Methodology

How the Domain Value Score works

DomainValueScore rates a domain name from 0 to 1000 by combining five weighted, investor-grade categories. The score measures the name itself — its fundamentals, demand, liquidity, risk, and scarcity — independent of who owns it or whether it is registered. The same name reads the same to an owner, to an investor weighing an available name, and to a buyer eyeing one someone else holds.

A score, not a price

The score is built from observable signals about the name — not a database of past domain sales. That distinction is the point.

Sale comparables are sparse, mostly private, and quickly stale, so any dollar figure derived from them drifts over time. Signals don't drift. The same name, read the same way, returns the same score every time — which is exactly why the result is reproducible and verifiable. The score tells you how a name stacks up; what it ultimately sells for is set by a buyer, timing, and negotiation.

What's in the score, and what's reported alongside

Only the five weighted categories move the number. Two other signal groups are detected and reported next to the score, but never folded into it — so the number stays reproducible.

Every category also ships its evidence, and severe risks cap the total score outright.

The five categories

Domain fundamentals (35%). The intrinsic quality of the name: length (shorter is scarcer); three explicit, separately reported linguistic scores — brandability (does it sound like a real company), pronounceability (easy to say aloud), and memorability (easy to recall and spell); and extension quality (.com leads; .ai, .io, and .co command premiums; spam-prone extensions are marked down).

Market demand (25%). Premium commercial keywords or real dictionary words in the name (including across supported languages), how many sibling extensions of the label are already registered (taken-everywhere names are in demand), plus domain authority and search demand on premium scans. Intrinsic to the name, so it reads the same whether or not the name is currently in use.

Liquidity (20%). How quickly the name could sell: fast-turnover extensions, recognized investor categories (LL, LLL, NNN, CVCV), whether it is a real-word or sought-after keyword name, and the size of the industry the name points to — a bigger market means more potential buyers.

Risk adjustment (10%). Trademark adjacency, punycode/homograph labels, confusable characters, and abuse-prone extensions only ever lower the score, never raise it. Severe findings cap the total outright:

Scarcity & provenance (10%). The supply limit of very short names is intrinsic and always counts. For a registered name, registration age (public RDAP) and Internet Archive depth add on top. An available name is scored on its intrinsic merit — never penalized for having no registration history yet.

Value bands

The weighted category values are combined and scaled to 0–1000, then labeled:

When data is unavailable

If a category cannot be evaluated — for example, every live lookup behind it is unreachable — it is excluded and the remaining categories are re-weighted. Missing data lowers confidence without silently dragging the score to zero. Excluded categories are marked on the report.

Versioning

Every score records the model version that produced it. When the weights, curves, or data sources change, the version changes with them, so older scores can be read against the model that generated them. The same domain, data, and version always reproduce the same score.

Not an appraisal

The score measures relative market appeal from observable characteristics. It is not a formal appraisal, a price, or a guarantee of sale — real-world prices depend on buyers, timing, and negotiation.