What is the best Dan.com alternative?
It depends on which part of Dan you miss. If it was the low fee, a no-commission marketplace with escrow built in is the closest match: Domaining charges a flat plan and nothing per sale. If it was lease to own, Afternic, Atom, Efty and Spaceship's SellerHub all offer installments. If it was GoDaddy's buyer traffic, staying on Afternic is the only way to keep it.
A common setup after Dan is two listings, not one. Sellers keep names on Afternic for the registrar distribution and sell direct, at no commission, to the buyers who come through their own for-sale pages, inquiries and outbound offers. The rest of this article shows the numbers behind that split.
What happened to Dan.com?
GoDaddy bought Dan.com in 2022, aligned its commission with GoDaddy's aftermarket in 2023, closed new sign ups in September 2024 and shut the site down on June 27, 2025. Listings, landers and lease to own deals were moved to Afternic, GoDaddy's own marketplace. Sellers who opted out of the migration had their Dan listings deleted.
| When | What changed for sellers |
|---|---|
| June 2022 | GoDaddy agrees to acquire Dan.com |
| 2023 | Dan's 9% commission rises to 15% for names on Dan, Afternic or Uniregistry nameservers and 25% for the rest |
| September 12, 2024 | New sign ups stop; a four week window opens to self-migrate, auto-migrate or opt out |
| November 2024 | Running lease to own deals move to Afternic |
| June 27, 2025 | Dan.com shuts down for good |
Domain Name Wire, which covered the migration, noted at the time that almost every Dan feature had a counterpart at Afternic except self-brokering, the tool that let you bring your own buyer into Dan's checkout at a low fee. That gap matters most to sellers who find their own buyers.
How much does Afternic charge compared to Dan.com?
Afternic takes 15% to 30% of each sale with a $15 minimum, against the 9% that made Dan popular. The rate depends on two choices: Basic or Boost distribution, and whether your name uses GoDaddy's aftermarket nameservers. On your own nameservers you pay 25% or 30%.
| Where you sell | Commission | You keep on $5,000 |
|---|---|---|
| Dan.com before 2023 | 9% | $4,550 |
| Dan.com from 2023 | 15% or 25% | $4,250 or $3,750 |
| Afternic Basic, GoDaddy nameservers | 15% | $4,250 |
| Afternic Boost, GoDaddy nameservers | 20% | $4,000 |
| Afternic Basic, your nameservers | 25% | $3,750 |
| Afternic Boost, your nameservers | 30% | $3,500 |
Those Afternic rates come from its published fee schedule and can change. Our Afternic alternative article covers the tiers and the trade-off of the GoDaddy lander in more depth.
Dan.com alternatives compared
The marketplaces former Dan sellers move to most often. Fees are from each provider's public pages or published reviews and change often, so check them before you move a portfolio.
| Marketplace | Seller cost | Lease to own | Best for | Weak spot |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afternic | 15% to 30%, $15 minimum | Yes | Buyers who search at GoDaddy and partner registrars | Highest cut; the lower rates require GoDaddy's nameservers |
| Sedo | 10% on its lander, 15% direct, 20% via partners | Check current terms | International buyers, auctions, brokerage | Smaller US registrar footprint than Afternic |
| Spaceship SellerHub | 10% since February 2026, was 5% | Yes | Sellers who liked Dan's modern landers | Fee already doubled once; younger network |
| Atom | Low on standard listings, higher on Premium | Yes | Brandable names with logo-led buyers | Premium wants exclusivity and Atom nameservers |
| Efty | Subscription plus transaction costs | Yes | Portfolio owners who want their own landers | Two fees to model, smaller buyer marketplace |
| Domaining | No commission; plan from $49 a month or $288 a year | No | Sellers who close direct and buy at the drop too | No installments, no GoDaddy distribution |
Sedo's tiers and where it beats Afternic are in the Sedo alternatives guide. If installments are how you sell most names, be honest with yourself: a marketplace without lease to own is not your main channel, though it can still carry your outright sales.
Which Dan features you can still get
Dan won sellers over with five things. Here is where each one lives now.
A clean for-sale lander
Afternic has a Dan-style lander, Spaceship and Efty build their own. On Domaining every listed name can show a for-sale page through domain parking, and Pro adds a custom landing page per name.
Buy now and make offer
Standard almost everywhere now. Domaining listings take buy now, offers with a minimum, or both, with counteroffers in one thread per name.
Lease to own
Afternic, Atom, Efty and Spaceship offer it. Domaining does not, so keep installment sales on one of those.
Fast, held transfers
Afternic Fast Transfer covers eligible names on its network. Elsewhere you want escrow: the buyer pays first, the money is released only after the transfer.
Selling your own leads cheaply
The self-brokering gap. On a no-commission plan, a buyer you found yourself costs you nothing extra, and the deal still runs through domain escrow.
When a flat plan beats a commission
Divide the yearly plan by the commission rate you would otherwise pay. On Starter, billed $288 a year, the break-even against Afternic's 15% is $1,920 in sales a year, and against 25% it is $1,152. One mid four figure sale clears it. Pro, at $888 a year with 500 listings and buyer matching, breaks even at $5,920 in sales against 15%.
| Yearly sales | Afternic at 15% | Afternic at 25% | Domaining Starter, yearly |
|---|---|---|---|
| $2,500 | $375 | $625 | $288 |
| $10,000 | $1,500 | $2,500 | $288 |
| $40,000 | $6,000 | $10,000 | $288, or $888 on Pro for more listings |
The honest caveat: commission buys distribution. A name that sells because a buyer typed it into GoDaddy's search box would not have sold on your own lander. So compare the sales you close yourself, from inquiries, outbound and repeat buyers, against the plan, and keep Afternic for the registrar traffic if it has paid you before.
One more case where the commission math is the wrong frame. If the name you are selling carries a live website with revenue, the buyer is paying for a business, not only a domain, and it is worth having a business valuation in hand before you set a price, so you do not sell the cash flow at a domain price.
Moving a former Dan portfolio in an afternoon
If your names were auto-migrated to Afternic in 2024, this is the routine to add a no-commission channel without losing what works.
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1
Export the list
Pull your portfolio from Afternic or your registrar as a CSV with names and asking prices.
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2
Re-price with a score
Import the names and read the value score and the reasons behind it. Prices set in 2021 on Dan are often out of date in either direction. The domain appraisal page explains how the score is built.
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3
Choose the price model per name
Buy now for names with a clear price, offers with a minimum for the rest, and keep lease to own names on Afternic.
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4
Turn on for-sale pages
Point the names you want to sell direct at parking so type-in visitors land on your listing, with escrow attached to every sale.
The same account also runs the buying side, so the money from sales can go straight back into names. Sellers restocking a portfolio often start with the second round at the registrars that feed NameJet, such as the IONOS domain backorder and the Register.com backorder pages describe. The full feature list for sellers is on the domain marketplace page.
Sell your names without giving up a cut
Listings with buy now and offers, for-sale pages, escrow on every sale and no commission. Plans start at $49 a month with 25 listings. Compare limits on pricing.
Domaining is not affiliated with Dan.com, GoDaddy, Afternic, Sedo, Spaceship, Atom or Efty. Details come from their public pages and published reporting and can change.