6d (edited) • Water Cooler
Is .com still the only true answer for new domains? Yes*
The most popular and trusted, of course is .com. But we all wonder what the affect is if we go with another domain suffix. The charts below show the distribution of domain purchases, but that's an incomplete story.
I get updates from an online resource called snagged.com. They help you find, buy and sell domains across the board. They put out a report on the trends that they see everyday... and the domains that they are hired to actually find or sell.
Here's the SNAGGED summary of TLDs (Top-Level Domains):
• Based on all of their 467 domain transactions (read that as, it actually sold) in 2025
• $24M in total volume, — prices ranging from $59 to $2.75M.
• Their conclusion : the domain market isn’t a single market.*
• Average sale price in 2025 was approximately $51K.
• Most transactions in the $10-$20K range
• Fewer six and seven-figure transactions skewed the average
• 61% of the domains we sold were .com, with an average sale price of $166K.
• 23% were .ai, with an average sale price of $69K.
• In dollar terms, .com represented 82% of total transaction volume, while .ai accounted for 13%.
• Every seven-figure deal they closed was a .com, and most six-figure deals were as well.
* What changed in 2025 wasn’t .com’s role at the top, but the legitimacy of .ai, which crossed an important threshold this year. It stopped requiring explanation and began appearing in mainstream advertising and brand surfaces. For AI-native companies, starting on .ai has become a rational default. Some upgrade to .com later, others do not.
Another pattern emerged clearly in the data: short names are no longer a differentiator. They are the baseline...
• 70% of domains they sold or acquired were eight characters or fewer
• Single-word domains dominated demand, particularly at the higher end of the market.
This reflects function rather than fashion. Short names reduce friction across outbound, email, paid media, and voice interfaces, and they signal credibility in ways longer or more complex names struggle to match.
The most meaningful shift in 2025, however, was behavioral.
• Founders tend to launch on clean, credible “good enough” domains
• Then revisit premium acquisitions once traction, funding, or success are achieved
• Exceptional domains are even more scarce.
• Investors are holding premium names for long-term leverage
• Once those names are in use, they rarely return to the open market
BOTTOM LINE:
TLDs do not create product-market fit, but once something is working, the right domain quietly accelerates trust, credibility, and momentum across everything built on top of it — your brand.
• Start with .com (everything else is a distant second place)
• If you can't find it - go with the most "memorable good-enough" name you can secure.
• As your business grows, start looking early for the name you WISH you had and work to secure it (or something close to it) so that it doesn't break your bank account.
• Then make your transition to domain Nirvana!
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Is .com still the only true answer for new domains? Yes*
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