.io vs .com for Startups: Which TLD Should You Choose?

The .io vs .com debate has become a startup rite of passage. You've got your product idea, maybe some mockups, and now you need a domain. Should you go with the classic .com or join the tech crowd with .io?

Both work, but they signal different things. Your choice depends on your audience, your goals, and how much you care about perception.

Why .com Still Dominates

.com is the default. It's what people type when they can't remember your exact URL. It's what investors expect when they look at your pitch deck. It's what enterprise buyers trust when they're evaluating vendors.

Stripe uses stripe.com. Airbnb uses airbnb.com. Notion uses notion.so (we'll get to that), but they also own notion.com and redirect it. The pattern is clear: successful companies either start with .com or acquire it later.

The credibility factor is real. When you're pitching to a Fortune 500 company, acme.com sounds more legitimate than acme.io. Is that fair? No. Does it matter? Yes.

The downside is availability. Most good .com domains are taken or priced like Manhattan real estate. You'll either need a creative name, a compound word, or a budget for acquisition.

The Case for .io

.io became the tech TLD by accident. It's actually the country code for British Indian Ocean Territory, but developers latched onto it because "IO" means input/output in computer science. Now it's synonymous with developer tools and tech startups.

GitHub uses github.io for their Pages product. Itch.io built an entire gaming marketplace on it. Linear.app started as linear.io before acquiring the .app. These are real companies building real businesses on .io domains.

The advantages are practical. .io domains are more available than .com, especially for short, memorable names. They're immediately recognizable as tech companies. If your primary audience is developers or technical users, .io sends the right signal.

The perception issue cuts both ways. To a developer, acme.io looks modern and technical. To a non-technical buyer, it might look less established. Your audience determines which perception matters more.

Price and Availability

.com domains at retail cost $10-15 per year. Premium .com domains can cost anywhere from hundreds to millions of dollars. The aftermarket is active, which means good names are expensive but available if you can afford them.

.io domains cost $30-60 per year at retail, about 3-4x more than .com for basic registration. Premium .io domains exist but tend to be cheaper than equivalent .com domains because the aftermarket is smaller.

If you're bootstrapping and need a name immediately, .io gives you more options at reasonable prices. If you're funded and planning for the long term, paying up for .com might save you from a costly rebrand later.

Sites like Vacant Domains help you find available names across different TLDs, which is useful when you're comparing availability and pricing between .io and .com options.

What Your TLD Says About You

Your domain extension creates expectations. Here's what each one typically signals:

.com says "we're a legitimate business." It's neutral, trusted, and universal. It works for B2B, B2C, enterprise, consumer, tech, and non-tech. The downside is that it says very little that's distinctive.

.io says "we're a tech company." It works for developer tools, SaaS, APIs, and anything technical. It signals that you understand the tech ecosystem. The downside is that it can feel limiting if you expand beyond technical audiences.

Real Company Examples

Companies that started with .io and stayed there: Itch.io (gaming marketplace), Socket.io (real-time engine), Keybase.io (security platform before acquisition). They serve technical audiences and the TLD reinforces their positioning.

Companies that started with .io and switched to .com: Notion (notion.so to notion.com redirect), GitLab (gitlab.io to gitlab.com), many others as they scaled. The pattern suggests .io works for product-market fit stage but .com becomes important for mainstream growth.

Companies that always used .com: Stripe, Vercel (formerly Zeit), Figma, Linear (now linear.app but owns linear.com). These companies either started with .com or acquired it early.

The Migration Problem

Starting with .io and switching to .com later is possible but painful. You need to set up redirects, update all your marketing materials, handle SEO migration, and retrain your users to use the new URL.

Notion handled this well by making notion.com the primary domain but keeping notion.so functional. GitLab did the same. But these migrations cost engineering time and create user confusion.

If you think you might want .com eventually, check if it's available or acquirable now. A $5,000 domain purchase today is cheaper than a $50,000 purchase after you've built traction, and both are cheaper than the operational cost of a full migration.

The Practical Decision Framework

When deciding on the best TLD for startups, the answer depends on your specific context.

Choose .com if you're building for non-technical users, enterprise customers, or mainstream consumers. Choose .com if you're raising venture capital and want to remove any credibility questions. Choose .com if you plan to scale beyond technical communities.

Choose .io if your core audience is developers or technical users. Choose .io if you're building developer tools, APIs, or infrastructure. Choose .io if you value availability and want a short, memorable domain now rather than waiting to acquire .com.

Don't overthink it if you're pre-revenue. Your domain matters less than your product. But if you're choosing between a mediocre .com and a great .io, take the great .io. A memorable name on .io beats a forgettable name on .com.

Alternative TLDs Worth Considering

.app has become legitimate for applications, especially after Google's push. Linear moved to linear.app. It's more expensive ($15-20/year) but clearly signals that you're building software.

.dev is specifically for developers and developer tools. It requires HTTPS, which adds credibility for security-conscious users.

.ai is having a moment for AI companies, though it's expensive ($60-200/year) and might feel trendy rather than timeless.

Country codes like .co or .io itself can work, but understand you're taking on geopolitical risk. The .io domain technically belongs to a British territory with a complicated history, though this rarely affects day-to-day operations.

Making the Call

If the .com you want is available and affordable, take it. .com removes friction and questions. It's the safe choice that you won't regret.

If the .com you want is unavailable or prohibitively expensive, .io is the next best option for tech companies. It's established enough that users won't question it, especially in technical communities.

Don't let domain availability paralyze you. Pick something memorable, make sure it's easy to spell, and move on to building your product. You can always acquire a better domain later if your company succeeds.

The companies that fail don't fail because of their TLD. They fail because they built something nobody wanted. Get your domain decision to 80% good and spend your energy on the remaining 99% of your startup that actually matters.

When you're ready to search for available domains across .io, .com, and other TLDs, tools like Vacant Domains can help you explore options and compare availability across different extensions.