NameBio: how to use the domain sales database

What NameBio is, why domain investors rely on it, how to search it step by step, its limits, the SoldNames.com alternative, and how to combine them with appraisal tools to price a domain.

NameBio is a searchable database of past domain name sales. If you want to know what a domain is really worth, it's the first place most domain investors look, because it shows what similar names actually sold for, not what owners hope to get.

What NameBio is

NameBio collects reported domain sales from auction houses, marketplaces and public reports, and puts them in one database you can search. Each record shows the domain, the price, the date and where it sold (the "venue"). It's run by domain investor Michael Sumner and is widely called one of the most useful resources in the domain industry. By 2020 it had recorded more than $2 billion in domain sales.

Why it matters

• Real prices beat guesses. Appraisal tools estimate. NameBio shows what buyers actually paid.
• It keeps you from overpaying when buying, and from overpricing (or underpricing) when selling.
• It shows trends. You can see which words, endings and lengths are selling right now.

How to search NameBio, step by step

1. Search a keyword, like bakery. You'll see matching sales plus the lowest, highest and average prices.
2. Set where the word appears: anywhere in the name, as an exact word, or only at the start or end. "Exact" removes names that just happen to contain your letters.
3. Filter by ending (.com, .ai, .io and so on). Comparing a .com sale to a .xyz name gives misleading results.
4. Filter by venue, like GoDaddy, Sedo or DropCatch, to separate investor auctions from retail sales.
5. Filter by price and date. Recent sales tell you more about today's market than sales from 2012.
6. Sort by price or date by clicking the column headings.

What NameBio doesn't show

• Not every sale. Many sales are private or under NDA, and small sales (generally under $100) aren't included.
• A mix of wholesale and retail. Investor-to-investor auction prices are usually much lower than what a business pays. Check the venue before comparing.
• No guarantee your name is worth the same. Two names with the same word can sell for very different prices depending on length, ending and timing.

Free vs paid

You can search NameBio for free, with some limits on results for casual users. Paid memberships unlock power-user features, and brokers and marketplaces use enterprise plans. Check NameBio's site for current plans and prices.

NameBio alternatives: SoldNames.com

SoldNames.com is a newer domain sales database, reportedly from the team behind EstiBot (the site links to EstiBot and its sister trademark tool, Trademark247). It searches both sold domains and live auctions in one place. Searching is free, the data is updated throughout the day, and it only records sales above $250, so it skips the very cheap end of the market. A JSON API is available on request for partners and researchers. Its filters are powerful:

• Pattern search: C for consonant, V for vowel, N for number, plus repeated-letter patterns like AABB. Great for short-domain investors.
• Keyword match: contains, starts with, ends with or exact.
• Filters for extension, length, price, word count, sales venue, date range, category, search volume and CPC, plus excluding hyphens and numbers.
• A comps list: tick sales to build a list of comparables, then export a one-page PDF report made in your browser.
• Exports to CSV and JSON, shareable search links, and a form to report a sale.

Note that SoldNames' terms don't allow scraping or bulk downloading of its data. Using NameBio and SoldNames together gives you more comparable sales to work from. Always check where each sale happened, and treat any single database as a sample, not the whole market.

How to use NameBio with other tools

1. Get a quick estimate from a few appraisal tools.
2. Check the estimate against real comparable sales on NameBio and SoldNames.
3. Check the name's history with a WHOIS lookup and on the Wayback Machine.
4. Price it using our guide: what is my domain worth?

Sources

• TLD Investors: Interview with NameBio's Michael Sumner (2020)
• TLD Investors: NameBio passes $2 billion in sales (2020)
• NameTalent: Guide to using NameBio

DomainNams isn't affiliated with NameBio.