In short:
There’s strong marketing and perception reasons to have the .com of your brand, but it’s not always an option, or the only way
There’s alternatives to .com, whether it’s using common prefixes/suffixes to get the .com, or an alternative top level domain (TLD)
Friend founder Avi Schiffman recently made waves on X after casually answering a question about how much they had paid for friend.com with “1.8 million”.
Schiffman later clarified the fee is on a payment plan rather than a lump sum, which makes a lot more sense for a capital intensive hardware startup which has raised $2.5 million (according to TechCrunch).
With all that said, unless you’ve got VC funding (or, even better, a very successful cash generating business) behind you, you’re unlikely to get a domain like friend.com.
So what’s the alternative?
A common solution is using a prefix like get, or a suffix like hq, in order to secure a .com.
Software companies which launched with a .com hack
asanahq.com, then asana.com
basecamphq.com, then basecamp.com
bufferapp.com, then buffer.com
getclicky.com, then clicky.com
getdropbox.com, then dropbox.com
getharvest.com, then harvest.com
getpocket.com, then pocket.com
twttr.com, then twitter.com (then x.com)
Then there’s the growing list of alternative TLDs. At the time of writing, there are 1,592 TLDs listed on the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) Root Zone Database.
Technology and software companies have it easy compared to other fields, with TLDs like .ai, .app, and .io being sound choices to build a brand on.
Software companies using alternative TLDs
Andrew Allemann at DomainNameWire said:
I see this a lot at my PodcastGuests.com service. People choose domains like .show and .live for their podcast websites. I spoke to a podcast company the other day that uses a .audio domain. When I searched for virtual event companies this month, I saw domains ending in .events and .live.
Even if you do launch a successful brand with a hack or an alternative TLD, you might end up going for the brand .com once the war chest is sufficient. Sean Hammons, founder of Clicky, said in a blog post regarding the switch from getclicky.com to clicky.com:
We paid a pretty freaking penny for clicky.com, but the second it was in our possession was just pure unadulterated joy.