Like many of the new AI-powered appraisals, Appraise.net can value the same domain at drastically different prices.

This is part of Domain Name Wire’s review of automated domain appraisal tools.

Appraise.net is one of the new appraisal tools on the market, and we have seen several posts on X from people who like the platform.

One reason they like it is that the results tell them what they want to hear: their domains are worth a lot. Unfortunately, sometimes these numbers are waaaay off.

The service recently added a notice stating that its valuations are retail and are meant to reflect when the ideal buyer comes along. But the unrealistic numbers don’t do a service to domain investors.

To Appraise.net’s credit, it provides a ton of backup for its valuations. It rates domains based on factors such as memorability, whether their value is primarily as a brand or a keyword, and even provides a “brand score”.

In addition to an estimated retail value (sometimes a wide range), Appraise.net gives three pricing strategies: an “aggressive” listing price (with aggressive meaning priced to sell), a “balanced” price, and a “patient” price that is 50% of the high end of the estimated retail value. It’s kind of strange that the patient list price is so much lower than the high end of retail/optimal price.

For this evaluation, we looked at both the range and the balanced prices.

Before we go further, however, it’s important to note a critical flaw with Appraise.net: its inconsistency. Like some other AI-powered tools, Appraise.net can appraise the same domain for wildly different numbers.

It originally told us that MakeMatter.com had a retail value of $7.5k-$20k. A refreshed appraisal put it at $75k-$185k.

While we excluded other tools with this type of inconsistency from our reviews, we felt it was important to include Appraise.net because it’s been getting a lot of attention lately.

Two word brandables

We evaluated two domain names in this category: MakeMatter.com, which sold for $15,000, and PressBridge.com, which sold for $5,000.

Both of these domains are in the sweet spot for two dictionary word brandables of $3,000-$15,000. Yes, some sellers hold out for higher amounts, and their data will show these domains sell for much more. But looking at overall sale data, it’s reasonable for an appraisal system to return anything in this price range for this type of domain.

Appraise.net originally appraised MakeMatter.com at $7.5k-$20k retail with a $6,995 balanced asking price. It valued PressBridge.com at $25k-$75k with a balanced price of $28k. But as mentioned at the top, a fresh valuation showed very different numbers.

The system also failed our unregistered domain test. It said CloudToaster.com is worth $12,000-$28,000. This wasn’t a fluke; a refreshed appraisal valued it even higher.

One word, high value .com

We ran Dragonfly.com as a test of high value domains.

Appraise.net said it was worth $1 million to $3 million, with a $1.35 million balanced price. While many of the system’s appraisals were very high, this was a fairly good one.

The system differentiates high value domains, correctly estimating that Money.com is worth a lot more than Dragonfly.com.

Popular ccTLDs

We ran a solid one word .io, and a plural .ai of lesser quality through Appraise.net’s appraisal tool.

Mike sold expedite.io for $14,995. Appraise.net valued it at $45k-$85k with a $30k balanced price.

We also valued kickers.ai, which Andrew sold for $8,000. Appraise.net valued it at $45k-$75k, with a $30k balanced price.

Exact Match descriptive

How does Appraise.net do with exact match, category defining domains?

We ran WaterFilters.com through the tool. It’s for sale for $3.5 million. While the ask is ambitious, it’s a huge industry.

Appraise.net valued it at $750k-$2.5 million, with a $1.13 million balanced price.

This was by far the highest price of the tools we tested.

For what it’s worth, Ahrefs shows that “water filters” gets 19,000 searches a month, and the advertising CPC is $1.00.

Three and four letter domains

Three and four letter domains are some of the most liquid domains on the market.

We tested a pronounceable CVCV .com domain, dujo.com, that is listed on Afternic for $36,000.

Our goal was to see if the algorithms caught that this was not just a random set of letters. Pronounceable, brandable four letter domains are generally worth more than unpronounceable random letters.

Appraise.net valued it at $55k-$85k, with a $35k balanced asking price.

We also tested a four letter, non-pronounceable domain. Logan Flatt sold MOTG.com for $14,888. Appraise.net valued it at $8k-$18k, with a balanced asking price of $5,995. This was one of the more realistic appraisals that Appraisal.net gave.

For a three letter domain, we tested VJN.com. It’s listed for sale on Afternic for $39,000. V and J aren’t great letters, so this is likely on the lower end of three letter .com values.

Appraise.net set its range at $55k-$85k, with a $30k balanced price. This was slightly below its valuation for dujo.com.

New TLDs

New top level domains are very hard to value because there is very little sales data about most of them.

Andrew sold voicemail.app, which he bought in early access when the domain launched, for $5,000 last year. Appraise.net pegged it at $75k-$185k with a balanced ask of $70k. This balanced number would make the domain the 11th most expensive .app domain ever sold (that are public). It’s a nice domain, but it certainly doesn’t deserve to be near the top of the list.

Mark Levine sold timber.homes for $2,899. I bet he’s kicking himself right now, because Appraise.net says it’s worth $85k-$175k. (The biggest .homes sale reported in NameBio is $4,320.)

Final analysis

The biggest issue with Appraise.net is its inconsistent values for the same domain. This makes the tool worthless for negotiating with buyers, because if they double-check the value, they might get a different result. (It does cache appraisals for 30 days, somewhat mitigating this issue.)

And with no listed comps, it’s hard to justify its universally high appraisals.

That said, you might get some value by using the system to stack rank your domains, much like how Estibot’s and GoDaddy’s systems provide value this way, even if you don’t agree with the values.