Ask HN: .io vs .ai for a startup? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: .io vs .ai for a startup?

6 pointsgenevpd17 comments

.com is taken, both .io and .ai are available.

Would you pick .io or .ai for a business app where ML/AI is major value proposition?

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None, leave it and find an available .com

Today .com is a serious asset. It it's taken, buy it as soon as you raise money.

Investors won't protest if you buy a $XXX asset that might not loose value if everything goes bad.

.io is becoming increasingly popular amongst startups.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/christophersteiner/2017/05/03/m...

I would go for the .io TLD myself.

It sounds like the .io TLD is very poorly managed, what with people being able to take over the nameservers. https://hackernoon.com/stop-using-io-domain-names-for-produc...

Agreed good advice that came from this was to host anything important (API) on www.

I would go for .ai because thats the core feature. domain with .ai gives away your core offering (i.e. ML/Al) and you would have customer attention from the very beginning. According to me, it also adds credibility and legitimacy in a subtle way which goes a long way in lead conversion.

I would personally get both: you want the .ai, because that's your niche, and add on the .io given that it isn't very expensive at $32.88/year.

I would go with .io and .ai is not bad neither

I would only get .io or .ai if the .com is taken but can be bought. Otherwise add a word to take the .com.

Doesn’t matter at all but “AI” is still in the buzz cycle might as well hop on board.

Either is going to be fine honestly.

I agree with the others in that I would choose .io

Which domain registrar would you recommend?

I like HexoNet (https://www.hexonet.net/) and NameCheap (https://www.namecheap.com/) and pick the one that has the lower price for the TLD that I'm interested in.

In this case, HexoNet has .ai for $80/year, and NameCheap has the .io TLD for $32.88/year.

.ai is the new .io

buy both

Several people suggested to buy both, in that case, which one you will make primary and other for redirect?

Don't redirect. Just setup the same site with the same content and see what happens / converts better / etc.

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