Atom provides rich data for each domain it values.

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

Atom is the fastest-iterating domain aftermarket in the business. How does its appraisal tool stack up?

Atom provides perhaps the most robust data backup for its appraisals among all the tools we tested. Building on its other tools to help domain investors, you see cross-TLD registration information, signals like whether the name matches an existing app, sell-through rates for the root words, and very good comparables data.

The company has been testing showing comparables on domain landing pages, which helps justify the asking price. As we’ve said before, comparables are the number one way to justify a domain’s asking price.

Let’s take a look at how Atom stacked up to the competition.

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. While some sellers hold out for higher amounts, 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.

Atom appraised MakeMatter.com at $4,499 and PressBridge.com at $8,799.

Even though it valued the domain that sold for less for more than the other, recall what we pointed out in our intro post: a lot of this has to do with how the sellers priced these domains.

More importantly, Atom backed up its valuation: PressBridge is registered in more TLDs, its keyword sales data points to high STRs, and Atom lists comparables. In other words, it shows its work, and that’s the most important thing for a domain appraisal.

Atom also smartly judged that our unregistered test domain, CloudToaster.com, wasn’t worth much. It said it was worth <$1,000.

One word, high value .com

Once again, we ran Dragonfly.com as a test of high value domains.

Atom returned a valuation of “> $1 million”.

This is a good example of an appraisal tool not getting too specific and understanding its limitations. It reports all seven figure domains as merely being worth at least $1 million.

Popular ccTLDs

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

Mike sold expedite.io for $14,995. Atom valued it at $20,500

We also valued kickers.ai, which Andrew sold for $8,000. Atom valued it at $34,000.

On DNW Podcast #580 in March, Atom CEO Darpan Munjal told Andrew that a quarter of the company’s sales revenue comes from .ai domains. So we don’t want to question its valuation, especially with .ai’s trajectory. That said, Atom’s .ai appraisals for recently sold .ai domains are often much higher than the sales prices.

Exact Match descriptive

Exact match, category defining domains aren’t as popular as they used to be. These days, it’s all about the one word brandable dictionary term.

But there’s no doubt WaterFilters.com has a lot of value. It’s for sale for $3.5 million. We don’t know what it will sell for, but this is a huge business, especially for online sales. It’s a great domain.

Atom valued the domain at $66,000, which 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.

Atom valued it at $21,000, toward the lower end of the valuation tools we tested.

We also tested a four letter, non-pronounceable. Logan Flatt sold MOTG.com for $14,888. Atom valued it at $10,499.

These valuations seem fair. It’s good that Atom, which has focused on brandable domains, recognized the difference between these domains.

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.

Atom valued the domain at $114,766. Given that the domain is listed for sale at a cheaper price and hasn’t sold, this seems high. That said, names like this do sell in the six figure range. It would have helped if Atom had shown comparables for this domain, but the appraisal stated it didn’t have any.

New TLDs

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

We tried a couple of new TLDs.

Andrew sold voicemail.app for $5,000 last year. He bought it in Early Access when the TLD launched. Atom valued it at $2,799. Atom didn’t provide comps.

Mark Levine sold timber.homes for $2,899. Here again, Atom understands its limitations: it said it couldn’t value .homes domains. Frankly, given that NameBio has only 24 .homes domains in its database, we don’t know how anyone could value these domains.

Final analysis

We agree with many of the numbers Atom provided. But more importantly, Atom provides a rich dataset for each domain, supporting its valuation. It doesn’t provide comps for all domains, but when it does, this is great ammunition for negotiations.