“Backorder”, a watchful eye for recovering an expired domain name
A backorder is a service for recovering expired domain names. Solidnames offers a timeless way of ensuring that expired domain names are put back into the public domain.
A domain name not renewed by its owner expires. It is then available for registration by a new owner. The process of making a domain name available again follows a number of stages in its life cycle.
Expiration of a domain name
As a general rule, a domain name is registered with a registrar by its owner for a period of 1 to 10 years. The registrant has priority to renew the contract, and is notified by the registrar (e.g. OVH, Gandi, Ionos, Netim… or Solidnames) when the contract expires.
A domain name may expire and become inactive if it is not renewed by its owner on the expiry date. However, an expired domain name can still be renewed by its owner during a 30-day “Redemption Grace Period” (RGP).
The “Redemption Period” is followed by a 5-day period called “Pending Delete”, indicating the effective deletion of the domain name. The domain name can no longer be resubscribed by its former holder. Consequently, it will be deleted by the registrar.
This general principle of domain name renewal varies according to the Internet extension and the registrar. For example, there is no “Pending Delete” period for a .FR domain name.
Domain name renewal
How do I recover an expired domain name?
During these steps, the status of the domain name in its whois record changes. You can be notified of these changes by subscribing to Solidnames’ SecURL service.
At first glance, recovering an expired domain name is straightforward. When the owner of a domain name fails to renew it, the registrar will request its deletion from the registry.
The deletion date is provided or easily calculated on the domain name whois. In short, all that remains is to manually redeposit the domain name with your usual registrar.
But in reality, this “manual” process never works for expired domain names.
Specific companies called “namecatcher” specialize in the immediate, automated registration of abandoned names. These specialized “registrars” redeposit the expired domain name the instant it falls back into the public domain.
It’s ideal to set up a backorder when the whois expiration date has passed. Exceeding this deadline is a strong indicator of possible future abandonment.
Ordering a backorder from a namecatcher does not guarantee its recovery. During the grace period, the holder can still renew his domain name late.
The procedure for recovering an expired domain name varies according to the Internet extension.
Drop-catching” is the process of registering expired domain names using automated systems within a short period of time (even a fraction of a second) after they have been deleted by the registry.
Releasing an expired domain name into the public domain differs according to the Internet extension in which the name is registered.
In this respect, a distinction must be made between the recovery of expired domains in generic extensions and expired domains registered in country-code extensions.
Price of a backorder for an expired domain name
Solidnames offers a timeless way of monitoring and automatically recovering expired domain names (also known as “backorder”, “snap” or “dropcatching”).
Solidnames’ price for a backorder of an expired domain name is €96 excluding VAT.
The Solidnames price includes charges from our various suppliers; for example, $79 for a “snap” ordered from “namecatcher” Snapnames.
Solidnames has several referenced accounts with partner service providers specializing in snap backs for backorders.
Solidnames offers public domain watches for extensions with a high success rate.
Among the suffixes proposed by Solidnames, there are the historical generic Internet extensions (e.g. .COM, .NET, .ORG…), the new ones (“NewgTLDs” such as .CLUB) as well as certain geographical extensions (“ccTLDs”: .BE, .DE, .EU, .FR, .UK…).
Backorders ordered by Solidnames customers are available on their customer extranet.
Solidnames also offers .ETH domain name recovery for expired NFT domain names.
Snap providers of expired domain names
For generic extensions like .COM, two providers dominate the market for recovering expired domain names.
The specialists in .COM backordering are DropCatch and SnapNames. Solidnames uses their services for our customers’ orders for expired domain names in a generic extension.
In addition, some major domain name registrars do not delete their expired domain names. These registrars, particularly in the U.S., offer for sale domain names not renewed by their customers during a period known as “prelease”.
This is how the following registrars work, among others: Dynadot, GoDaddy, NameBright, NameCheap or Network Solutions.
Recover an expired .FR domain name
The “snap” of an expired domain name in a country extension is different. European providers such as CatchTiger, DomainOrder or Match.it offer several European Union geographical extensions.
They also offer to order .FR backorders. The market for .FR domain names is a special one. It was long dominated by YouDot, formerly known as DomRaider. YouDot has since ceased its snap activity.
By 2022, two French players will complete the European trio: DomExpire and KifDom.
Solidnames uses the services of all these providers to optimize the chances of obtaining expired .FR domain names.
In addition, Solidnames has several .FR Rush licenses. The .FR domain name registry, AFNIC, has set up a dedicated EPP server for the snapping activity. Solidnames is a customer of the Afnic service, which sells the .FR Rush service for €150 ex VAT per month per license.
Auction expired domain names
Subscribing to a domain name “snap” (another anglicism for “backorder”) does not guarantee its effective recovery. Several entities may want the same domain name.
In this case, the backorder platform organizes an auction, and the highest bidder wins the domain name.
This auction scenario is common for domain names with important SEO metrics, such as a large number of quality backlinks. This is also the case for short domain names, generic names and/or old names.
In the event of several backorders for the same domain name, Solidnames informs the customer that auctions will be held. Solidnames will then define with the customer the maximum amount he/she is willing to pay to win the auction.
The following additional fees are payable by Solidnames in the case of auctions:
- Minimum fee for participation in the auction, regardless of the outcome (won or lost): €48 excluding VAT
- If the customer wins the auction, Solidnames’ fixed commission is 4% of the auction price.
If Solidnames recovers the domain name ordered as a backorder, the customer must pay Solidnames a second time for the costs of changing the provider, the holder and an annual subscription fee for the domain name.
Auction prices for expired domain names
The majority of namecatchers organize auctions when they have actually snapped up the expired domain name. However, other backorder providers operate with pre-auctions before they have actually snapped up the domain name.
DomainOrder organizes pre-auctions that close on the Tuesday before the domain’s deletion date. Nicsell (formerly known as CatchTiger), on the other hand, will close the pre-auction for expired domains the day before deletion.
For DomainOrder and Nicsell, the domain name is obtained if these “namecatchers” have “snapped” it and the auction has been won.
Winning a pre-auction does not guarantee that the domain name will actually be recovered, as the pre-auction platform may itself be outbid.
The amount bid for an expired domain name often varies according to its characteristics. memo.fr sold for €14,400 in May 2022 at DomExpire. soon.fr went for €7,900 at KifDom in March 2022. A Swiss entity bought the short 2-letter domain name qd.fr at auction for €1,550 in March 2022.
Recovery of an expired cybersquatting domain name
Among expired domain names, there are sometimes disputed names that infringe your prior rights.
In this case, a backorder is a low-cost alternative for recovering a cybersquatted domain name.
A brand monitoring service is available for expired domain names. This service, called “Redemption Alert” at Solidnames, is available at €1 excl. tax/day.