Best Domain Extensions for a Business or Professional Site
17 extensions considered, 17 with a verified renewal price fetched from the registrar's own pricing page. Sorted by renewal, because that is what you pay every year after the first.
For a business, .com is still the default and the reason is not technical: it is the only extension a customer will type without being told. Register it if the name is available at standard pricing. If it is not, the strongest alternatives are .co, which reads as a company and is open worldwide, and the descriptive professional extensions such as .agency, .consulting, .group and .company, which trade universal recognition for a name that says what you do. The extensions to approach carefully are the ones with eligibility rules attached, because a registry can take the name back if you stop qualifying.
Safe default: .com
Verified renewal prices in this category
| Extension | Cheapest verified renewal | At | First year | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| .com | $9.98 +$0.20 |  Spaceship | $8.88 +$0.20 | 2026-08-19 |
| .net | $11.20 +$0.20 | Spaceship | $11.20 +$0.20 | 2026-08-19 |
| .business | $15.96 |  Porkbun | $2.57 | 2026-08-19 |
| .company | $16.99 | Porkbun | $2.57 | 2026-08-19 |
| .biz | $18.93 |  Dynadot | $6.65 | 2026-08-19 |
| .group | $21.11 | Porkbun | $6.18 | 2026-08-19 |
| .management | $21.11 | Porkbun | $8.24 | 2026-08-19 |
| .agency | $25.23 | Porkbun | $3.60 | 2026-08-19 |
| .ltd | $25.23 | Porkbun | $5.66 | 2026-08-19 |
| .solutions | $25.23 | Porkbun | $3.60 | 2026-08-19 |
| .enterprises | $28.32 | Porkbun | $3.60 | 2026-08-19 |
| .limited | $29.35 | Porkbun | $8.24 | 2026-08-19 |
| .co | $31.05 | Spaceship | $4.98 | 2026-08-19 |
| .consulting | $43.77 | Porkbun | $21.11 | 2026-08-19 |
| .ventures | $47.89 | Porkbun | $5.66 | 2026-08-19 |
| .holdings | $52.01 | Porkbun | $52.01 | 2026-08-19 |
| .partners | $57.16 | Porkbun | $7.72 | 2026-08-19 |
Cheapest verified renewal across the registrars we price-verify, fetched from each registrar's own pricing page on the date shown. Sample and unverified prices are excluded from this table entirely. See the methodology.
What .co actually is
.co is Colombia's country-code domain, operated under Colombian government policy, sold worldwide with no residency or documentation requirement. It reads as short for company, which is exactly why it became popular. It is a legitimate business choice. Be aware of two things: it is a ccTLD, so it sits under national policy rather than an ICANN gTLD contract, and its first-year and renewal prices diverge more sharply than almost any other extension we track.
Descriptive extensions work when the name does not
If your company name is generic and the .com is long gone, a descriptive extension can do real work: the name plus .agency, .consulting, .studio or .group tells a visitor what you are before they read anything. This is the honest use case for the professional namespaces. It stops working when the combination is a pun or requires explanation, because a domain that has to be spelled out over the phone costs you customers every week.
Eligibility rules are the risk nobody prices in
Some business-shaped extensions carry registry eligibility rules, and some country-code extensions that look like business choices require local standing. The relevant question is not whether you can complete checkout, it is whether you will still qualify in year three. A registrar taking your money does not mean the registry has agreed you may keep the name. Check restrictions on the individual extension page before you commit a brand to it.
The multi-registration question
The common advice to defensively register every variant is usually wrong for a small business, because each one renews forever. A more defensible policy: register the .com if you can get it, register the one alternative your customers are most likely to mistype into, and leave the rest. Track what you own and what it costs a year, and treat the portfolio as a recurring line item rather than a one-off purchase.