You see .dev for $0.99 and think you found a deal. Then you renew three years later and the bill says $24.99. Welcome to the promo trap — one of the most common ways domain buyers overpay without realizing it.
Registrars subsidize first-year prices to acquire customers. A $0.99 .com costs the registrar roughly $9.23 (Verisign's wholesale price). They lose money on year one hoping you will renew at a higher rate. This is a legitimate marketing strategy, not a scam — but it means the headline price is almost never the real price.
Here is a concrete example. You register mybrand.dev at three different registrars:
Registrar A looks cheapest until year two. Registrar C wins on total cost despite a higher upfront price. The difference is small here, but for premium TLDs the gap can be hundreds of dollars.
The rule of thumb is simple: if the renewal price is 5× or more the first-year price, you are looking at a promo trap. A $0.99 first year with a $5+ renewal is the classic pattern. Always check the renewal column and the 3-year total cost of ownership (TCO), not just the headline price.
Domain Hunter's Prices tab shows a TLD × registrar price matrix with the cheapest cell highlighted. Promo traps are flagged automatically when the renewal price is 5× or more the first-year price. The results table includes a detail row with full registrar price comparison and clickable buy links for every available domain. You can sort by 3-year TCO to surface the truly cheapest options, and coupons are applied automatically.
Source code (MIT): github.com/WhiteBite/Domain-Hunter