1. Transfer, don't just renew
A transfer costs one year at the new registrar's price and that year is added to your expiry. Moving a .com from GoDaddy ($22.99) to Spaceship ($10.18 total) saves $12.81 a year, every year, per domain — with no downtime if you confirm your DNS records after the move.
2. Pick a flat-price registrar
Cloudflare ($10.44 at-cost), Porkbun ($11.08 flat) and Spaceship ($10.18 total) charge the same in year ten as in year one. The “cheap” first year at a trap registrar is the expensive one — it just bills you later, when your site, email and brand are attached.
3. Audit before you renew
List every domain, hosting plan and add-on you pay for. Turn auto-renew off for names you no longer use, and never renew a domain for five years at a trap price to “lock it in” — you are locking in the markup, not a discount.
4. Time your transfer
Transfer at least 14 days before expiry (a transfer takes 5–7 days), never race an expiry, and avoid the 60-day lock that follows registration or a previous transfer.