The best domain names for startups pass a simple test: someone hears the name once, types it correctly and trusts what they see. The exact .com passes most easily, which is why it is still the default. But it is often taken, and founders now settle in large numbers. Sources below were checked on 29 October 2026.
What startups actually use
The most detailed public data is FundingWatcher’s study “YC broke up with .com in 2022”, published 15 September 2026 and updated 27 September 2026. It read the public Y Combinator directory (6,190 companies) and divided each batch by the companies with a domain: 5,922 across Winter 2011 to Summer 2026.
The headline: “.com first falls under half in Summer 2022: 47.0%, or 109 of the 232 companies with a domain.” Since then, “No batch after Winter 2022 has been above 52.2% .com. In the last ten batches, eight are under half.” Across the whole series, .com holds 59.9% and .ai 14.6%.
| YC batch | With a domain | .com | .ai | .io | .co |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winter 2011 | 44 | 95.5% | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Winter 2020 | 226 | 60.2% | 10.6% | 10.2% | 4.9% |
| Winter 2022 | 397 | 55.9% | 9.8% | 6.5% | 5.3% |
| Summer 2022 | 232 | 47.0% | 17.2% | 10.8% | 5.6% |
| Winter 2024 | 247 | 52.2% | 23.5% | 3.2% | 3.6% |
| Summer 2025 | 165 | 43.0% | 37.0% | 2.4% | 2.4% |
| Summer 2026 | 236 | 47.5% | 26.7% | 3.4% | 3.0% |
One limit matters. The directory shows each company’s current domain under the batch it was founded in, so “a company that moved from .com to .ai counts as .ai in its founding batch”, and Summer 2026 “may still be filling”. These are YC companies, not startups in general.
A second study, from the naming-tool company NameMesh (last updated 25 February 2026, over 5,500 YC companies), found that “In 2025 alone, .com accounted for 46% of YC domains and .ai hit 31%”. It also counted prefixes: “About 10% of YC domains use a prefix”, led by “get (31%)”, “use (16%)” and “try (15%)”. The most common suffixes were “labs”, “ai” and “health”.
Identity Digital, the registry for both .io and .ai, publishes similar figures, so read them as registry data. Its study of YC and Techstars companies found “only 54% of .com domains include the brand name alone, compared to 85% for nTLDs”. It counts .ai and .io as “nTLDs”; both are country codes.
Buy the .com, settle, or switch extension
Buy the exact .com. It is the name people guess when they hear yours. The cost is money and time. If the name is registered but unused, see what it costs to buy a domain from its owner.
Add a prefix or suffix to the .com. Get-, try-, use- or -hq keeps you on .com at registration price. Identity Digital’s examples include getbluebook.com, tryoperand.com and usemesh.com. The cost is a longer name and a gap between the brand and the address. Identity Digital itself says “The jury is still out on whether action verbs will help or hinder trust and brand recognition.”
Use another extension with the exact name. This is what the .ai share above shows. You get the brand alone, but some customers will type .com by habit. Price, registration and renewal for .ai are covered in recent .ai domain sales. Whether the extension affects rankings is a separate question, answered in domain extension SEO. For a cheaper generic alternative, see are .net domains worth it.
The .io question
.io is the country code for the British Indian Ocean Territory. On 22 May 2025 the UK and Mauritius signed a treaty recognising Mauritian sovereignty over the Chagos Archipelago. According to the UK House of Commons Library (8 October 2026), “The treaty has not yet come into force”, UK ratification “has been paused”, and the implementing bill fell at the end of the 2025–2026 session.
If the code ever went, the process is set out in IANA’s policy on retiring a country-code domain. Eligibility depends on the territory being “assigned in the ISO 3166-1 standard”. If it is removed, “By default the ccTLD will be removed after five years”, and with extensions “the maximum possible period for a retirement is 10 years”. The policy was adopted by the ICANN Board on 22 September 2022.
ICANN told The Register in October 2024 that “Currently, the standard lists the British Indian Ocean Territory as ‘IO'”, and that a removal “would trigger a 5-year retirement process … during which time registrants may need to migrate”. IANA’s .io record still shows the status as “Active”, with no retirement date. That is all the sources support: no clock has started, and if one did, you would have at least five years’ notice.
When buying the .com later pays back
Some founders start elsewhere and buy the .com once they can afford it. NameMesh’s reading of its data is cautious: “Founders are mostly keeping whatever TLD they started with”. The purchases that do happen are large, as these reported deals show.
- friend.com: 404 Media reported in July 2024 that the AI companion company “spent $1.8 million out of a total of $2.5 million it raised”; an Escrow.com screenshot showed $1,887,843.
- Clarity.com: $3,500,000 in a private sale, confirmed by the CEO of the company formerly on Hiive.com, October 2026.
- Mogul.com: $1,300,000, closed August 2026, moving from Mogul.club, confirmed by the co-founder.
- NAS.com: $1,250,000, reported. The founder said he spent it and NAS.io now forwards there, but DomainInvesting.com noted the sale lacked independent confirmation.
The pattern DNJournal describes is a company that “starts out on an affordable non .com TLD but, if they gain enough traction, their first move is to acquire the .com”. It pays back when lost type-in traffic, misdirected email or customer doubt costs more than the price. To approach one, read how to buy a domain that is taken and domain name negotiation.
A quick checklist before you commit
- Say it, spell it. Read the name aloud to someone and ask them to type it.
- Search trademarks. Run a clearance search in the USPTO’s database and your own country’s. The USPTO says registering a domain “doesn’t give you any trademark rights”, and you “could later be required to surrender” it if it infringes. The full check is in brandable domains for sale.
- Check value before you offer. The Domain Worth Calculator maps a name to a value band, factor by factor. It is not a market appraisal.
- Check its past. The Domain History Checker gives a year-by-year Wayback Machine timeline of what the domain was used for.
The limit: this data shows what YC companies chose, not what worked.
Frequently asked questions
Do startups still need a .com?
Not to launch. In eight of the last ten YC batches, FundingWatcher found under half of companies on .com. The .com is still the safest default if you can get it at a sensible price.
Is a prefix like get- or try- a good idea?
It keeps you on .com cheaply. NameMesh found about 10% of YC domains use a prefix, most often get, use or try. The trade-off is a longer address that differs from the brand.
Is .io going to disappear?
Nothing has started that process. The Chagos treaty is signed but not in force, .io is listed as active, and IANA’s default notice period after a code is removed is five years.
When should a startup buy the .com later?
When lost traffic, misdirected email or customer doubt costs more than the price. Check the name’s value and history first, then approach the owner.
The takeaway Pick a name people can say and spell, launch on what you can afford, and set a clear point at which the .com is worth buying. If you are looking for an established name, browse aged domains on the SERPHeroes marketplace, where each listing shows registry age, an archive spam scan and whether ownership was verified.
