every number after it. Against 99 cents, a renewal feels like a detail. And the renewal is a year away, when you’ll have other things on your mind.
Domains make it stronger. Once your website and email run on a name, moving it takes effort, so most people renew where they are. A seller can afford to lose money on year one if you stay for years two to ten. (Moving isn’t as hard as it’s made to look: see making it hard to leave.)
Where else will I see it?
Anywhere you pay again and again: broadband and phone plans with a cheap first six months, streaming and software with an intro rate, web hosting, and insurance that costs new customers less than loyal ones.
How do I find the real price?
- Look for the words first year, 1st yr, with a 2-year term, renews at or regular price.
- Find the renewal price before you reach the checkout. If you can’t find it, that tells you something too.
- Check whether the prices include GST. If they don’t, multiply by 1.1.
- Check whether the offer needs a longer term, and pay for all of it in your head now.
- Add up the years you’ll keep the name. For a business name, that’s probably all of them.
What does the law say?
A low first-year price isn’t against the law in itself. The Australian Consumer Law bans misleading conduct and false or misleading claims about price, so what matters is whether the whole offer leaves the right impression. A new law passed in July 2026 adds rules for subscriptions from 1 July 2027, including telling people the renewal details up front. Whether a particular domain registration counts as a subscription under it is a question for lawyers.
What does Chill Domains do instead?
At Chill Domains. One list price, the same to register and to renew, and the same for new and existing customers. A .com.au is $20 a year inc GST, and renews at $20. If we give out a promo code, it takes money off the payment it’s used on, never off a renewal, so you always know the renewal price.
Questions people ask
Is a 99-cent domain a scam?
Can I take the cheap year and move the domain before it renews?
Why don’t all registrars charge one price?
Sources
- Deceptive Patterns: Hidden costs, Harry Brignull’s catalogue of deceptive design.
- Australia’s new unfair trading practices laws (Ashurst, 2026) and the Parliamentary Library’s Bills Digest: the Competition and Consumer Amendment (Unfair Trading Practices) Bill 2026, passed in July 2026, with its new rules starting on 1 July 2027.
- Chill Domains pricing and our promises: our own prices and terms, as at 27 October 2026.
General information, not legal or financial advice. We sell domains, so read this as a seller’s view.
Keep reading
- Dark patterns in the domain business: every pattern we’ve written up, and the case files.
- Prices before GST: the other half of most cheap-domain offers.
- Case file 1: the $0.01 domain and its cart: intro pricing in a real cart.
- Domain expiry and renewal: what happens when a name comes up for renewal.