Should I buy the .net and .co versions of my domain to protect my brand?
Usually buy the .co, and the .net only if your brand is short or you will spend on ads. At October 2026 renewal prices the pair costs about $42 to $44 a year, while recovering one squatted name through a UDRP complaint costs $1,500 in WIPO fees alone. Register a trademark first: it protects every extension at once.
Updated October 19, 2026 · 3 primary sources, listed below
The cost of defending versus the cost of recovering
| Extension | Cheapest first year | Cheapest renewal | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| .com | $10.46 | $10.46 | Flat renewal |
| .net | $11.86 | $11.86 | Flat renewal |
| .co | $15.50 | $30.00 | Renewal trap: 2x the intro price |
| .io | $28.12 | $50.00 | Renewal trap: 1.8x the intro price |
| .org | $7.98 | $11.20 | Renewal trap: 1.5x the intro price |
| .app | $8.00 | $14.20 | Renewal trap: 1.7x the intro price |
Prices: tld.expert daily matrix of Porkbun and Cloudflare Registrar, checked 2026-10-19.
Holding the .net and .co costs about $41.86 a year at the cheapest renewal prices. If a squatter registers one first, recovering it through the UDRP costs $1,500 in WIPO fees for one to five domains with a single panelist ($4,000 with three), per the WIPO fee schedule, before any lawyer time, and you need a trademark and proof of bad faith to win. WIPO handled over 6,200 domain cases in 2025, a record.
What to buy, in order
- Your primary domain, ideally the .com.
- .co: one keystroke from .com. Watch the renewal trap; budget the renewal, not the promo.
- Your home ccTLD if you sell in one country (.de, .co.uk, .com.br).
- .net if the brand is short, you will run paid ads, or you handle payments (phishing magnets).
- Your category TLD (.ai, .io, .app) only if competitors in your space use it.
Skip the long tail. There are over a thousand TLDs; nobody can buy them all. A registered trademark is what lets you win a UDRP against any of them.
Make the extras do something
- 301-redirect every defensive domain to your main site.
- Turn on auto-renew and registrar lock; a lapsed defensive domain is a gift to squatters.
- Publish a null MX and an SPF record of
v=spf1 -allon domains that never send email, so nobody can spoof mail from them.
Common questions
Why .co before .net?
.co is one missing keystroke away from .com, so it is the extension most likely to catch your mistyped traffic or host a lookalike. .net mostly matters for older, infrastructure-sounding brands. Note that in our matrix .co has a renewal trap: cheap in year one, roughly double to renew.
Do I need every TLD a registrar offers?
No. There are over a thousand TLDs, and you cannot buy them all. Defend the extensions people would plausibly type or trust (.com, .co, your ccTLD), and rely on a registered trademark plus UDRP for the rest.
What do I do with the extra domains?
Point them at your main site with a permanent (301) redirect, turn on auto-renew and registrar lock, and never let them lapse. A dropped defensive domain is exactly what a squatter catches.
How common are domain disputes?
WIPO handled over 6,200 domain name cases in 2025, its highest caseload on record, which it announced in January 2026.
Sources
- WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center, “Schedule of fees under the UDRP” (retrieved October 19, 2026).
- WIPO, “2025 marks record-breaking year for WIPO domain name disputes” (January 15, 2026).
- tld.expert registrar price matrix, “Daily Porkbun and Cloudflare Registrar price snapshots” (retrieved October 19, 2026).
Extensions on this page
More straight answers
- Will using a non-.com domain hurt my Google rankings?
- Starting an app in Brazil: should you use .com.br or .com?
- Can I register a .de or .ca domain if I don't live in that country?
- Will emails from a .xyz or .io address go to spam?
- Is it risky to build my company on a .io domain because of the Chagos Islands deal?
- How much will a .ai domain cost over 5 years, including renewals?
- Why does my .dev site require HTTPS, and can I turn it off?