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.com, .fr, .io or .dev: choosing the right extension

The .com reflex, trusted country codes, tech-flavoured endings and cheap experiments — a field guide to extensions, without the folklore.

.com: the default reflex

Three letters everyone on the planet already knows how to spell. For an international project, .com remains the path of least surprise: when you dictate your address, nobody asks “which extension?”. If the exact name is free in .com, think very carefully before choosing something else.

Country extensions: .fr and friends

A country code buys local trust and can help in local results: a French bakery on .fr is perfectly natural. If both worlds matter to you, the classic move is to secure .com for the brand and .fr for the local audience — the generator lets you check both at once.

Tech-flavoured: .io, .dev, .app

Short, modern and understood by the audiences that matter to a developer tool. Two honest notes: .io is among the pricier endings, and .dev / .app are preloaded for HTTPS — your site must be served in HTTPS from day one (which you should do anyway).

Cheap endings for experiments

Extensions like .xyz or .shop cost a few coins the first year — wonderful for prototypes and side quests, less ideal as the flagship of a serious brand, because trust there is silently lower. Match the extension to the ambition of the project.

The Bureau’s rule of thumb

Prefer the exact name on .com (or the right country code) to a pretty variant on an exotic ending. The name people can remember and type is worth more than the suffix that makes you smile. Generate, compare prices, and secure the one you would defend in an argument.

Guides from the Bureau