Top Domain Marketplaces in 2026 Ranked by Verified Sales Performance

The same .com domain sells for $748 average on GoDaddy and $13,745 average on Sedo. Same TLD. 18.4x price difference. And the marketplace handling 98% of all .ai sales is neither of those.

Where you list a domain determines what you’ll earn. We analyzed 97,742 aftermarket sales tracked between October 29, 2025 and April 27, 2026 across the 6 active seller-facing marketplaces, and the patterns are sharper than most sellers realize. This guide ranks every major marketplace, walks through how to choose the right one for your specific domain, and surfaces the data finding that quietly rewrites the rules for anyone selling AI-themed domains.

TL;DR — The 5 best domain marketplaces in 2026

NameJet is omitted from comparison sections — it had only 1 publicly-reported sale in the analysis window.

Methodology

Citability matters more than ever in 2026, so the methodology comes before the findings.

Data window. October 29, 2025 — April 27, 2026 (trailing 180 days).

Source. Aggregated public sales records across 6 active aftermarket marketplaces: GoDaddy, Namecheap, DropCatch, Afternic, Sedo, and NameJet. Total: 97,742 verified transactions.

Scope decision. NameJet is included in the dataset total (97,742 transactions) but excluded from comparison sections. NameJet had only 1 publicly-reported sale in the analysis window — insufficient for meaningful comparison. All figures in the marketplace breakdowns below cover the 5 active seller-facing platforms.

What’s excluded. Private brokered sales that aren’t publicly reported. Wholesale registrar transactions. Drop-only platforms like SnapNames and BuyDomains, which don’t operate as standard seller marketplaces.

Refresh cadence. Quarterly. The methodology and figures will update as new windows close.

The Marketplace Paradox: Volume vs. Price

Volume share and average sale price across the 5 active marketplaces. The price axis is logarithmic — Sedo’s average is 18x GoDaddy’s despite handling 150x fewer transactions.

GoDaddy and Namecheap together handle 86% of all aftermarket transactions. Sedo handles less than half a percent — but the average Sedo sale is 18x larger than the average GoDaddy sale. They aren’t competing for the same listings.

The price spread for the same TLD is wider than most sellers realize. A .com domain sells for an average of:

·        $485 on Namecheap

·        $691 on DropCatch

·        $748 on GoDaddy

·        $3,571 on Afternic

·        $13,745 on Sedo

That’s a 28x price range for the same extension. Marketplace fit isn’t a marginal factor — it’s the single biggest determinant of what your domain earns. List in the wrong place and the buyer pool for your asset never sees it. List in the right place and the right buyers compete for it.

How to Sell a Domain in 2026: The 3-Step Process

Before getting to the marketplace deep dives, here’s the practical framework that makes this all actionable. Three steps. Skip none of them.

Step 1 — Value your domain using comparable sales

Pricing is where most sellers leave money on the table. Either they list 10x too high (the domain sits for years), or they list at registration cost (a 5-figure asset closes for $500).

The fix is comparable sales, not gut feel. Use Bishopi’s Sales History tool to find 5-10 recent transactions of similar names — same length, same TLD, similar keyword category. Calculate the median rather than the mean. Median is more resistant to outlier sales that skew the picture.

Apply a TLD multiplier where appropriate. Our data shows .ai sells for roughly 2.4x the .com average on the same marketplace ($1,174 .ai vs $485 .com on Namecheap, for example). Premium ccTLDs like .de carry a similar multiplier on Sedo. New gTLDs like .xyz and .io trade closer to .com averages, with more variance.

If you want a starting estimate without manual research, Bishopi’s free Domain Value Analysis tool gives a baseline appraisal you can sanity-check against the comparables you find.

Step 2 — Choose the right marketplace for your domain

This is where the data in this guide directly answers the question. Match TLD to marketplace specialty:

·        .ai → Namecheap. The data is unambiguous (more on this below).

·        Premium .com ($5,000+) → Sedo or Afternic.

·        Standard .com → GoDaddy.

·        Expired/aged .com → DropCatch.

·        European ccTLDs (.de, .nl, .at, .ch) → Sedo.

Match price tier to marketplace average. Don’t list a $200 domain on Sedo (your listing gets ignored) or a $20,000 domain on GoDaddy alone (the price ceiling on GoDaddy’s main marketplace is real). For premium domains, multi-listing across two marketplaces is standard practice — typically Afternic for distribution + Sedo or GoDaddy for liquidity.

Step 3 — List with the right pricing strategy

Three mechanical decisions affect both speed-to-sale and final price:

Buy Now vs Make Offer. Sedo charges 10% commission on parked Buy Now sales versus 15% on Make Offer transactions. Buy Now closes faster but caps your upside. Make Offer creates negotiation room but adds 30-90 days to typical sale timelines.

Asking price. Set 20-30% above your target floor. If the median comparable is $3,000 and you’d be happy with $2,500, list at $3,500-$3,900. This gives you negotiation room without underpricing, and it lets you accept reasonable offers without feeling stretched.

Listing timing. Launch on Thursday if possible. Our 6-month data showed Thursday is both the volume peak (35,622 sales) and the price peak ($1,089 average) for the entire week. Saturday is the worst — 27% lower average price than Thursday. The pattern held consistently across all six months in the window.

The Marketplace Deep Dives

Each marketplace below is profiled with the same structure: real numbers from the data, sample sales, what it’s best for, and the catch. Read them like restaurant reviews — you’ll know which one fits your situation by the end.

GoDaddy: The Volume Engine

The numbers. 64.59% of all aftermarket transactions in our dataset. $778 average sale price overall, $748 for .com (which is 88.8% of GoDaddy’s inventory). GoDaddy is the dominant marketplace by volume, and the dominance shows up in every metric.

Sample recent sales. delete.com — $494,352 · owen.com — $420,000 · treats.com — $159,888. The high-end exists, but it’s the exception.

Best for. Liquid inventory. Fast sales. .com domains priced under $2,000 where speed matters more than maximizing price.

The catch. GoDaddy’s average prices skew low because of the high volume of small sales. Premium domains can sell here, but they get diluted in the listing flow. Marketing visibility for an individual listing is limited unless you opt into Afternic’s distribution network (which most serious sellers should do).

2026 commission. 15% with Afternic nameservers / 25% without. Verify on GoDaddy’s pricing page — commission structures shift quarterly.

Namecheap: The .ai Marketplace

The most concentrated marketplace specialty in the data: 98% of all .ai domain sales clear on Namecheap.

The numbers. 21.01% of total volume — second-largest marketplace by transactions. $611 average sale, $485 for .com.

Sample recent sales. synthetic.ai — $110,000 · podcast.ai — $75,611 · depin.com — $58,000 · bitcoinfoundation.org — $78,500. Note how the top sales skew AI-themed, even when the TLD is .com.

Best for. AI-themed domains specifically. If you have .ai inventory in any tier, Namecheap is where the buyer pool lives.

The why. Namecheap’s user base over-indexes on developers and AI-startup founders — exactly the buyer demographic for .ai domains. A .ai domain on GoDaddy gets surfaced to a general audience; on Namecheap, it gets surfaced to people actively shopping for technical project names.

2026 commission. Namecheap’s commission structure on marketplace sales isn’t published as a single public rate. Check directly with the Namecheap marketplace team for current pricing on the specific listing format you’re considering.

DropCatch: The Expired Domain Auction

The numbers. 11.97% of total volume. $700 average sale, $691 for .com. 84.1% .com inventory — the second-purest .com marketplace after GoDaddy.

Sample recent sales. openpay.com — $310,000 · paylater.com — $90,095 · savoie-mont-blanc.com — $75,500. Most are aged or expired domains being recovered through auction.

Best for. Expired and aged .com domains. Buyers here specifically want existing domain authority — backlinks, traffic history, age signals — not new registrations.

The catch. Auction format. You’re competing against domain investors who run automated bidding on dropped names. This is not the marketplace for "list and forget" — it requires active monitoring of bidding patterns, and the outcome is decided in seconds when the name actually drops.

For monitoring domains about to drop across all major registrars, Bishopi’s Fresh Drops tool surfaces names entering the deletion pipeline in real time — the fastest way to identify DropCatch auction candidates before they’re listed.

2026 commission. ~15% auction fee.

For broader context on domain investing including drop-catching strategy, our guide on domain flipping data strategies covers the full investor playbook.

Afternic: The Mid-Market Premium Specialist

The numbers. 2.01% of volume — small share, but $3,879 average sale. Positioned squarely in the middle of the price tier. 69.7% .com inventory, with notable international diversity (.co.uk and .co.za each at 1.4% of inventory — unique among the marketplaces in our dataset).

Sample recent sales. metawatch.com — $289,995 · privatellm.com — $250,000 · serp.com — $210,000 · intuitive.ai — $125,000.

Best for. Brandable .com domains priced $2,000–$50,000. The mid-market sweet spot where neither GoDaddy’s volume engine nor Sedo’s premium positioning quite fits.

The why. Afternic is GoDaddy-owned, which gives it distribution across 100+ partner registrars without the price drag of GoDaddy’s main marketplace. Listings appear when buyers search at NameSilo, Network Solutions, Hover, and dozens of other registrars — not just at godaddy.com.

2026 commission. 15% with Afternic’s nameservers / 25% without. The nameserver setup is straightforward and worth doing for the lower commission tier.

Sedo: The Premium and International Specialist

The numbers. 0.43% of volume but $13,916 average sale — by far the highest-priced marketplace. 56.2% .com inventory, but with massive ccTLD diversity: 13.9% .de, 2.2% .eu, 1.9% .at, 1.2% .ch, 1.2% .it. Sedo is the only marketplace in the dataset where European ccTLDs get serious distribution.

Sample recent sales. bot.ai — $1,200,000 · midnight.com — $1,150,000 · c4.com — $265,000 · circa.com — $250,000. Sedo is where the seven-figure deals close.

Best for. Premium .com priced $5,000+. International ccTLD sales (Sedo has roughly 5x the European reach of any competitor in our data).

The why. Sedo’s institutional buyer base and international broker network give it a buyer pool that simply doesn’t exist on volume-oriented marketplaces. When a corporate buyer is acquiring a domain for a $50K+ deal, they typically work through Sedo’s broker channel — and that pipeline doesn’t show up on GoDaddy at all.

2026 commission. 10% on parked Buy Now sales, 15% on Make Offer transactions, 20% on SedoMLS partner network sales.

Sample-size note on Sedo .ai pricing: Sedo had 14 .ai sales averaging $89,673 in our window. The mean is heavily skewed by a small number of high-value transactions (bot.ai alone closed at $1.2M). Treat this as indicative of Sedo’s premium ceiling for .ai, not as a typical outcome. Most .ai sales — including most premium .ai sales — still cleared on Namecheap.

For more on identifying which premium domains are actually worth listing at Sedo prices, see our guide to finding and buying premium domains smartly.

Where Specific Keywords Actually Sell

Beyond the TLD and price-tier patterns, the data reveals a more granular signal: buyer pools self-segregate by keyword category, not just by domain extension.

We tracked 10 emerging keywords across all marketplaces in the window. The patterns surfaced from cells with sufficient sample size (3+ sales) tell a useful story:

·        The keyword "claw" (animal/gaming/UFC adjacency) sold on Spaceship.com at $13,766 average across 3 sales — versus $664 on GoDaddy for the same keyword. Niche brandable buyers cluster on alternative marketplaces.

·        The keyword "whiskey" averaged $1,422 on GoDaddy across 24 sales — solidly above GoDaddy’s $778 marketplace-wide average. Premium consumer keywords on a volume marketplace.

·        The keyword "manchester" averaged $3,955 on Namecheap across 5 sales (small sample) — versus $451 on GoDaddy. The same word, 8x price difference depending on where it lists.

The pattern, not the prescription. Sample sizes are small at the keyword × marketplace level — these are directional signals, not predictive rules. The takeaway isn’t "always list manchester domains on Namecheap." It’s that buyer pools self-segregate, and a keyword’s ideal marketplace usually correlates with its TLD specialty: .ai goes to Namecheap, premium .com to Sedo or Afternic, expired .com to DropCatch, and category-niche brandables often surface on platforms outside the top 5.

This is exactly the kind of pattern that’s hard to spot from a single sale or a single marketplace. Bishopi’s Domain Trends tool tracks emerging keywords and where their sales are concentrating in real time — so investors can spot category shifts before the price catches up.

Commission Rates: What Each Marketplace Actually Charges

Practical decision input for sellers comparing platforms. Verified April 2026 rates:

Critical caveat. Commission structures shift quarterly. The rates above were verified in April 2026. Always verify current rates on each platform’s official pricing page before listing — Sedo pricing, Afternic pricing, and GoDaddy aftermarket fees.

For Namecheap specifically: as of April 2026, Namecheap doesn’t publish a standard commission rate for marketplace sales. Sellers should contact their marketplace team directly for current pricing on the specific listing format being used.

Decision Framework: Which Marketplace Fits Your Domain?

Match your domain type to the marketplace that specializes in it. Multi-listing is standard practice for premium names.

The data converges on a clean set of rules:

·        .com under $2,000 → GoDaddy. Volume + speed.

·        .com priced $2,000–$10,000 → Afternic + GoDaddy dual-listing.

·        .com priced $10,000+ → Sedo primary, Afternic secondary.

·        .ai (any price) → Namecheap. The data is unambiguous.

·        Expired/aged .com → DropCatch.

·        European ccTLDs (.de, .eu, .at, .ch) → Sedo. 5x the international reach of any competitor.

·        New gTLDs (.io, .xyz, .top) → GoDaddy + Namecheap. Spread the listing.

·        Brandable, no clear category → Afternic for distribution + GoDaddy for liquidity.

Multi-listing is standard practice for any domain priced above $5,000. The commission cost of listing in two places is small compared to the price difference between marketplaces for the same domain.

How to Spot Selling Opportunities Before They’re Priced In

Knowing where to list a domain you already own is half the battle. The other half is knowing what to acquire next — and that’s where most domain investors fly blind.

The marketplace data in this guide is descriptive — it tells you what just sold. The harder, more valuable signal is what’s gaining momentum before the resale market has caught up. A keyword that’s quietly accumulating registrations today is the keyword that resells at premium prices six months from now. By the time it shows up on aggregated sales reports, the registration window is closed.

Bishopi’s Domain Trends tool is built for exactly this gap. It surfaces:

·        Trending keywords with rising registration volume across any industry niche

·        Top recent sales across all major marketplaces in real time

·        Customer behavior patterns showing what end-buyers are searching for

·        Low-competition opportunities before the keyword saturates and prices spike

·        Most popular extensions and how that ranking is shifting month over month

For domain investors, this is the practical workflow:

1.      Use Domain Trends to spot emerging keywords with momentum (the discovery layer)

2.      Use Sales History to check what comparable names have already sold for (the pricing layer)

3.      List in the marketplace this guide identifies for that domain type (the distribution layer)

Each tool answers a different question. Domain Trends answers "what should I be acquiring?" Sales History answers "what’s it worth?" The marketplace ranking in this post answers "where do I list?"

That combined workflow is what separates domain investors who scale from domain investors who just trade their existing inventory. If you’re treating domain investing as a portfolio business rather than a one-off, all three layers matter.

FAQ

Q: Where can I sell my domain for the most money?

For premium domains ($5,000+), Sedo delivers the highest average sale prices — $13,916 across all categories, with the largest concentration of six-figure deals in our 2026 dataset. For mid-market domains ($2,000–$10,000), Afternic at $3,879 average offers the best balance of price and distribution. Match marketplace tier to your domain’s price ceiling rather than chasing volume.

Q: Is GoDaddy or Sedo better for selling domains?

Different domains, different answers. GoDaddy handles 64.59% of total aftermarket transactions at $778 average — best for liquid inventory and fast sales. Sedo handles 0.43% at $13,916 average — best for premium domains where price beats speed. Most professional sellers list across both for portfolio coverage, using GoDaddy for everyday names and Sedo for the premium tier.

Q: Where should I sell a .ai domain?

Namecheap. Our 2026 data shows 97.88% of all .ai domain sales cleared on Namecheap, where they account for 16.18% of total inventory — far above the 3.6% market average across other marketplaces. The buyer pool concentration on Namecheap for .ai is the most extreme marketplace specialty in our dataset.

Q: How long does it take to sell a domain?

Premium .ai or short .com domains priced competitively: 30–90 days. Standard inventory: 6–18 months. Auction formats like DropCatch accelerate timelines when multiple buyers compete. The biggest delay factor is overpricing — domains priced realistically for their tier sell faster than discounted names that have been listed for years at unrealistic prices.

Q: What commission do domain marketplaces charge in 2026?

Sedo: 10% (Buy Now) to 20% (SedoMLS partner sales). Afternic and GoDaddy: 15% with their nameservers, 25% without. DropCatch: ~15% auction fee. Namecheap commission varies and isn’t publicly published — verify on their marketplace pricing page or with their team. Commission structures shift quarterly; always verify current rates before listing.

Q: What day of the week is best to list a domain for sale?

Thursday. The data shows Thursday averages 35,622 sales per day at $1,089 average sale price — both the volume peak and the price peak of the week. Saturday is the weakest day at 29,843 average sales and $792 average price. Listing a serious domain on Thursday rather than a weekend can affect both speed-to-sale and final price by meaningful margins.

Q: Is multi-listing across marketplaces worth it?

For domains priced above $5,000, yes. The commission cost of listing in two marketplaces is small relative to the price difference between them for the same domain. Standard pairings: Afternic + GoDaddy (mid-market .com), Sedo + Afternic (premium .com), Namecheap exclusive (.ai). Multi-listing for sub-$2,000 domains usually isn’t worth the management overhead.

What’s Next

Where you list a domain is one of the most underweighted decisions in domain investing. The data in this guide shows it shouldn’t be. A 28x price range for the same TLD across marketplaces is not a marginal optimization — it’s the difference between a profitable portfolio and one that just trades fees.

The .ai concentration finding (98% of sales on Namecheap) is the single most actionable insight in this dataset. If you have any .ai inventory and you’re listing it anywhere else, you’re listing in the wrong place. The buyer pool data is unambiguous.

Beyond the immediate marketplace decision, the bigger lever for serious domain investors is upstream — knowing what’s gaining momentum before the market prices it in. Bishopi’s Domain Trends tool tracks emerging keywords, hot domain registrations, and customer behavior patterns in real time, surfacing acquisition opportunities before they show up in retrospective sales reports. Combined with Sales History for pricing comparables and the marketplace ranking above for distribution, that’s the full investor workflow.

This analysis updates quarterly. The next edition covers the May–October 2026 window and will track which patterns held and which shifted.