Domain name extensions:

On this page you can find a short description for the most popular gTLDs, sTLDs and ccTLDs. There are three groups of top-level domain names.

Generic top-level domain names are the most popular extensions on the market. These domains are commonly used for global, international and local websites as well. There is an opinion that these domain extensions are prefered by search engines in the ranking order.

The sponsored top-level domain names are mostly used by some kind of smaller, specific community. The .mobi and maybe the .asia extensions are the only exception from this.

Although the country top-level domain names are usually used locally and many of them has residence restrictions, some of them are accepted by the online community as a gTLD.

Generic top-level domain names:

.com is one of the most popular domain name extension on the Internet. It represents the abbreviation of the word commercial and its main purpose is commercial use. Some studies suggest that various search engines like Google, give a certain weight to these domains, so it is natural that most businesses prefer a .com domain. Find the current cheapest .com domain registrar price using our domain price comparison tool.

.net was initially ment for organizations involved in networking technologies, therefore it is the abbreviation of the word network. It is commonly used by Internet service providers and various infrastructure companies, information technology related business organizations and I.T. news websites. Here are the cheapest .net domain registrar prices.

.org is derived from organization indicating its originally intended purpose. It is recommended for non-commercial entities and organizations. As there are no restrictions to the registration process of this domain, there are more and more commercial website using the .org extension. Our site also displays the cheapest .org domain registrar prices.

.info is one of the most popular extension beyond the .com, .net and .org generic top-level domain names. It stands as the abbreviation of the word information, indicating its purpose for informative websites. It is still the most successful newly added domain extensions. Simply follow the link to find the cheapest .info domain registrar prices.

.biz was originally intented to be used by small businesses, therefore it is phonetic abbreviation of the word business. It was introduced in 2001 as an alternative to the .com extension, but the domain never really gained huge popularity. The lack of the sunrise period could be one of the causes for this trend. Here are the cheapest .biz domain prices from our registrar price comparison tool.

.name (designed for personal use) and .pro (abbreviation of professional) generic top-level domain names are restricted names. This means that some established criteria must be met by the future owner, the names can not be registered freely by any organization or invidual. VeriSign operates the .name domain and RegistryPro the .pro extension.

Sponsored top-level domain names:

.aero is sponsored by SITA and is ment for the members of the air-transport industry. The extension is the abbreviation of the word aeronautics.

.asia is sponsored by DotAsia Organisation. The domain name was intented to be used by companies, organisations and individuals operating in the Asia-Pacific region.

.cat is sponsored by Fundació puntCat. It is ment to highlight the Catalan culture, language and applies to the whole Catalan-speaking community.

.coop is sponsored by DotCooperation LLC (also known as dotCoop) and introduced in 2001 is intended for the use of cooperatives.

.edu was created in 1985 and is operated by EDUCAUSE. Post-secondary institutions may apply for this extension if they are accredited by an agency recognized by the U.S. Department of Education, therefore it remains almost exclusively a sponsored top-level domain of the United States of America.

.gov was introduced in 1985. It is operated by an independent agency of the United States of America government, the General Services Administration. The name derives from the word government. The usage of the domain is restricted to United States of America governments entities only.

.int extension is derived from the word international and is dedicated to organizations established by international treaties between governments like RIPE (Regional Internet Registry for Europe). The extension is maintained by IANA.

.jobs is sponsored by The Society for Human Resource Management. This domain extension is restricted and intended to be used (as its name suggest) for employment-related sites.

.mil is sponsored by DoD Network Information Center. It was introduced in 1985 for the United States Department of Defense.

.mobi was introduced in 2005 and is sponsored by DotMobi (and here is the full list of sponsors). As the domain name extension suggests, it is ment for website accessed by mobile devices. It is one of the most widely used and popular sponsored generic top-level domain. Click the link for the cheapest .mobi domain registrar prices.

.museum is sponsored by Museum Domain Management Association and is exclusively used by museums, museum associations and other museum profession individuals.

.tel is sponsored by Telnic Ltd., was introduced in 2005 and is intended for businesses and individuals to publish contact data.

.travel is sponsored by Tralliance Corporation. It is restricted and intended to be used by travel agents, airlines, bed and breakfast operators, tourism bureaus and others in the travel industry.

Country code top-level domain names:

A few unrestricted country code top-level domains are commonly used and treated as general top-level domain names. We provide a short description for these extensions, and for the rest of the ccTLDs visit IANA (opens in new tab) and click on the 'ccTLDs' option.

.am is assigned to Armenia. Commonly used for AM radio stations as the abbreviation of amplitude modulation broadcasting. Find the cheapest .am domain registration price.

.cc is assigned to the Cocos (Keeling) Islands and is often used for a wide variety of sites. Find the cheapest .cc domain registration prices.

.co is assigned to Colombia. Is marketed as a replacement for the .com extension and to be used as commercial, corporation or company. Find the cheapest .co domain registration price.

.fm is assigned to the Federated States of Micronesia. Commonly used by internet radio stations and FM radio stations. Find the cheapest .fm domain registration price.

.me is assigned to Montenegro. One of the most popular ccTLD because of the meaning of the the word 'me' in English. Widely used by companies and individuals as well. Find the cheapest .me domain registration price.

.tv is assigned to Tuvalu. As the extension suggests, it is mostly used as a television, video and entertainment domain name. Find the cheapest .tv domain registration price.

.ws is assigned to Samoa. It was and still is marketed as the dot website domain name. Find the cheapest .ws domain registration price.

Recommended registrar:

Choose the appropriate extension:

Registering a generic top-level domain name is always a good practice and there are just a few times when this can be a disadvantage.

Registering a country code top-level domain name is good as well, if your targeted audience and market is in that country and you do not wish to expand your business beyond the borders. Localized search engines and the local version of the Google sometimes tend to rank better sites from the local market than global websites.

Our advice is to register multiple domain names for your website and redirect them to main extension.

For example: if you want to run an 'example' shop in Hungary, you will have the options to register example-shop.hu, example-shop.co.hu and some gTLD (eg.: example-shop.com). Try to avoid registering only a second level domain name (example-shop.co.hu). If your competition registers the example-shop.hu and example-shop.com versions, it is likely that you will loose the majority of your customers.

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Register ccTLD and gTLD domains:

If you run a local business or service, it is natural that you will register a country code top-level domain name for your website. This should do every invidual or (business) organization focusing on a local market, since ordinary users are most likely searching and visiting domains that has their country's extension.

But what happens when your business grows out your local (single country) market? Usually this is the time, when businesses are switching to a generic top-level domain name.

Because of this it is always a good practice to immediately reserve the gTLD version as well (if you are lucky enough and this version is still available). Buying off an already registered TLD is always more expensive than paying the registration fee for a couple of years.

Domain name hacks:

As the 'good sounding' domain names are already taken, some websites use domain name hacks. One of the best known bookmarking service used del.icio.us as a name, since the .com version was already registered.

These kind of hacks are mostly done by registering some ccTLD domain name and adding subdomains to it. Depending on the targeted audience this can be as cool as confusing sometimes. While thinking of registering a 'hacked domain name', note that for some reaseon delicious also bought the .com version later.

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