Dynadot’s appraisals weren’t as objectionable as some other services, but they are fairly basic.

This is part of Domain Name Wire’s review of automated domain appraisal tools. See all reviews: Estibot, GoDaddy, Atom, Appraise.net, GoExpired, Dynadot, NameWorth, Saw, Appraise.software, Humbleworth.

Dynadot is a popular domain registrar with domain investors, and it also offers a free appraisal tool.

The tool spits out an exact number and some justification, such as the domain’s length, how long it has been registered, and a description of possible uses.

One nice thing about Dynadot’s appraisals is that they show similar domains currently for sale.

While there were issues, there were also fewer results that made us scratch our heads.

Let’s review how it performs.

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.

Dynadot appraised MakeMatter.com at $3,292 and PressBridge.com at $10,079.

We were a bit surprised by the difference between these two domains, but the prices are still within range.

Dynadot didn’t do so great on our unregistered domain test. It said CloudToaster.com is worth $2,000.

One word, high value .com

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

Dynadot valued it at only $166,643. That’s well below what it sold for.

Was this just a fluke?

We tested a few other domains to see. It valued money.com at $19 million. Pretending that it isn’t a developed site, this seems reasonable. It appraised Midnight.com at $237,163 (sold for $1.15 million this year) and Twig.com at $72,429 (sold for $695,000 this year).

Valuing high end domains is tricky. At a minimum, Dynadot should consider being less specific in its results, e.g., rounding the numbers or providing a range. Even better, perhaps it should recognize its limitations and simply return a “too high to appraise” or “over $X” result.

Popular ccTLDs

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

Mike sold expedite.io for $14,995. Dynadot appraised it for $11,125.

We also valued kickers.ai, which Andrew sold for $8,000. Dynadot appraised it for $29,852.

Dynadot has a lot of wholesale .ai data because it used to handle the registry’s expired domain auctions. As we’ve stated before, it’s hard to argue .ai values are too high, although this one seems elevated.

Exact Match descriptive

What about an exact match, category defining domain?

We ran WaterFilters.com through the tool. It’s for sale for $3.5 million, but who knows how much it will sell for.

Well, Dynadot thinks $29,852. That was in the middle of the pack of the tools we tested.

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.

Dynadot pegged it at $28,802.

We also tested a four letter, non-pronounceable. Logan Flatt sold MOTG.com for $14,888. Dynadot appraised it for $23,819.

Dynadot correctly valued dujo.com at a higher number than motg.com.

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.

Dynadot appraised it for $66,147. As we’ve noted before, it seems silly to value a domain at a price higher than the current asking price. At the same time, if this domain didn’t have an asking price, few would be surprised to see it sell for this amount.

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 for $5,000 last year. He bought it in Early Access when the TLD launched.

Dynadot says it’s worth $8,854.

Mark Levine sold timber.homes for $2,899. Dynadot appraised it at $590.

Neither of these appraisals strikes us as very bad, especially given the markets for these TLDs.

Final analysis

Overall, we had fewer “WTF??” moments with Dynadot’s tool than with some other appraisal systems. That said, its utility, including the data it provides, falls short of other options.

Two notes to Dynadot’s product team: Commas in the valuations would be nice, and perhaps a bulk mode would be helpful for stack ranking domains.