We spent $4k on the dotCOM Domain for our Startup
When we started working on our SaaS in February 2021, we weren't quite sure how to name it. In the end, we hesitated between snappify and snippify, but ultimately decided on snappify, as at least the .io Domain was still available
Yesterday, after more than a year of pushing the project forward, we migrated our SaaS to snappify.com. We're really proud of this step, as it makes our brand more professional and established.
It took us about a month to negotiate the price with the previous owner, but we finally settled on $4k (+$350 Escrow fees).
We know that might seem like a lot, but to us, it was worth it because:
- It’s the most trusted and recognized top-level domain
- We want our customers to be able to find us easily, and the .com domain is the most intuitive and easy to remember.
We had the chance to get it for a reasonable price, so we decided to go for it. Having the .com domain is another step for pushing our brand forward.
How do you think about this topic? Would love to know your opinion in the comments!
Resident domain expert here. haha.
napkin (dotcom) is my company name.
Smart move.
If the cash isn't best spent elsewhere (growth) then acquiring the name you really want early on is smart.
If you grow huge on a less than ideal name, you'll likely have to pay more for the name you want (if you've established yourself as a known entity under a specific 'keyword')
Congrats!
wow, your story with Symbolics.com is inspiring Aron!
I see it the same way as you. For us it was the right time, for the right amount of money .. super grateful for that, thank you!
thanks!
and congrats again on the purchase... smart move!
best of luck moving forward. exciting times! :D
It depends a lot on letters or words. i.e. our domain cost way less: youarelaunched.com and urlaunched.com
true .. congrats that you've got those two domains!
Well, I have to say, I'm pretty impressed that you were able to snag the snappify.com domain for only $4k! I mean, I once tried to buy the domain "funnyjokes.com" and the seller wanted like a million dollars for it. Talk about a steal! 😂
But seriously, I think it's great that you were able to get the .com domain for your SaaS. It's definitely important to have a professional and easy-to-remember URL, and snappify.com fits the bill perfectly. Good job, and here's to many more successful years for your SaaS!
yeah, I would've assumed that "funnyjokes.com" is more expensive, as the use cases for it are veeery broad 😄 .. I think in our case the seller couldn't be sure if someone else would've been ready to pay more for this domain name in the future
thanks for your nice words! :)
Althogh the common advice seems to be not to worry about things like domain, logo, etc., I totally agree that a good brand name and its matching domain may be worth a bit of an investment. I spent like $2k on my dot com domain a few years ago and I'm still glad I did.
However, I'd still advise people not to rush into spending lots of money on a domain for any vague idea. The idea and the product will always matter most at the end of the day.
totally agree with you here, don't worry about it in the first phase of building your product .. if you got the chance the find a brand name with an awesome available domain right from the start, that's nice - but those things can be changed along the way
we're building our product for more than 1 1/2 years .. already have customers + MRR, the domain was available for a reasonable price, it made sense
For sure sir, when we change the domain such as .io .app .dev to .com we need to pay more but .com is always the primary domain that can help us a lot.
Definitely, worth it! You have sown the seed & will definitely get great return.
Critical move because of brand recognition and .com is still the primary domain that users are familiar with. Come in time .io and others should pick up heat!
I have the feeling that the .com TLD will always have a special authority to it
I was an early adopter of Snapiffy, and loved the tool. As @BarBoost mentioned the tool is focused on developers mainly, We don't care much about the domain extension whilst the tool is robust. But of course as concerned with brand authority and common perception of netizens, your move is smart ✌
thank you and glad to hear you're a happy snappify user! :)
I was lucky enough to find ours at a low cost! www.p2eanalytics.com.
It's definitely worth it if you're able to afford it. However, anything more than 4-5k is hard to stomach unless it's core to your branding and you have the funds to do it.
if you're able to find a suitable brand name where .com is available - even better! 😄
First of all, congrats.
COM indeed has a more professional sense than IO. Also the price sounds right, especially if you can afford it.
But I think it has more effect on media/content/social/ sites as they can only exist on mass and diverse traffic.
Your product is specifically for developers, a much targeted audience, who obviously know how to find their tools online much better than the average person. So I wouldn't count on a change in conversions just because of that—just my thought.
BTW great product interface. I'll list you on my site (curated directory).
Best of luck :)
thank you!
yes also valid points. for us, we also don't know if we might not shift out of the developer niche in the future, if we do, that could be a bonus too
but you're right, we probably won't see an immediate increase in conversion rate just because we the changed domain to .com 😅
oh thank you! I'm curious, do you want to mention your site? :D
The site is in beta, and I haven't officially launched it yet.
Here is your tool page: https://mrfreetools.com/tool/snappify/
Let me know if you want to change anything.
nice thanks for listing snappify!
the only thing I'd change is the statement "Sign up required" on the right toolbar 😄 the basic features of snappify can be used even without signing up
Changed
Definitely worth it for any business that is bringing in good numbers / has good growth :)
if it's somewhat affordable, definitely! :)
Of course. I guess it's all relative to MRR, profit and future opportunities. :)
I feel it is worth it, Dominik. Good move 👏
All the best 🚀
thank you basharath 🙏
Because you already have users, it's a good choice to switch from .io to .com.
yes true, if our SaaS wouldn't have got traction since then, it wouldn't been worth it to buy the .com domain
tbh for new projects I'd ideally look to find a name (or rebrand at a certain point) where the .com domain is available 😄
I have a domain [ snapfeel.com ] that cost 9 dollars.
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congrats on getting that desired domain!