Startups Stack Exchange Archive

What are the pros and cons of using .io vs .co?

I’m thinking of buying a domain name for my technology startup. I want to buy a .io or a .co domain name. What are the pros and cons of each? .co seems to be cheaper with most registars, but .io seems more common.

Just assume: there isn’t any way that I can get the .com and no, I’m not going to do a variation on the name or change it just so I can get the .com.

Answer 6056

Go with the .io, for a couple reasons:

  1. “.co” and “.com” are really easy to confuse for the average user. Guess which one is more likely to get the traffic?
  2. An “.io” ending will be easier to distinguish than a “.co” ending if you can’t have the “.com” TLD, if only for the reason specified in point #1.

Answer 6057

I would stay away from both especially the .co

It is almost guaranteed that if you have a successful .co or even .io the current .com owner is going to put the site up just to profit from the confusion.

You can find some meaningless .com or perhaps you can go with one of the generic domains such as: .club .photo .center or something along those lines if that would fit your business category.

Remember, .com is THE KING so your priority should be finding suitable .com domain.

Answer 12655

Go for .com, use suffix, .io became synonymous of fail start-ups, now is the preferred cc of tech geek squatters, most of them got off the hook on time dumping their .io’s in the market for a fair price,.. It’s being blocked by a lot of it servers due to spam, and just recently the British gov. Cracked down a red of child pornography that involved over 1400 pages of child pornography, lots of casinos, it’s sketchy…

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