A couple of years ago ARIN increased their fees considerably - way higher than fees paid to RIPE for way less resources - and had a call with their management to express my frustration, not because I was paying from my pocket but because of the high discrepancy of the what they wanted to get and the quantity/quality of their services. Now I can see that their backbone services haven't really improved while their income for sure has.

On a sidenote, what I appreciate in both RIPE and ARIN is that you can have at least a proper discussion when you have valid arguments with their support teams.

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rmoriz 11 hours ago | parent [-]

Now ARIN is much cheaper than RIPE for small entities.

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rmoriz 8 hours ago | parent [-]

fee schedules FYI

- ARIN 2026 PDF: https://www.arin.net/resources/fees/images/2026feeschedule.p...

- RIPE 2026 : https://www.ripe.net/membership/payment/

Enthusiasts, trainees and small orgs are paying a lot more with RIPE.

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icedchai 6 hours ago | parent [-]

Not necessarily. Many have their RIPE registrations through an existing, “sponsoring” LIR. They’re not paying that 1800 Euro, the LIR is.

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rmoriz 6 hours ago | parent [-]

A single AS resource and a single PI assignment cost more than the ARIN fee.

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icedchai 6 hours ago | parent [-]

Are you sure? For RIPE I see a 50 ASN plus 75 euro PI fee. ARIN is $275. Maybe I’m looking at it wrong.

It’s cheaper as a hobbyist to use a RIPE LIR. Even in the US. That’s what I’ve been doing for years.

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rmoriz 4 hours ago | parent [-]

afaik that's +VAT and also for LIRs only. LIRs apply markup, see https://www.lir.services/lir-sponsoring/ they charge 200€ per resource, so ASN + PI would be at last 400€/year that's way above the price of ARIN and you have a middleman.

You must have a sponsoring LIR for your resources or become a LIR yourself. The only exception is LEGACY resources (IPv4, no ASN) but that's a different story.

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icedchai 4 hours ago | parent [-]

There are more competitive LIRs out there. Example: https://lagrange.cloud/products/lir

It’s also cheaper for me because I have legacy ARIN space. All I really needed was an ASN. The LIR gives me some PA v6 space for cheap, too.

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rmoriz 4 hours ago | parent [-]

Okay, but that is not enough to operate independently. PA v6 is another dependency. With ARIN you get your personal IPv6 assignment.

	▲	icedchai 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		For a hobbyist, the difference is academic. You can announce PA space with your own ASN, which is what I do. If I change LIRs I’ll have to renumber my IPv6 space.