Can I lose my leased IP addresses?

No. Every Prefixx lease comes with a no-revocation guarantee. Your address space is protected by contracted terms for the full agreement period, up to 60 months.

Can I lease IPv4 now and buy later?

Yes. Many companies start with a lease to get up and running quickly, then transition to a purchase when the time is right. Prefixx supports this transition.

How much does it cost to lease vs buy IPv4?

Buying involves a one-time cost that varies by block size, region and current market conditions. Leasing converts that into a predictable recurring fee. Contact Prefixx for current rates.

What is the minimum block size?

A /24 (256 addresses) is the minimum for both leasing and buying. This is the smallest block that can be independently routed on the global internet.

Does Prefixx charge fees to the buyer?

No. Prefixx charges zero buyer fees. The commission (3-8%) is paid entirely by the seller.

Can I deploy leased or purchased IPv4 via BYOIP?

Yes. Leased and purchased blocks alike can be deployed via BYOIP on public cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, Cloudflare) or on dedicated bare metal servers through Netrouting.

What happens when a lease ends?

You can renew the lease, transition to a permanent purchase, or wind down gracefully with advance notice. Prefixx ensures continuity regardless of the path you choose.

Home/Lease vs Buy

[ Compare · Lease vs Buy ]

Lease vs buy IPv4:
which is right for you?

It is a fair question, and the honest answer depends on your cash position, on how quickly the space needs to be live, and on whether you will still want it in five years. Below we have written out how we would reason through the decision, together with where Prefixx fits on either path.

Get a free consultation → View our process

[ At a Glance ]

Side by side.

The table below sets the two options side by side across eight factors. In our experience most people find their decision hiding somewhere in the first three rows.

Factor	Lease	Buy
Upfront cost	First period's payment only	Full block price + escrow fees
Ongoing cost	A flat monthly or annual fee you can budget around	None. You own it outright
Timeline to deploy	Live in as little as 24 hours, short or long term	1 – 6 weeks (RIR transfer process)
Ownership	Contracted usage rights, backed by a no-revocation guarantee	Permanent, transferable asset
Commitment	Up to 36 – 60 months secured in advance, or month-to-month	Permanent
Flexibility	Scale up, scale down, swap block sizes as you go	You keep what you bought, no more, no less
Included services	LOA, RPKI, rDNS, White-Glove, reputation monitoring	Tixx QA, escrow, transfer management
Best for	Long-term stability without capital outlay, phased growth, IPv6 migration bridge	Permanent infrastructure, IP as a balance-sheet asset

[ The Leasing Myth ]

"I'll lose control."

Ask anyone who hesitates about leasing IPv4 and you will hear the same worry: what stops the provider from pulling the addresses out from under me? On spot marketplaces the honest answer is, not very much. The concern has been earned over the years, and we understand it.

We run things differently here. Prefixx is not a marketplace, every lessor is vetted before their space enters our pool, and every lease carries a written no-revocation guarantee. The space is contracted to you for the full term of the agreement, with terms of up to 36 to 60 months secured in advance.

There is no spot pricing here, and we have no appetite for churn either. Our lease clients tend to stay with us for years, which suits both sides. What you end up with is most of the control that normally comes with ownership, without the capital outlay that ownership requires.

Explore leasing options →

No-revocation guarantee

The contract names your space and your term. Nobody reassigns it out from under you mid-agreement.

Carefully vetted partners

We vet lessors one by one and keep the pool small. Spot-market churn is somebody else's business model.

36 – 60 months secured

Terms locked in from day one, so budgeting becomes arithmetic instead of guesswork.

[ Decision Guide ]

When each option makes sense.

When buying makes sense

Buying is the right choice when you want the block registered to your company on a permanent basis. A purchased block sits on the balance sheet as a transferable asset, and once the transaction has closed there are no further costs of any kind.

It is also the sensible route when your sender or brand reputation needs to live on IP space that you will still hold in ten years, or when you need registrations at specific RIRs, up to and including inter-RIR transfers.

It is worth knowing that buyers pay Prefixx nothing at all. The commission comes entirely out of the seller's side, and so your total cost is the price of the block plus the escrow fees, and nothing else.

Learn about buying →

When leasing makes sense

Leasing makes sense when tying up capital in address space would not serve your business well. A monthly or annual fee takes the place of the lump sum, and you can move up or down a block size as your demand shifts over time.

Speed is the other half of the argument. A lease can be live within a day, whereas a purchase means waiting on an RIR transfer, which runs anywhere from one to six weeks depending on the registry. Phased growth, a proof of concept, seasonal traffic, or a bridge while you migrate to IPv6 are all typical lease cases, and buying does not handle any of them particularly well.

Every Prefixx lease also comes with LOA documentation, RPKI support, reverse DNS management and our full White-Glove service, and none of that costs anything extra.

Explore leasing options →

[ Est. 2018 · Why Prefixx ]

Why companies choose Prefixx.

We are not a listing site. The team behind Prefixx has worked in data centers and networking since 2007, and when you call us you speak with a senior consultant who has closed these deals before. Registry policy, contract terms and escrow mechanics are all handled by one person, on the same phone call.

Zero hidden fees

Transparent pricing, no win, no fee.

Multi-regional expertise

ARIN, RIPE NCC & APNIC registered. LACNIC facilitated.

Full-service diligence

Blacklist scans, reputation & escrow.

Schedule a free consultation →

[ FAQ ]

Lease vs buy: common questions

No. The no-revocation guarantee is written into the contract itself, and it holds for the full agreement period, which can run up to 60 months. We vet every partner ourselves rather than matching strangers on a platform, and we would much rather keep ten clients for a decade than churn through a hundred in a year.

Yes, and it happens quite often. Plenty of clients lease first in order to get up and running, and then buy once the budget or the certainty catches up. If you tell us early, we will structure the lease with that switch already in mind.

Buying is a one-time cost that moves with the block size, the region and the market of the moment, while leasing turns that into a recurring fee. Which of the two works out cheaper depends mostly on your time horizon. Our pricing and market data page has the current context, or you can ask us to price your specific case.

The minimum is a /24, which is 256 addresses. Anything smaller will not route independently on the global internet, so that is the floor for leasing and for buying alike. We hold inventory across all of the common sizes.

No. The sellers pay our commission, which runs from 3 to 8% and slides with the size of the block. Buyers pay the purchase price plus whatever the bank or the escrow service charges, and that is the whole bill.

Yes, both can be deployed that way. You can bring the block to AWS, Azure, Google Cloud or Cloudflare through their BYOIP programs, or you can run it on dedicated bare metal through our sister company Netrouting. Learn more about BYOIP.

There are three options at the end of a lease: you can renew on the same or on updated terms, you can convert the lease into a permanent purchase, or you can wind the space down with proper notice. We flag the end date well in advance in every case, so that nothing lapses by surprise.

[ Free Consultation ]