Affordable Domain Extensions for Startups: Prices and Renewals

1. Which Domain Extensions Are the Most Affordable for New Startups?

The term "affordable" here heavily depends on what you're building and who needs to remember the name. A consumer app, a developer tool, and an AI product each have a different set of extensions that are both cheap and credible for that audience. So why are domains expensive in the first place?

For consumer and general-audience startups, you have to think about trade-offs in terms of name availability vs. price. The common options are .com, .co, and even .xyz, but each one has a bit of complexity and might be costlier than the listed price.

For developer tools and SaaS, .dev and .app are usually the best fit, as they are relatively cheap to renew and Google-operated with mandatory HTTPS built in. The .io is a solid third choice, even though it has broader connections to the tech industry.

For AI-first products, .ai has become close to a default, even though it's one of the more expensive extensions on this list.

By far the most consistently cheap options are .com and .xyz.

The .com domain is universally popular, having over 163 million registrations according to DNIB (Domain Name Industry Brief) and seven times more reported registrations than the next biggest domain (.cn – China's country code).

Contrastingly, the .xyz domain was first marketed as a cheap or even free domain alternative to .com, and you can still find renewals for less than $15 per year. The domain's lack of industry connection can help it by not tethering you to a specific audience.

All prices are approximations based on July 2026 data and may differ by registrar.

2. First-Year Price vs. What You Pay Every Year After

Domain pricing has two very different numbers attached to it, and registrars have every incentive to show you only the first one.

The registry that operates a given extension (Verisign for .com, Identity Digital for .ai and .io, Radix for .tech, and so on) sets a wholesale price, and registrars add their own markup on top. The markup here depends and varies wildly on how each registrar wants to acquire customers. Some might have a small markup that's consistent across years, while others use a first year for the sale then tack on a higher price for renewal to "recoup" the losses. Most registrars bank on the fact that you won't change registrar once you've set up the website.

That's why the same extension at the same registrar might have domains that cost anywhere between $2 and $90. It's best to note the first-year promo as given, then calculate how much you're actually going to pay across three, five, or even 10 years. In some cases, registrars that list a high first-year price or don't have a discount (like Register.Domains) might end up being the better choice.

3. Lower-Cost Domain Extensions for New Tech Companies

Based on the pricing table, .dev and .app are worth a look for teams that don't need the .io or .ai signal specifically. Both are managed by Google, both are priced well below .io at renewal, and both come with HTTPS enforced by default, which removes one setup step. .tech, .io, and .ai each get their own full breakdown below, since their pricing (and the tradeoffs behind it) is more involved.

4. What Does a .io Domain Cost for a Startup?

The price for an .io domain is usually $60 on Register.Domains, per year.

The .io extension has been made the country code for the British Indian Ocean Territory, but it's been adopted so widely by tech and startup founders, partly because "IO" reads as computing's "input/output." This led to most visitors and even search engines treating it as a generic tech TLD. Based on the official IANA registry, the extension is owned by a UK entity with seeming government ties. However, it's actually operated by a subsidiary of Identity Digital, which operates hundreds of new TLDs.

From a memorability standpoint, it's one of the most straightforward two-letter domains for the tech industry, instantly planting a flag for your marketing. However, it also comes with serious considerations, which you can learn more about in our complete guide for .io domains.

What Are the Pricing Options for .io Domains for Startups?

As of July 2026, .io registration might start around $35 for the first year at discount registrars. Some might even push the envelope with practically free first-year pricing. By contrast, the overall cost of a domain name is some of the highest for generic and country-code TLDs, typically above $60.

If you already have a registered .io domain under one registrar, it's not too late to find a better deal. You can transfer a domain, which puts you to the new domain's regular renewal pricing alongside a small fee (and adds a year to the current term).

Are .io Domains Still Worth It for Startups?

From a marketing perspective, it's up to you to determine if your audience would associate .io with tech and startups, or if the high overall cost makes a more budget-conscious alternative to .com better.

5. How Much Does an .ai Domain Cost for a Startup?

The .ai TLD is Anguilla's country-code extension, but it's become the default domain for companies building AI products, largely because the letters precisely spell it out. The IANA root database entry lists the government of Anguilla as the TLD's manager, but actual management has been transferred to Identity Digital in 2025.

Unlike most extensions, .ai requires a two-year registration at minimum, but the promotional costs only apply for the first year for most registrars. The costs of an .ai domain vary between $65–$85 per year, roughly $140–$170 for the mandatory two-year minimum, with renewal landing in a similar $70–$100 per year range depending on registrar markup.

With the ubiquitousness of AI tools, registry-level price increases have also become more aggressive as demand has grown, so make sure to recheck the price often. If you're wondering "should I buy an .ai domain?" solely to park it (meaning you'll just register the website now and build it later), the answer is usually going to be yes, as prices are unlikely to fall any time soon.

6. Why Are .tech Domains so Expensive?

A .tech domain might not be the most expensive to register, since first-year promos regularly drop to be close to free, but it can be expensive to keep. Radix, the registry behind .tech, prices the extension well above "legacy" TLDs like .com or .net, and most registrars pass that cost straight through at renewal, where you might see prices from the high $60s to high $90s.

A part of the premium-looking pricing is that "tech" is broad enough to cover most startups in the industry. This makes the domain name look appealing to many different brands, regardless of what kind of product or service they actually provide (as a SaaS and an AI product are still "tech").

7. Which Affordable Domain Extensions Still Look Credible?

None of the industry-specific options are the cheapest, but .co and .net are still credible due to their versatility and familiarity:

• .co is the closest .com alternative (it's marketed, perceived, and treated as generic despite being a country code) and typically costs $30 to register, with renewal around $35, a smaller jump than most new gTLDs.
• .net is one of the oldest generic extensions, operated by Verisign alongside .com, and renews in a similar price range. It's one of the oldest .backups to .com
• .xyz was widely used for disposable or scam sites, so some users have begun associating the extension with less trust. However, if you have proper email certificates, you shouldn't have an issue.

8. Should a Startup Ever Use a Free Domain?

Free domains, usually offered as a subdomain of a website builder or hosting platform, or bundled free for one year with a hosting plan, can make sense if you're testing or validating an idea before spending anything.

However, there are a few issues depending on what "plan" you use.

• A subdomain on a different site (yourbrand.wordpress.com) doesn't belong to you, can't be transferred cleanly if you switch providers, and signals "not a real business yet" to a meaningful share of visitors.
• A "free" domain bundled with hosting is usually free for exactly one year, then renews at that registrar's standard rate. This can be higher than outright registering with a registrar and might even lock you out of transferring for longer.
• A free website service like EU.org or FreeDomain might impose restrictions on what you can actually do with a website or how the TLD looks (usually complex and not tech-related at all).

9. How Can a Startup Get the Lowest Price on a Domain?

There are two main ways to get a discount, even for a more expensive TLD like .ai, .io, or .tech.

Multi-year registration usually locks in that rate throughout the registration term. While it ties up more cash upfront, it means you won't be as affected by registry-based cost increases.

Beyond that, make sure to check multiple registrars and run the exact domain name you want in the search rather than just using the broad domain page information. Extensions themselves are just an indicator of the price, and the exact domain name cost can vary wildly depending on what each registrar perceives someone is willing to pay.

Besides the actual registration, there are a few more options to check:

• WHOIS privacy can be the default at most registrars, but not all, so determine whether you need it or how much you're willing to pay for it.
• Transfer fees usually apply regardless of when you move the domain, but they might be lower than the renewal price difference.
• If a domain lapses because you're not paying the renewal cost, the registry applies restoration or redemption fees, which can cost multiples of the registration cost. Consider setting auto-renew when you've set up the business or a manual alert if you have a shorter-term registration.

10. Where to Compare and Register Affordable Startup Domains

Once you know which extension fits your product and budget, Register.Domains' domain search lets you check availability and compare pricing across extensions in one place, including bulk search if you're testing several name-and-extension combinations at once.

11. Frequently Asked Questions