How to Choose a Domain for Your SaaS: A Data-Backed Guide to TLDs in 2026

Choosing a domain is one of the first decisions you'll make as a founder, and one of the few you can't easily undo.

After indexing 22,381 newly launched websites in our database, we've seen how real founders are making this call in 2026 — and the patterns are clear enough to be useful guidance.

This is not a list of "all the TLDs that exist." It's a guide to which TLDs actually matter for SaaS products, backed by what we observe in the market.

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The First Principle: Your Domain Signals Credibility Before Anyone Reads a Word

Before a visitor reads your headline, looks at a screenshot, or checks your pricing — they've already formed an opinion from your domain.

.io reads as: developer-built, probably has an API, team knows what they're doing.
.app reads as: software product, mobile-friendly, product-focused founder.
.xyz reads as: either Google DeepMind or a $0.99 domain bought on a whim.

This matters because your domain appears in product directories, Hacker News links, Twitter shares, and cold emails. The TLD is always visible — and it carries implicit associations you're either leveraging or fighting against.

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The Practical Tier System for SaaS in 2026

Tier 1: Default Choices for Serious Products

.io — The SaaS-founder default for a decade. Still credible, still widely used. Developer tools, B2B SaaS, APIs, CLI tools. Strong community recognition in the indie hacker / startup world. Cost: ~$30–40/year.

.app — Google's TLD, enforces HTTPS at the registry level (good for trust). Growing adoption among consumer-facing products and tools. If you're building something users interact with directly, .app is increasingly the cleaner choice. Cost: ~$14–20/year.

.co — Shorter than .com, broader than .io. Genuinely versatile. Popular with consumer startups, lifestyle brands, and anything that isn't exclusively developer-facing. Cost: ~$25–35/year.

.ai — The dominant TLD for AI products right now. In our database, .ai domains now outnumber .com in newly discovered sites (1,359 vs 873). If you're building an AI product and the name is available in .ai, use it — the category association is now strong enough to be an asset. Cost: ~$60–80/year (significantly higher, which also filters out low-effort registrations).

.com — Still the gold standard for any product targeting non-technical users or enterprise buyers. If your ideal customer is not a developer, .com retains strong credibility. The trade-off is availability — any short .com that isn't obvious gibberish is taken at a premium price. Cost: varies wildly (registrar: $10–15/year; secondary market: $500–$50,000+).

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Tier 2: Good for Specific Use Cases

.dev — Google's developer-focused TLD. Excellent for developer tools, open-source projects, and CLI utilities. Strong signal to technical audiences, weaker signal to business buyers. Cost: ~$12–25/year.

.store — Almost exclusively e-commerce. If you're selling physical or digital products through Shopify or WooCommerce, .store communicates your model immediately. Avoid it for subscription SaaS — it implies a shopping cart, not a recurring service. Cost: ~$5–15/year.

.sh / .run / .tools — Niche TLDs that work well for specific products. A CLI tool on .sh feels intentional. A utility on .tools is self-describing. These are worth considering if the name-TLD combination is memorable and the audience is technical. Cost: ~$20–50/year.

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Tier 3: Avoid for SaaS (Unless You Have No Choice)

.online, .xyz, .site, .tech — These represent over 50% of our database because they're cheap ($0.99–$2.99/year at launch). They're cheap because the demand for "serious" products on these TLDs is low.

The cost creates a signal problem: founders who want to signal "I'm serious about this" choose more expensive TLDs. Founders who are testing an idea spend as little as possible. The TLD tier has become a proxy for how committed the founder is to the product.

This isn't always fair — occasionally a real product ends up on .xyz. But as a first-pass filter, it's directionally accurate, and it's how many early adopters and potential customers will mentally sort your product.

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Decision Framework: Which TLD Should You Use?

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The Name > TLD Rule (With One Exception)

A memorable, specific name on a second-tier TLD beats a generic name on .com.

invoiceapi.dev is more memorable than invoicesoftwaresolutions.com.
formflow.app is more credible than bestformsoftware.xyz.

The exception: if you're targeting enterprise buyers or non-technical consumers, .com is close to mandatory. Enterprise IT departments sometimes block email links to non-.com domains as a security measure. Non-technical users see .io and assume it's a government site (the .io TLD officially belongs to British Indian Ocean Territory — most users don't know this, but some IT filters do).

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What the Data Confirms

From our analysis of 22,381 sites:

• The Developer Tools category (843 sites, 8.1% monetization rate) clusters heavily on .io and .dev — developers building for developers choose domains that read as credible to other developers
• The Education category (106 sites, 18.9% monetization rate — highest of any category) splits between .com and .co, consistent with non-developer audiences
• AI Tools (3,938 sites, 6.8% monetization) shows the strongest .ai adoption of any category — the TLD has become near-canonical for the niche
• E-commerce (2,796 sites, 1.5% monetization) maps almost perfectly to .store adoption

The TLD choices founders are making closely track what you'd predict from the "audience expectations" logic. This suggests founders are intuiting the right signals even without formal guidance.

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Practical Checklist Before You Register

1. Say it out loud. Can you spell it after hearing it? Domain squatters love homophone confusion.
2. Check Hacker News + Product Hunt conventions. What TLD do products in your category typically use? Match the community norm.
3. Test the enterprise blocker question. If you're selling to companies with IT teams, verify the TLD isn't filtered by common email security tools.
4. Check the renewal price. Many registrars offer .online at $0.99 year one, then $35/year. .io at $35/year consistently is actually cheaper over 3 years.
5. Buy the .com if it exists. Even if you launch on .io, owning the .com redirect prevents a competitor from confusing your customers.

Where does MRRScout's data come from? All statistics in our articles come from MRRScout's intelligence platform, which continuously monitors 24,000+ newly launched websites across Reddit, Product Hunt, Hacker News, BetaList, certificate transparency logs, and domain activity feeds. Sites are classified as monetized only when active payment infrastructure is detected — not based on self-reported MRR or founder claims. Data snapshots are timestamped in each article. Full database: mrrscout.com/discover.

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MRRScout tracks 22,000+ newly launched products across every TLD. See what's rising this week →