To choose a domain name for your startup, settle the brand name first, then buy the shortest matching domain you can legally own. Generate twenty candidates, cut the ones that need spelling help, keep the three shortest, clear the trademark, check the social handles, then choose between .com, .app, .dev, and .pro. Do this before launch.
Key takeaways
- Decide the brand name and the domain together, but let domain availability eliminate candidates before you become attached to any of them.
- Run four pass or fail tests on every candidate: say it once, spell it from memory, read it as one word, and confirm a matching domain is actually obtainable.
- Aim for seven to nine characters. Below seven the name is usually priced as a premium asset; past twelve, recall drops in conversation, advertising, and search.
- Clear the trademark before you pay anyone. A domain you cannot legally use is not an asset, it is a liability with an annual renewal.
- Expect a registration fee in the low tens of dollars for an unclaimed name, and a one-time premium typically in the low four to low five figures for a short brandable name. Short dictionary words sit far above that.
- Buy before you launch, print, pitch, or file. Changing a name after release costs far more than the domain ever would.
Decide the brand name and the domain together
Your brand name is what people say out loud; your domain is the address they type. Founders who treat them as unrelated end up explaining the spelling of one with the other. Decide them as a linked pair with one hard constraint: the domain must be obtainable at a price you accept.
The order still matters, because the brand name is the harder thing to change. A domain can be added, redirected, or upgraded later, and a second extension can always be purchased. A name already printed on a pitch deck, a bank account, or a customer's memory is expensive to unwind, so write the name you want to be known by first and let availability prune the list. How the two differ legally is covered in domain name vs business name.
A nine-step process for naming your startup
Work through these steps in order; each removes weak candidates before you spend money on the next check.
- Generate more candidates than you need. Write at least twenty, mixing invented words, real words used in an unexpected category, and two-syllable combinations. Do not filter yet; most candidates will fail a later test.
- Run the say-it-once test. Say a candidate once, at normal speed, to someone who is not looking at your screen. Ask them to type it. If they ask you to repeat it, or if they type the wrong vowel, the name is already costing you customers.
- Run the spell-it-from-memory test. Say the name, wait a minute, then have the same person write it down without help. This catches names that sound fine but resolve to several plausible spellings.
- Set a length target. Seven to nine characters is the practical sweet spot. Long enough to be distinctive, short enough to fit in a social handle, a favicon, and a mobile browser bar without truncation.
- Prefer one word to two. A single unit reads as a brand. Two words joined, concatenated, or hyphenated read as a description, and descriptions are harder to trademark and harder to recall. If a two-word name is the only option, join it cleanly rather than adding a hyphen.
- Clear the trademark. Search your national registry before you commit. In the United States, start at the USPTO trademark search, then check your own country's registry. Look for marks in your class of goods and services, not just exact matches. A confusingly similar mark in the same class is the risk that matters.
- Check the social handles. Confirm the same handle is free on the two or three platforms you will actually use. You do not need every platform. You do need the name to resolve consistently so that a search for the brand finds you rather than a stranger.
- Choose the extension. A .com is still the strongest default for a general business because it is what people assume. Extensions such as .app, .dev, and .pro are defensible when the product category matches, and they are usually far cheaper and more available. Note plainly that Google treats new generic top-level domains as generic, so the extension itself is not a ranking advantage or penalty; the choice is about trust and recall, not ranking.
- Buy, then point it somewhere. Register the name, enable two-factor authentication and registrar lock, and redirect it to a page that exists. An unconfigured domain looks worse than no domain.
The four pass or fail tests
If you remember one part of this guide, remember these four checks. A name that passes all four is usable; a name that fails any one should be dropped rather than rescued.
| Test | How to run it | Pass signal | Fail signal |
|---|---|---|---|
| Say it once | Speak the name once to someone not looking at your screen, then ask them to type it. | They type it correctly on the first attempt. | They ask for a repeat, or they type a different vowel or consonant. |
| Spell from memory | Wait a minute after they hear it, then ask them to write it down. | One obvious spelling, written correctly. | Two or more plausible spellings, or a missing letter. |
| One word, not two | Read the name aloud and read it again as two separate words. | It lands as a single brand unit. | It only makes sense when you explain where the words split. |
| Domain obtainable | Check the registrar and the aftermarket for the matching name and extension. | Available at registration price or a premium you accept. | Only available at a price that changes your budget, or parked by a competitor. |
How long should a startup domain be?
Length is the single strongest predictor of how often a name is remembered and typed correctly. Shorter names are also scarcer, which is why they are priced higher. The tradeoff is roughly as follows; treat the figures as bands, not quotes, because aftermarket pricing moves and depends on the specific word.
| Length | What lives in this band | Expected recall | Typical cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 to 4 characters | Abbreviations and very short strings, mostly held by investors or large companies. | Highest recall, almost no typing errors. | Almost always premium, often five figures or more. |
| 5 to 6 characters | Compact brandables and pronounceable invented words. | Very high. | Premium; commonly mid four to low five figures. |
| 7 to 9 characters | The practical sweet spot for most startups. | High. | Hand registration up to low four figures for a strong one. |
| 10 to 12 characters | Two-word brandables and compound names. | Moderate; errors begin to appear. | Usually registration price, occasionally a small premium. |
| 13 characters and over | Descriptive phrases and keyword mashups. | Drops sharply in speech, ads, and search. | Registration price, but a cheap name that needs spelling help is not cheap. |
What to do when the .com is already taken
This is the normal case, not the exception. Short .com names have been registered for decades, and the good ones are held by businesses or investors. You have three honest options.
Rename around the collision
Choose this when the existing .com belongs to an active company in a related field. Adjust the root word rather than the extension, then re-run the four tests.
Use an alternate extension
If the product is an app, a developer tool, or a professional service, an extension such as .app, .dev, or .pro can carry the brand on its own while you also own the .com as a redirect if it is ever available. Where the extension describes the product, it does part of your explaining for you. Browse brandable domains by category to see what is available in each.
Buy the .com
Possible, but usually the slowest and most expensive route, and rarely rational before the product is proven. Make an approach only after clearing the trademark.
What a domain costs, and why a premium name is a one-time asset
An unclaimed domain is inexpensive to register, typically in the low tens of dollars per year, and renews at a similar rate depending on the extension. A premium brandable name is a different transaction. Most short brandable names in this market typically fall between roughly five thousand and twenty-five thousand dollars, with genuinely short dictionary words well above that. Treat any figure you see as an asking price, not a valuation.
The reason to think in one-time terms is that a name behaves more like a brand asset than a subscription. It is bought once and used for years, and unlike advertising spend its cost does not repeat monthly. The useful comparison is not "domain versus a monthly tool," it is "this name versus the cost of explaining a weaker one for the life of the company." A short, ownable name compounds through word of mouth; a name that needs spelling help taxes every conversation. Before paying a premium, the valuation tool and the brandability analyzer score candidates on the same criteria, so you can compare two options on one scale.
Expensive mistakes founders make
- Buying before clearing the trademark. The domain is cheap and the lawsuit is not. Clearance comes first, and this mistake is the hardest to undo because money has already changed hands.
- Choosing a name that needs spelling. Every time a customer has to ask, you lose a visit or a sale, and the cost is invisible.
- Hyphenated keyword mashups. Names like best-cheap-accounting-tools describe a category rather than a company, are difficult to trademark, and cap you to the keyword you chose.
- Waiting until after launch. Changing a name means new signage, new email, new bank records, lost links, and confused customers. The domain was never the expensive part.
Closing checklist
- Twenty or more candidates written down, then reduced to three.
- All three pass say-it-once, spell-from-memory, and one-word tests.
- Length target set, with a preference for seven to nine characters.
- Trademark search done in your class of goods and services.
- Social handles checked on the platforms you will actually use.
- Extension chosen, with the reasoning written down, not defaulted to .com.
- Matching domain and one redirect purchased, locked, and secured with two-factor authentication.
Work through that list in one sitting if you can. The cost of the process is an afternoon; the cost of skipping it is a rename at the worst possible moment.