Guide
Domain names under $500: what you can realistically get
An honest look at the sub-$500 market: what is genuinely available, which compromises come with it, and when to stretch instead.
This is a common search, and it usually gets answered dishonestly — with a page of names that are not really under $500, or not really .com, or not really any good. Here is the straight version.
What you can actually get under $500
- Longer .com compounds. Three words, or two long ones. Perfectly usable if they read cleanly, just less elegant.
- Good names on other extensions. .co, .io, .net and country codes have real inventory at this level.
- Narrow, specific .coms. Names that only fit one small niche. Fine if that niche is exactly your business and you are confident you will stay in it.
- Newly registered names straight from a registrar, at $10–$20, if you are willing to work hard on the wordplay.
What you cannot get under $500
A short, aged, two-word .com in a large commercial category. That inventory is finite, the buyer pool is permanent, and the market has priced it accordingly for two decades. Anyone advertising that combination for under $500 is selling something else.
Where CenturyName sits, plainly
This portfolio does not operate below $500 and it would be misleading to pretend otherwise. The names here are aged .coms built from real words and real compounds, and they run from roughly $1,899 to around $10,000. That is the honest floor for what we list.
If your budget genuinely is $500 and cannot stretch, the registrar route and the alternative extensions are the right answer — and you should take it without embarrassment. Plenty of good companies started on a name they later replaced.
Two things worth knowing before you settle
Instalments may put a better name in reach
A $500 budget usually means a $500 cheque, not a $500 ceiling. Many listings offer lease-to-own over 6 to 36 months. A $3,000 name at $125 a month is inside a $500 budget in every way that matters to a cash-flow-constrained business.
Rebranding is not free
The cost of a weak name is not paid at purchase. It is paid in the emails that bounce because someone guessed the spelling, in the ad copy that has to explain the name before it explains the product, and eventually in the rebrand — new logo, new collateral, redirects, lost recognition. That bill routinely exceeds the difference between a $200 name and a $3,000 one.
If you are staying under $500, do this
- Prioritise spelling clarity over length. A longer name that spells itself beats a short one that does not.
- Avoid hyphens, numbers and deliberate misspellings entirely.
- Check the name's history before you buy, even at $12 — expired domains carry baggage.
- Pick something you would not be embarrassed to keep, in case you never get around to changing it.