Which Domain Extension Should You Buy in 2026? 14 Compared, With Renewal Prices

The search box returns seven versions of your name. The .com is £20, the .co.uk £12, the .shop £11, the .io £104 and the .ai nearly £300, and the page gives no hint of why, or of which one your customers will actually type. So you buy the cheapest, or all of them, and find out later that the cheap one triples next year or that the clever one cannot be registered by a company in Leeds at all.

The ending is the part of a domain most people choose in ten seconds and live with for a decade. This guide compares 14 of them on the things that matter: who runs each domain extension, who is allowed to register it, what it really costs to renew, which force HTTPS, which come with rules or political risk, and what the new endings arriving from 2027 will change. Prices were read on 7 October 2026 and the rules come from the registries themselves.

How we compared them

1. Who runs it. A company under contract to ICANN, a country's registry, or a government. That decides who sets the price and the rules.
2. Who may register. Most endings are open to anyone; some have eligibility rules, and two of those are endings UK businesses often try.
3. What it costs to renew. We use Porkbun's prices as the floor, because it sells close to wholesale with the same price at renewal, and Jobbit's live search prices from 7 October 2026 as the all-inclusive figure.
4. Technical rules. Two endings refuse to load without HTTPS.
5. Risk. Whether the ending's future or price depends on a government decision.

The three kinds of ending

Generic endings (the industry calls every ending a TLD, a top-level domain) such as .com, .net, .org, .app, .shop and .xyz are run by companies under contract to ICANN, the body that coordinates the domain system. Anyone can register them, prices are capped or published, and the rules are the same everywhere. Verisign's industry brief counted 401.6 million domains at the end of June 2026, 179.1 million of them in .com and .net.

Country endings such as .uk, .co, .io, .ai and .eu belong to countries and territories, which set their own rules. Some are open to the world, some are restricted, and a few are run as a business by a small government. Country endings held 148.6 million registrations in the same report, and .uk was the third largest after .cn and .de, with about 10.4 million names according to Nominet.

Newer endings from ICANN's 2012 expansion, such as .shop, .app and .dev, work like .com technically but vary enormously in price and reputation. A new application round opened in 2026 and will add more from 2027.

14 domain extensions compared

Two notes on the prices. Porkbun's figures are a good picture of what a domain costs before a registrar's margin and add-ons, and several of them, such as .shop and .xyz, are the renewal price behind a first-year sale of about $2. Jobbit's figures include WHOIS privacy, a hosted DNS zone, HTTPS certificates and one-click connection to a site, and renew at the same price, so they are a bundle rather than a bare name. Compare like with like: the year-two price plus whatever you would pay separately for privacy and hosting.

.co.uk vs .com vs .uk: the choice for a UK business

The .co.uk vs .com question is the one most UK buyers actually face, and the answer depends on where your customers are.

You sell in the UK

Take the .co.uk. It is the ending British customers expect, it is cheap, and Google's guidance on multi-regional sites treats a country ending as a strong signal that a site is aimed at that country, which is exactly what a local business wants.

You sell abroad, or plan to

Take the .com if your name is free in it. It is the ending the world types by default, and a .co.uk can look parochial to a buyer in Germany or Texas. If the .com is taken, a country ending for your biggest market beats a .net or a .co.

Take both when you can

A .co.uk and a .com together cost less than a month of most software subscriptions. Point the second one at the first and nobody who types the wrong ending will end up with a competitor.

The .uk twist

Until 25 June 2019 the owner of a .co.uk had first refusal on the matching .uk. Nominet released the unclaimed names from 1 July 2019, so the shorter .uk version of your .co.uk may now belong to someone else. Check before you build a brand on one and assume the other. A .uk registered from outside the United Kingdom also needs a UK service address, which Nominet does not ask for on a .co.uk.

The endings with rules attached

• .eu. EURid, the registry, limits .eu to EU citizens anywhere in the world, residents of EU member states, and organisations established in the EU or EEA. UK residents and UK companies lost eligibility on 1 January 2021, and names held by ineligible owners were withdrawn. A UK business with an EU subsidiary can register through it; a UK business without one cannot. EURid's site has the rules.
• .ltd.uk and .plc.uk. Only a registered private or public limited company may hold one, the domain must match the company name, and Nominet checks each registration by hand. A sole trader cannot have one, and a company called Carter Heating Limited cannot register carterboilers.ltd.uk.
• .ai. Anguilla's government requires a two-year minimum registration and raised the wholesale price to $80 a year on 5 March 2026, a 14% increase, as Domain Name Wire reported. Registrars add their margin on top, which is why the ending that passed a million registrations in early 2026 costs ten times a .com.
• .app and .dev. Both are on the browser HSTS preload list, so every browser refuses to load them over plain HTTP, according to Google Registry. That is a good thing on a modern host, where certificates are free and automatic, and a dead end on a host that is not.

The two with political risk

The .io ending belongs to the British Indian Ocean Territory, the Chagos Islands. A UK treaty to hand the islands to Mauritius has stalled: the UK froze its plans in April 2026 after the United States withheld its consent, as Domain Incite reported. If the territory's country code were ever retired from the international standard, ICANN's policy allows a five-year wind-down for the ending. Nothing has happened yet, and millions of technology companies use .io, but a business that wants a name for thirty years should know the question exists.

The .ai ending has the opposite problem: it is thriving, and its price is set by a small government that has discovered how much the world will pay. There is no cap on what Anguilla may charge next. If .ai is the right name for an AI product, buy it, and budget for the price to move.

The first-year bait

Several newer endings exist mainly as first-year offers. On Porkbun's page on 7 October 2026, .online and .site were $1.96 for the first year and $28.84 to renew, .store was $2.57 then $43.77, and .shop was $2.06 then $31.41. GoDaddy's UK site offered a .com for £0.01 with a three-year purchase at £18.99 for each further year. None of this is hidden, but all of it is designed to be missed.

The test that cuts through it is the one from our guide on how to buy a domain name: find the renewal price, multiply by three, and compare that figure. An ending that costs £2 this year and £35 every year after is a £72 decision, not a £2 one.

Does the ending affect Google rankings?

Not in the way people hope. Google's John Mueller has said that the words in an ending are ignored for ranking, so .plumbing does not rank for plumbing and .shop does not rank for shops. What a country ending does is tell Google which country the site is for, which helps a local business in local results and can hurt an exporter.

The rest is reputation with people rather than with Google. A .co.uk or .com needs no explanation; a .xyz or .online makes some customers pause, and some spam filters too. Our guide on how to choose a domain name covers the name itself, which matters more than the ending.

What is coming: the 2026 round of new endings

ICANN opened its first application window for new generic endings since 2012 on 30 April 2026 and closed it on 12 August 2026, with a fee of $227,000 per application, according to the programme's own site. Applicants are mostly brands, cities and investors, and the first new endings will not be live before 2027. For a small business the practical advice is not to wait: the ending your customers trust today is .co.uk or .com, and a new ending that nobody has heard of will not change that for years.

How an AI agent helps you pick an ending

ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, Manus and Meta's Muse can all explain what .io stands for. An agent that can search and buy does the rest.

• Checks your name in every ending at once. Which are free, which are premium, and the live price of each, in your currency.
• Applies the rules before you pay. It knows a UK sole trader cannot hold a .eu or a .ltd.uk and that a .ai is a two-year purchase, and tells you.
• Compares the three-year cost. First year plus two renewals, side by side, so a $2 offer is seen for what it is.
• Registers and connects the winner. On Jobbit the agent registers the ending you choose with privacy included, hosts the DNS, issues the certificate and connects the name to the site it builds, as our guide to connecting a domain to your website explains.
• Points the spare ending at the main one. Buy the .co.uk and the .com and the agent sets the redirect.
• Builds the site the name is for. The Free plan gives 100 credits a day with no card, and Go at £7 a month keeps one small app live on your own domain. If you are starting from nothing, the guide to getting a free website shows the options.

Your plan for this week

• Day 1: decide whether your customers are in the UK, abroad or both. That answers .co.uk, .com or both.
• Day 2: search your name in those endings and note the renewal price, not the first-year price.
• Day 3: if you are tempted by a newer ending, check its three-year cost and whether you are eligible.
• Day 4: buy the main ending with privacy and auto-renew on, and the second if it is free.
• Day 5: connect it, or ask the agent on Jobbit to search, register and connect it for you.

Frequently asked questions

Which domain extension is best for a small business in the UK?

The .co.uk for a business that sells in the UK, the .com for one that sells abroad, and both if the budget allows. They are cheap, trusted and expected; the newer endings are for specific cases.

Is .uk the same as .co.uk?

No. They are two separate names that can have different owners. Nominet gave .co.uk holders first refusal on the matching .uk until 25 June 2019 and released the unclaimed names in July 2019, so check both before you build a brand on one.

Does the domain extension affect SEO?

Google ignores the words in an ending for ranking, so .shop does not help a shop rank. A country ending such as .co.uk does tell Google which country the site is for, which helps in local results and can be a drawback for a business selling worldwide.

Why are .ai and .io domains so expensive?

They are country endings run as businesses. Anguilla sets the .ai wholesale price, which rose to $80 a year in March 2026 with a two-year minimum, and .io has long been priced for technology companies that will pay. Jobbit's live prices on 7 October 2026 were £294.16 a year for .ai and £104.13 for .io.

Can a UK business register a .eu domain?

Not directly. Since 1 January 2021 only EU citizens, EU residents and organisations established in the EU or EEA may hold a .eu. A UK company with an entity in an EU country can register through that entity.

Are .app and .dev domains safe to use?

Yes, with one condition: they load only over HTTPS, because both endings are on the browser HSTS preload list. On any host that issues certificates automatically, which includes Jobbit and every major website platform, that is invisible. On a host that does not, the site will not load at all.

Can an AI agent choose and register the ending for me?

On Jobbit it can search every ending, apply the eligibility rules, compare three-year costs, register the one you pick and connect it to a site. Searching is free, the Free plan gives 100 credits a day with no card, and Go is £7 a month for one small app on your own domain.