Do you buy or rent a domain?

When you make a registration, do you buy the domain or rent it? This is a difficult question to answer. You certainly have all rights to the name and can develop it as you wish, so long as your content complies with civil and trademark law. But do you really own it?

Many people think domains in terms of “buying,” but as far as I’m concerned, you’re just renting it much like you would a storefront. You pay a yearly fee to a registrar in return for use of the name. Granted, the fee is not for the name itself but for the registration. In addition, one can pay a high price to “buy” a premium domain but still have to pay the yearly registrar fee. So technically speaking you “own” the name, but will irreversibly lose it in the event you fail to pay the fee.

It would be interesting to see in the future if registrars come out with a one-time registration fee for domains. Instead of paying £10 a year for a name, what if you could pay £500 and own it for life? If this were to happen, then I would call domains owned property. But for now, we’re all stuck paying rent to a landlord.