15
47 Comments

.CO or .IO?

Sometimes both .CO & .IO are available. Which one do you choose for your side project? ๐Ÿค”

.CO or .IO?
  1. .CO
  2. .IO
Vote
  1. 11

    I always go for .com if available. Otherwise I look for another name.

    Bit it also depends what's your sideproject.

    If you sell cookies online you could go with.

    • Cookies.online
    • Cookiesfor.all

    We should use our imagination for a domain, there's plenty of workarounds.

    Example. I bought once.

    Foodrecipies.online

    But i had a typo......

    1. 3

      Great points! And the dreaded typo purchase ๐Ÿ˜ญ, so easy to do!

      1. 1

        I am clumsy as hell....but that's because I have a lot in my mind.

    2. 2

      I used to do this as well. But then I realised that it's enough for me to have a uniform name across the domain name and website. For BassDrum I got the bassdrum.app domain, and used @BassDrumApp as the social media handle. The goal is to be recognisable.

      It's worth remembering that the domain is only a small part of the equation. There is an increasing trend in people opting for .ly, .co, .io, or .app domains, but if you are particular about .com, you could always use a variation of your word (add inc, or app or co at the end).

      I typically spend less than an hour or two to come up with a name.

    3. 2

      If you sell cookies online

      Hey that's me!

      We started with cravecookie.co and eventually bought .com a year later. It depends on who the audience is. Most people buying cookies wouldn't be accustomed to .io.

      1. 1

        They wouldn't ,definitely not.

      2. 1

        Mmmm cookies, my daughter calls me cookie monster.
        Yummy yummy..yummy yummy...

        Your cookies looked great on the screen.

        1. 2

          Who knew you could post about domains and end up with cookies!!! ๐Ÿช ๐Ÿ˜‹

  2. 7

    I like .io over .co - have never bought a .co domain. I've always thought it was too close to .com & could be confusing to customers if they share your company via word of mouth as you may miss out on a ton of traffic to the .com equivalent.

    1. 2

      Agreed! .IO is very likable and Iโ€™ve worried the same on .CO, but many have had success (Angel.co). May also matter whatโ€™s going on with the associated .COM too, competitor, for sale, etc?

      1. 1

        Very good point, it definitely matters what the .COM is being used for in case a competitor could siphon off your hard work building up your brand on a .CO. I think it's easy for .IO to become part of your branding & company name too.

  3. 6

    I chose IO because my product is for developers.

    1. 1

      Smart! Thatโ€™s where the decision seems to be the clearest. That input/output association is the difference when your product is for developers.

  4. 5

    io just because co is easily confused with com

  5. 4

    Personally don't like .co so I would go with an .io

  6. 3

    I prefer .co for my projects. Why?

    1. It's ~ 30 dollars cheaper than .io;

    2. It ranks second in domain registration for startups;

    3. It is only my opinion, but when I see domain with .co firstly I think that it is a startup. When I see .io I don't know is it a startup or a browser game, like slither.io.

  7. 3

    Get both and redirect to .com

    1. 1

      Smart! Definitely the safest approach if you can pull it off

  8. 3

    Personally, I associate .io domains to projects that somehow are related to developers so if your side project is offering something that developers can benefit from, I would suggest to use the .io domain. I have chosen .io over .co (registered .co but not going to use it) for the same reason.

    1. 1

      Agreed, for developers seems like .IO is a good choice. If you also own the .CO probably smart to redirect to your .IO.

  9. 2

    I was always under the impression .com ranked better on search engines. Plus, there is an inherit risk with the .io domain. In the past there has been talk of closing the domain, and the authority has had DNS outages before (although both of these points appear to be unsubstantiated).

    1. 1

      Good points, believe Google now treats .IO as generic rather than country specific so ranking shouldnโ€™t be an issue. There is a good HN post covering stability, worth noting, but doesnโ€™t seem like too much of a concern https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20981212

      1. 1

        There's both controversy and instability issues with .IO , I'm in the process of migrating from .IO to .CO for my main biz. Ideally I can get the .COM down the road when I can match the seller's price LOL.

        1. 1

          Thanks for sharing, can you elaborate on what drove you away from .IO? Am sure it would help anyone trying to choose. Also, best of luck in securing the .COM!

          1. 1

            @m1aw has posted the same article below where I got my info, it gives many details about the issue.
            As well, most of my potential clients aren't in tech, so the .IO doesn't have any cutesie meaning for them haha.
            Thanks, and best of luck with your projects!

            1. 1

              Thanks Blake!

  10. 2

    Either is OK as long as you also have the .com ( and redirect if needed). If you're serious about the product then it makes sense to own the .com so someone else doesn't buy it and copycat your business. If the .com is already taken by another site them starting out with the .io or .co can add difficulty to SEO and branding.

    1. 1

      So true!

    2. 1

      This comment was deleted a year ago.

  11. 2

    I was looking to get .io for my website but went with buildfaster.co because it was almoost 90% cheaper at the time on Namecheap

    1. 1

      Makes sense with such a big price difference, many have had success with .CO. Carrd.co for example, he owns the .COM now too, but donโ€™t think he had it at the beginning.

      1. 1

        Interesting... thanks for telling :)

  12. 2

    I much prefer io. When I see co, I always wonder if itโ€™s a typo.

    1. 1

      haha ๐Ÿ˜‚

  13. 2

    I'd go with .co or even better one of the new gTLD's in case the .com is expensive/not available.
    Main reason is the existence of the .io is being questioned, let alone the all controversy about human rights [1].

    [1] https://salt.agency/blog/biot-chagos-islands-risk-to-io-cctld-domains/

  14. 2

    Depend on what your product does. I prefer .com personally. Also, I don't think there is a big difference between io and co

  15. 2

    Still on -net or .ch - Switzerland is non US and non EU so I think itยดs a safe place

  16. 1

    I really object to the misuse of .co, .tv and .io under the banner "domain hack". How many of the projects/organisations which use the name have a connection to Columbia, Tuvalu or The British Indian Ocean Teritory (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Internet_top-level_domains)?

    The only reason this is permitted is because of relaxed criteria for registration. I think all country associated TLDs should have stricter criteria for registration like Ireland or Australia. Otherwise the TLDs become meaningless.

  17. 1

    .com (only option if you are B to C)

    considerable.

    .org

    .net

    1. 1

      Valid point. However, if your market is tech then I think the B2C risk is much lower.

  18. 1

    .io is more international than .co-lombia...

    1. 1

      Think .IO is technically British Indian Ocean Territory, but doubles as I/O - Input/Output which is cool for developers. But for better or worse, .CO feels closer to .COM

      1. 1

        Oh, I did not know that... So neither is what it claims to be then...

        1. 1

          Neither, claims to be anything. It is simply the meaning the we have attributed ourselves.

          Take, .tv for example. Great if your involved in TV; great if you're Tuvalu.

          Heres a list of the country code TLDS, for your enjoyment: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Internet_top-level_domains#Country_code_top-level_domains

        2. 1

          yeah, not what youโ€™d expect but works!

          1. 1

            It does indeed... Since Google bought abc.xyz, xyz might also become popular at some point...

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  21. 4

    This comment was deleted 4 years ago.

    1. 2

      Yeah, price Is definitely a factor and doesnโ€™t seem .IO goes on sale much at all!

      1. 1

        This comment was deleted 4 years ago.

    2. 1

      porkbun is giving it for $1 from last week.

      I am always nervous of going with .co I am worried users get confused with .com

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