Recently published data shows that .com domains remain dominant, but stronger performance among alternative extensions suggests businesses have <a href="https://bitcomme.com/a-better-way-for-families-to-use-chatgpt-for-teens/” title=”A better way for families to use ChatGPT for teens”>better options. The results show which domain extensions are gaining ground and may indicate that .com’s dominance is starting to wane.
Dot Com Remains Important But Is Weakening
The report was generated by Wix, which is also a domain name registrar and the data covers domain names from 2025 through 2026.
Perhaps not surprising, Wix’s analysis shows that 82% of Wix sites in the United States use .com for their websites. Wix says people are 13 times more likely to use a .com domain name than any other extension.
Dot com has always been considered the most trustworthy domain name extension and it’s certainly what many consumers expect when they go shopping. But Wix’s analysis shows that consumers expectations may be changing.
Wix’s data shows that dot com domain names dominate in 10 countries:
- Brazil
- India
- Japan
- Kenya
- Mexico
- South Africa
- Spain
- Turkey
- Ukraine
- United States of America
Wix also found that local extensions beat .com domain registrations in Germany, the Netherlands, and Switzerland. The data also shows that in Australia (.com.au), Canada (.ca), France (.fr), and Great Britain (.co.uk) there is a more even split between local domain name extensions and .com.
Geographically specific domain names have long been trusted by users in individual countries, this is a longstanding understanding. But Wix’s data shows that this may be changing as more and more businesses are adopting dot com domains instead of their local domain extensions.
Dot Org Revenue And Traffic Performance
The most surprising information Wix surfaced is that dot org websites are 34% more likely to generate ecommerce revenue than dot com sites. Wix also found that .org sites receive 3% more site sessions than .com sites.
In my experience, having successfully used .org websites for publishing content, site visitors tend to trust the .org domain. It’s certainly my experience that it’s easier to acquire links to them as well.
Rise Of Dot Store Domains
Another interesting data point is that ecommerce sites using .store domains earn 10% more revenue than .com sites. Wix also found that .store websites earn two times more revenue than .shop or .net sites.
Ecommerce sites appear to be rushing to buy these alternative domain extensions. Registrations of .store, .online, and .shop domains doubled within the first five months of 2026, from January to May 2026.
Dot AI And IO
Perhaps a reflection of the rise of AI-powered solopreneurs in the software and technology space, Wix noticed that .ai domain registrations increased 20% from January to May 2026, becoming the 10th most popular domain extension in Wix’s data. Registration of .io domains increased a whopping 32x in May 2026.
In computing, IO is shorthand for input/output, reflecting how computers receive data and output it. That basic computing paradigm is why .io has become a highly popular domain extension for tech companies to register. Given how popular .io has become, it may be gaining association with technology companies and less so with the original input/output word association.
Defensive Domain Name Registration
Many businesses are happy with the domains that they have. But something that should be considered is purchasing domain names for defensive reasons. Is it enough to own the dot com or dot AI variant of your domain? One point of view that I agree with is that it may be useful to purchase non-brand domain names that a future competitor may want to register. For example, a brand may have their brand name domains locked down but what about non-brand domains that are focused on important keywords, are you comfortable if a competitor picks those up?
The results of Wix’s domain name research provides useful insights to consider of what kinds of top level domains are trending and how well they perform in the real world.
Takeaways
- .Com remains dominant, but its position is not absolute. It is still overwhelmingly popular in the U.S. and leads in many countries, although local extensions remain stronger in some markets.
- Alternative domain extensions are showing stronger performance in some cases. .org sites are more likely to generate ecommerce revenue than .com sites, while .store sites also outperform .com, .shop, and .net on revenue.
- Businesses are adopting specialized domain extensions more quickly. Registrations of .store, .online, and .shop doubled in the first five months of 2026, suggesting growing acceptance of alternatives to .com.
- Technology-focused extensions are growing rapidly. .ai registrations increased 20%, while .io registrations surged 32x in May, reflecting strong demand around AI, software, and technology businesses.
- Domain strategy may be becoming more important beyond simply securing a brand’s .com. Defensive domain name registration can extend beyond protecting a brand name and extend toward securing non-brand domains in increasingly important domain extensions that others are finding success with, as well as those based on important keywords.
Dot com domain names remain dominant, but the data shows that alternative domain extensions are not only getting registered at a faster pace, they are actually outperforming the traditional dot com domain names. That doesn’t mean that alternative domain name extensions are inherently better but it does signal that consumers are comfortable visiting and paying for services and products on domain names other than on the traditional dot com website.
Wix found that in some cases alternative domain extensions were outperforming .com on both revenue and traffic. The growth of .store, .ai, and .io also shows that businesses are becoming more willing to use domain extensions that signal what kind of company or website they are and that consumers are comfortable with those domain names. The big takeaway here is that consumers and businesses are well into a new age of domain name choices.
Read the full report at Wix, which is a domain name registrar.
Featured Image by /RerF_Studio
