.com vs .net vs .org: When to Use Each?

DediRock

There's often confusion about when to choose between .com, .net, and .org.
What criteria do you use to decide which one fits your brand or project best?

alento

.com for my business website, or .org if the website is for a non-profit venture.
.net for the services that my business runs.

Generally ... of course sometimes this does not always work out.

techdragon

Generally, only .com has any value in a portfolio (IMHO). I sometimes use other TLDs such as .net, .co.uk as protective registrations and forward these to the .com so someone else can't steal my traffic.

BrandShelter takes care of my business related stuff with DPML so it's just a booteg version of this sans trademark.

I sometimes use TLDs such as .host or .it depending on the project.

Amadex

I use amadex.com as my web, and amadex.net for nameservers.

SocksAreComfortable

For my email aliases, I have a random .com that I use to decrease the likelihood of a website rejecting the address. But for hosting websites, I just get what's available for the use case.

yoursunny

We use .com for website and .dev for documentation etc.
From time to time, someone else registers .net or .org or .cn and tries to sell to us, but we are too broke for these.

somik

.com for everything, then register the same domain with every other extensions so you feel good that no one can steal your brand. Then register all similar/typo names in the same manner. Once you are broke, get a free server from LES giveways and use it with the IP address only

root

.com = commercial / commerce
.net = network / networking / computing
.org = organization (usually non-profit)
.info = information

There are many other TLDs out there to choose from, like .shop .io .party .win .sex .wtf and many others. Nowadays imagination and scalpers could be the limits.

elliotc

.net if .com is not available

DediRock

@alento said:
.com for my business website, or .org if the website is for a non-profit venture.
.net for the services that my business runs.

Generally ... of course sometimes this does not always work out.

I appreciate the clarity, alento! Thanks!

DediRock

@techdragon said:
Generally, only .com has any value in a portfolio (IMHO). I sometimes use other TLDs such as .net, .co.uk as protective registrations and forward these to the .com so someone else can't steal my traffic.

BrandShelter takes care of my business related stuff with DPML so it's just a booteg version of this sans trademark.

I sometimes use TLDs such as .host or .it depending on the project.

Thanks for sharing your expertise, techdragon!

DediRock

@Amadex said:
I use amadex.com as my web, and amadex.net for nameservers.

Cool! Thanks for sharing, Amadex!

DediRock

@SocksAreComfortable said:
For my email aliases, I have a random .com that I use to decrease the likelihood of a website rejecting the address. But for hosting websites, I just get what's available for the use case.

Makes sense SocksAreComfortable! Thanks for sharing!

DediRock

@yoursunny said:
We use .com for website and .dev for documentation etc.
From time to time, someone else registers .net or .org or .cn and tries to sell to us, but we are too broke for these.

Thanks, yoursunny! Which option is more expensive, and which one is cheaper?

yoursunny

@DediRock said:

@yoursunny said:
We use .com for website and .dev for documentation etc.
From time to time, someone else registers .net or .org or .cn and tries to sell to us, but we are too broke for these.

Thanks, yoursunny! Which option is more expensive, and which one is cheaper?

During the last renewal performed in 2024-Aug, our .com domain costed $9.49 and our .dev domain costed $10.16.
Generally, we transfer the domain to a different registrar every year, to take advantage of lower pricing.
However, since the private by design llc incident, we are now avoiding certain registrars with inadequate systems, to avoid headaches.

DB_HTP

@techdragon said: I sometimes use other TLDs such as .net, .co.uk as protective registrations and forward these to the .com so someone else can't steal my traffic.

If it's a real business you can use whatever TLD you'd like. Then just trademark the brand name and for the select categories in the region you operate such as euipo for EU.

If the person who bought the .com 20+ years ago but kept it inactive starts to use it, or if someone registers one of the 1000+ other TLD they're not allowed to offer those X category services under the same brand name as you to the EU region basically making their domain name useless.

Trademark in the EU is relatively cheap. I believe it's 750 or 950 EUR for 10 year protection for 2 categories.

For web hosting and most other things related it would be Nice Classification 42

Of course you don't actually need a trademark but it does make it a hell of a lot cheaper to negotiate buying that .com domain, or do takedowns with fiverr expert supreme lawyer.

DediRock

@yoursunny said:

@DediRock said:

@yoursunny said:
We use .com for website and .dev for documentation etc.
From time to time, someone else registers .net or .org or .cn and tries to sell to us, but we are too broke for these.

Thanks, yoursunny! Which option is more expensive, and which one is cheaper?

During the last renewal performed in 2024-Aug, our .com domain costed $9.49 and our .dev domain costed $10.16.
Generally, we transfer the domain to a different registrar every year, to take advantage of lower pricing.
However, since the private by design llc incident, we are now avoiding certain registrars with inadequate systems, to avoid headaches.

It sounds like you're really proactive with domain management, especially with taking advantage of lower prices.
Definitely you gave me a new perspective to consider. Thanks!

DediRock

@DB_HTP said:

@techdragon said: I sometimes use other TLDs such as .net, .co.uk as protective registrations and forward these to the .com so someone else can't steal my traffic.

If it's a real business you can use whatever TLD you'd like. Then just trademark the brand name and for the select categories in the region you operate such as euipo for EU.

If the person who bought the .com 20+ years ago but kept it inactive starts to use it, or if someone registers one of the 1000+ other TLD they're not allowed to offer those X category services under the same brand name as you to the EU region basically making their domain name useless.

Trademark in the EU is relatively cheap. I believe it's 750 or 950 EUR for 10 year protection for 2 categories.

For web hosting and most other things related it would be Nice Classification 42

Of course you don't actually need a trademark but it does make it a hell of a lot cheaper to negotiate buying that .com domain, or do takedowns with fiverr expert supreme lawyer.

Thanks for sharing such a thorough response, DB_HTP! Your advice is super helpful and practical.

jtk

In addition to what has been mentioned...

If you don't care about the perception of the TLD, com and net are both operated by Verisign so there is no practical, technical difference. org is more-or-less run by an equally reliable and capable registry (PIR/ISOC). One might quibble over what you think about their behavior under different historical actions (e.g., SiteFinder in Verisign's case, potential takeover by Ethos in the other).

The registration cost difference between the three should be relatively inconsequential over the long term.

If you can, get your name in all three.

Depends on what the name is used for. com is usually a reasonable choice for most names if you can get it. net is probably the least desirable for general use outside of infrastructure naming, although Juniper seemed to make it work. It may ultimately come down to other things that impact SEO if you're trying to make sure you can be found and indexed.

DediRock

@jtk said:
In addition to what has been mentioned...

If you don't care about the perception of the TLD, com and net are both operated by Verisign so there is no practical, technical difference. org is more-or-less run by an equally reliable and capable registry (PIR/ISOC). One might quibble over what you think about their behavior under different historical actions (e.g., SiteFinder in Verisign's case, potential takeover by Ethos in the other).

The registration cost difference between the three should be relatively inconsequential over the long term.

If you can, get your name in all three.

Depends on what the name is used for. com is usually a reasonable choice for most names if you can get it. net is probably the least desirable for general use outside of infrastructure naming, although Juniper seemed to make it work. It may ultimately come down to other things that impact SEO if you're trying to make sure you can be found and indexed.

Hi there,
You’ve made some great points regarding the technical reliability of .com, .net, and .org, and I agree that Verisign and PIR/ISOC are solid operators.
Thanks for sharing such a thorough response; your advice is super helpful and practical.

dedicatedcore

When choosing a domain name for your website, you'll need to select a domain extension. This is the part that comes after the dot (e.g., .com, .net, .org). The choice of domain extension can impact your website's perception and suitability.

.com: The most common and versatile extension, often associated with commercial entities.
.net: Primarily used for network-related organizations and technology companies.
.org: Typically reserved for non-profit organizations, charities, and educational institutions.
Consider your brand, target audience, and project goals when selecting a domain extension. For example, a business website might use .com, while a non-profit organization would be more likely to use .org. Ultimately, the best choice depends on your specific needs and preferences.

DediRock

@dedicatedcore said:
When choosing a domain name for your website, you'll need to select a domain extension. This is the part that comes after the dot (e.g., .com, .net, .org). The choice of domain extension can impact your website's perception and suitability.

.com: The most common and versatile extension, often associated with commercial entities.
.net: Primarily used for network-related organizations and technology companies.
.org: Typically reserved for non-profit organizations, charities, and educational institutions.
Consider your brand, target audience, and project goals when selecting a domain extension. For example, a business website might use .com, while a non-profit organization would be more likely to use .org. Ultimately, the best choice depends on your specific needs and preferences.

Those were incredibly thoughtful inputs, dedicatedcore, thank you for sharing!

beanman109

@dedicatedcore said:
When choosing a domain name for your website, you'll need to select a domain extension. This is the part that comes after the dot (e.g., .com, .net, .org). The choice of domain extension can impact your website's perception and suitability.

.com: The most common and versatile extension, often associated with commercial entities.
.net: Primarily used for network-related organizations and technology companies.
.org: Typically reserved for non-profit organizations, charities, and educational institutions.
Consider your brand, target audience, and project goals when selecting a domain extension. For example, a business website might use .com, while a non-profit organization would be more likely to use .org. Ultimately, the best choice depends on your specific needs and preferences.

Thanks ShatGPT

nikhm2n

It doesn't matter that much what tld you use, especially if it isn't for commercial use. And even for commercial, most people have gotten used to other tlds with .io, .ai being used regularly nowadays. So try getting a .com first and if it's not available try getting other tlds that either decrease the domain character length, or make the domain more memorable.

DediRock

@nikhm2n said:
It doesn't matter that much what tld you use, especially if it isn't for commercial use. And even for commercial, most people have gotten used to other tlds with .io, .ai being used regularly nowadays. So try getting a .com first and if it's not available try getting other tlds that either decrease the domain character length, or make the domain more memorable.

Will take this into consideration. Thanks nikhm2n!

jtk

@nikhm2n said:
It doesn't matter that much what tld you use [...] .io, .ai being used regularly nowadays.

It might matter quite a bit. It might have once seemed cute, but do you really want to register under a TLD now operated by the Taliban? Or more recently, the future of .io is an open question now that the British government has ceded the associated Indian ocean territory. It might be wise to avoid volatile country-level TLDs that have been treated as vanity/generic TLDs if you care about long-term stability.

datavia

I think it is very important to choose a domain according to the project, but of course it can be used whenever you want.

cnencc

Comply with their own wishes, their favorite suffix, that is afraid of non-mainstream suffix domain names.

DediRock

@jtk said:

@nikhm2n said:
It doesn't matter that much what tld you use [...] .io, .ai being used regularly nowadays.

It might matter quite a bit. It might have once seemed cute, but do you really want to register under a TLD now operated by the Taliban? Or more recently, the future of .io is an open question now that the British government has ceded the associated Indian ocean territory. It might be wise to avoid volatile country-level TLDs that have been treated as vanity/generic TLDs if you care about long-term stability.

Thank's for the added info.

DediRock

@cnencc said:
Comply with their own wishes, their favorite suffix, that is afraid of non-mainstream suffix domain names.

Indeed

nikhm2n

@jtk said: It might be wise to avoid volatile country-level TLDs that have been treated as vanity/generic TLDs if you care about long-term stability.

Depends on your userbase, but i doubt 90% of the people even care about the domain suffixes. I have found older people to have more resistance with non standard tlds but others take it with stride.
Also, putting the morality aside, if I buy fast.af and spin up a hosting site i think i will get more organic eyeballs than criticisms. And I will believe the end of .io when I no longer see .su domains online. There's money to be made there; it won't be going anywhere.