DEV Community: Eddie Dev

.com vs .ai vs .io — which extension actually helps you in 2026

Eddie Dev — Fri, 19 Jun 2026 15:43:38 +0000

You can ship a great SaaS on any of them.

But .com is still the default, .ai is the sharpest positioning weapon, and .io is the dev‑tool uniform.

I’ve spent too long in the domain mines. I built NameBuddy.ai after the 10th time a “perfect” name generator cheerfully suggested domains already taken. So let’s skip the vibes and look at what actually helps you in 2026.

The only question that matters

You’re not picking a religion.

You’re answering one question:

“If a stranger sees this domain for 3 seconds on X or in the SERP, what do they instantly assume about my product?”

Your extension is a positioning primitive.

Not a ranking factor. Not a growth hack.

So let’s break it down.

.com — default, boring, and still unfairly strong

Facts first:

.com has ~163.6M registrations in 2026, about 8× larger than its closest generic competitor.Most popular domain extensions
Experiments in 2025–26 show .com domains are ~33% more memorable and score the highest trust vs other TLDs.What is .com domain Domain extension guide

That size and familiarity create three real advantages:

Default mental model

When people hear “Acme,” they still try acme.com first.

If you’re on .ai or .io, you will leak some type‑in traffic.
Broad trust

Non‑technical buyers, enterprise folks, and older demographics read .com as “real company.”

This still matters if you’re selling into boring industries.
Cheapest sanity

Typical price: ~$10–$20/year on most registrars.Most popular TLDs

For most indie hackers, that’s “don’t think about it” money.

When .com helps you most:

You’re building a general SaaS, not specifically AI or dev‑tool.
Your main traffic will be word of mouth and referrals.
You plan to sell or raise from people who live in Google Sheets, not GitHub.

In 2026, a lot of guidance still says:

“Start with .com if available; deviate only when the alternative materially strengthens your brand.”What is .com domain Most popular TLDs

That advice is boring. It’s also mostly right.

.ai — you’re declaring “this is an AI product”

Reality check:

.ai passed 1M registrations in Jan 2026, growing about 1% per week, making it one of the fastest‑growing non‑legacy TLDs.Most popular domain extensions
Industry reports now treat .ai as a premium, serious, tech‑forward signal.Domain name market trends What is .com domain
Price: $74.90 for 2 years minimum (effectively $37+/year) and often more for short names.AI TLD info

So why pay 3–4× .com pricing?

Because for anything AI‑native, “.ai” is copywriting baked into your URL:

loop.ai instantly reads as “AI product.”
loopapp.com could be anything from a to‑do list to a fitness tracker.

In practice, .ai helps when:

The product is useless without AI (agents, copilots, LLM infra, etc.).
You’re selling to founders, engineers, or AI‑curious users who already associate .ai with legitimacy.
You’re early, shipping fast, and don’t want to waste days hunting a clean .com.

Market behavior backs this up: newer gTLDs like .ai, .store, .shop grew ~29.9% YoY into 2025–26, while .com + .net only grew ~2.6%.Most popular TLDs Domain name market trends

The growth and energy are in the alternatives.

Downside: if AI becomes “just plumbing,” .ai will feel less special. But in 2026, it still carries clear positioning and social proof for AI products.

.io — dev‑tool chic with an invoice

Quick reality:

In tech circles, .io strongly signals “startup / dev / SaaS”.What is .io domain
Typical pricing is ~$60–$100/year on many registrars.What is .io domain Most popular TLDs

Within dev and startup culture, .io means:

“We build tools, infra, APIs, dashboards.”
“We are developer‑first.”
“We weren’t trying to look like a bank.”

It’s especially strong when your market is developers:

shiplogs.io → dev‑tool or infra, no confusion.
Great for CLI tools, SDKs, observability, hosting, infra SaaS.

Like .ai, .io is a branding choice, not a technical one.

Functionally, Google treats .com, .ai, and .io all as generic TLDs, with no direct ranking boost for any of them.What is .com domain AI TLD info Most popular TLDs

Any SEO advantage is indirect: click‑through rate, links, user trust.

The real tradeoff is cost and leakage:

Higher annual burn than .com.
Some users will still default to .com out of habit.

So which one “helps” you in 2026?

Here’s the blunt version:

If you’re building AI‑native product and your users are tech‑savvy →

Choose .ai if you can get a short, sharp name. It earns you context in 3 characters.
If you’re building general SaaS, B2B workflow, or anything for normies →

Choose .com whenever you can get something not‑embarrassing. It leaks less and converts more simply because people understand it.
If you’re building infra, dev‑tool, API, or something only engineers touch →

.io or .ai are both strong; pick the one that matches the story:

“Hardcore dev stack” (.io) vs “AI‑powered engine” (.ai).

And beneath all of that:

A sharp name on the “wrong” TLD beats a clunky name on the “right” one.

Pragmatic playbook for founders

Use this and move on:

Search your exact brand on .com, .ai, .io.

If you want to skip manual checks, NameBuddy.ai and similar tools can automate the verification step and kill obviously dead names fast.
If exact .com is available and not terrible → buy it.

You can still run product on .ai or .io and keep .com as your future umbrella or redirect.
If .com is taken but .ai/.io are clean → decide based on positioning:
- AI‑heavy, model‑centric → .ai
- Dev‑tool, infra, SDK → .io
Don’t overpay early.

Spending 5k on a domain when you have 0 MRR is ego, not strategy. Get something good‑enough, ship, and you can upgrade later once you have proof of life.
Remember: traffic solves naming.

Once you have real users, they’ll Google you, not guess your TLD.

In 2026, the domain extension doesn’t make your startup — but it does whisper a story before you say a word. Choose the story on purpose.

How to actually name a SaaS startup in 2026 — a practical 40-minute method

Eddie Dev — Fri, 19 Jun 2026 15:41:14 +0000

You don’t have a naming problem.

You have a 40‑minute decision problem.

Here’s a practical, timer-based method to name your SaaS in 2026, without spiraling into a 3‑week Notion rabbit hole.

Ground rules for 2026

A few constraints you can’t ignore:

.com is crowded. There are around 157 million .com domains registered globally as of 2026, so the obvious one-word .com you want is almost certainly taken or expensive.What is .com domain
Domains cost real, recurring money. Typical 2026 guides put standard TLDs at about $10–18/year to register and $14–20/year to renew for .com, and $12–18 / $14–20 for .net/.org.Domain name statistics How much does a domain name cost?
Good .coms are often not $10. Clean, short, brandable .com resales routinely land in three to five figures, which is why many early SaaS founders default to modified names or non-.com extensions.How much does a domain name cost?
AI-era TLDs are legit now. Investors report 69% positive sentiment toward .ai and 64% toward .io, so those are no longer “hacky” domains; they read like normal startup brands.A look at who invests in domain names
.ai is basically a global startup extension. It’s widely described as a “global AI branding extension” and used by SaaS far beyond Anguilla now..ai TLD explainer
The domain space is huge. Roughly 386.9 million domains were registered worldwide by end of 2025, up ~6.2% YoY.Most popular TLDs Your first idea is probably used somewhere.
Prices are drifting up, not down. ICANN raised its per-domain fee from $0.18 to $0.20 in mid‑2025, and that cost is now baked into 2026 retail pricing.Domain name market trends

So: stop hunting for a perfect single-word .com at $12. Optimize for speed and defensibility, not romance.

Set a timer for 40 minutes. Follow this.

Minute 0–5: Positioning, not poetry

Open a blank doc.

In 5 minutes, write three bullets:

Who you’re for (ICP in one line).
What painful outcome you fix.
What “shape” of product you are (API, analytics tool, ops dashboard, CRM, etc.).

Example:

For: data‑savvy marketers at B2B SaaS.
Pain: wasted ad spend from bad attribution.
Shape: AI analytics dashboard.

This is your naming brief.

You are not naming “an AI thing.” You’re naming a fix for a specific problem, for a specific person.

Minute 5–15: Brutal idea generation (no editing)

Goal: 40–60 name candidates, not 5 “perfect” ones.

Mechanics:

Make 2 quick word lists:
- Verbs: measure, track, predict, clean, sync, route, guard…
- Nouns: signal, ledger, loop, orbit, stack, hive, pulse, grid…
Do fast combinations and mutations:
- Compounds: SignalStack, RouteGrid, PulseLoop.
- Tweaks: Segmora, Orbitry, Attuneo.
- Short phrases you can compress: “Clean Metrics” → Cleantrix.

Rules:

No judging. If it’s not obviously offensive or generic like “AI Software Inc”, it stays.
Don’t check domains yet. Context switching kills volume.
Bias toward:
- Easy to say
- Easy to spell after hearing once
- Doesn’t pin you to a single feature

You’re generating raw material, not winners.

Minute 15–25: Domain triage like an adult

Now you filter against reality.

Remember the numbers: standard .com/.net/.org will run you roughly $10–18 to register and $14–20 to renew, and that’s before you even touch premiums.Domain name statistics How much does a domain name cost?

Practical passes:

Exact .com check.
- If exact .com is available at normal pricing, star it.
- If it’s clearly a premium in the 4–5 figure range and you’re pre‑revenue, move on.
Smart variations if .com is gone.

Use clean, intuitive modifiers, not desperate ones:
- use[name].com
- try[name].com
- get[name].com
- [name]hq.com If all you can get is “my‑awesome‑ai‑solution‑123.com”, kill the name.
Plan B TLDs.

Because .ai and .io now have strong positive sentiment and are seen as credible, premium startup brands, don’t be afraid to choose a better name on .ai or .io over a wrecked .com.A look at who invests in domain names .ai TLD explainer

You want 5–10 candidates that:

Have some reasonable domain option (.com/.ai/.io + clean modifier).
Don’t look like a spam site or MFA blog.

Minute 25–30: Sanity + conflict checks

This is where most “move fast” founders get sued later.

Two quick passes:

Google + marketplaces search.
- Search "YourName" + software, "YourName" + app.
- Also check obvious places: GitHub, Product Hunt, maybe LinkedIn.
- If there’s another SaaS with a close name in your category, kill it.
Basic trademark risk pass.

Legal content is clear: trademark disputes often start from customer confusion when two companies use similar names or logos in the same market.Trademark disputes clip
- Search your name plus “®” and “™” in your main jurisdictions.
- If you see a very similar mark in your vertical, especially in SaaS, don’t be clever. Pick another.

You’re not doing a full attorney search right now. You’re weeding out landmines.

Minute 30–35: Human radio test

If a name fails here, it dies.

For each of your remaining 3–5:

Say it out loud as if you’re on a podcast.
Send a quick voice note or message to 2–3 friends or users: “What did you hear? Can you spell it?”
Ask one question: “What do you think this company does from the name alone?”

You’re looking for:

They can spell it after hearing it once.
They don’t confuse it with a common word or competitor.
Their guess is at least in the same galaxy as your actual product.

Anything that requires a TED talk to explain is out.

Minute 35–38: Decide like a founder, not a poet

Pick one default winner and one backup.

Tie-breakers:

Slightly worse name + clean domain beats “perfect” name with ugly domain.
Names that can stretch with you win. Don’t name it “CSVFixer” if you know you’ll be a full data platform in 18 months.
If you’re debating between .com with a clumsy prefix and a clean .ai, remember: .ai is now a mainstream global SaaS extension, not a stunt..ai TLD explainer

You have 2 minutes. Decide.

Minute 38–40: Lock it in (and protect your downside)

Do three things immediately:

Buy the domain.

Budget in your head: $10–20/year for standard domains, with slightly higher renewals, plus the knowledge that ICANN’s small fee hike is already priced in.Domain name statistics Domain name market trends
Grab the handles.

Lock down X, LinkedIn, maybe GitHub. You don’t need TikTok yet, but you do need consistency.
Note your legal plan.

Common hack: use a plain LLC/Ltd name and a different public trading name. Legal guidance still frames using a different trading name as acceptable as long as it doesn’t mislead and meets disclosure rules.Using a trading name

Then schedule a real trademark search with counsel once you have traction.

If you want to skip some of the grunt verification in the future, I built NameBuddy.ai to auto‑check domains and basic conflicts while I’m still in the brainstorming flow, so I don’t context switch a dozen times mid‑list.

You don’t need the “perfect” name.

You need a good, defendable one that lets you get back to shipping.

How to actually name a SaaS startup in 2026 — a practical 40-minute method

Eddie Dev — Fri, 19 Jun 2026 15:13:30 +0000

You don’t have a naming problem.

You have a 40‑minute decision problem.

Here’s a practical, timer-based method to name your SaaS in 2026, without spiraling into a 3‑week Notion rabbit hole.

Ground rules for 2026

A few constraints you can’t ignore:

.com is crowded. There are around 157 million .com domains registered globally as of 2026, so the obvious one-word .com you want is almost certainly taken or expensive.What is .com domain
Domains cost real, recurring money. Typical 2026 guides put standard TLDs at about $10–18/year to register and $14–20/year to renew for .com, and $12–18 / $14–20 for .net/.org.Domain name statistics How much does a domain name cost?
Good .coms are often not $10. Clean, short, brandable .com resales routinely land in three to five figures, which is why many early SaaS founders default to modified names or non-.com extensions.How much does a domain name cost?
AI-era TLDs are legit now. Investors report 69% positive sentiment toward .ai and 64% toward .io, so those are no longer “hacky” domains; they read like normal startup brands.A look at who invests in domain names
.ai is basically a global startup extension. It’s widely described as a “global AI branding extension” and used by SaaS far beyond Anguilla now..ai TLD explainer
The domain space is huge. Roughly 386.9 million domains were registered worldwide by end of 2025, up ~6.2% YoY.Most popular TLDs Your first idea is probably used somewhere.
Prices are drifting up, not down. ICANN raised its per-domain fee from $0.18 to $0.20 in mid‑2025, and that cost is now baked into 2026 retail pricing.Domain name market trends

So: stop hunting for a perfect single-word .com at $12. Optimize for speed and defensibility, not romance.

Set a timer for 40 minutes. Follow this.

Minute 0–5: Positioning, not poetry

Open a blank doc.

In 5 minutes, write three bullets:

Who you’re for (ICP in one line).
What painful outcome you fix.
What “shape” of product you are (API, analytics tool, ops dashboard, CRM, etc.).

Example:

For: data‑savvy marketers at B2B SaaS.
Pain: wasted ad spend from bad attribution.
Shape: AI analytics dashboard.

This is your naming brief.

You are not naming “an AI thing.” You’re naming a fix for a specific problem, for a specific person.

Minute 5–15: Brutal idea generation (no editing)

Goal: 40–60 name candidates, not 5 “perfect” ones.

Mechanics:

Make 2 quick word lists:
- Verbs: measure, track, predict, clean, sync, route, guard…
- Nouns: signal, ledger, loop, orbit, stack, hive, pulse, grid…
Do fast combinations and mutations:
- Compounds: SignalStack, RouteGrid, PulseLoop.
- Tweaks: Segmora, Orbitry, Attuneo.
- Short phrases you can compress: “Clean Metrics” → Cleantrix.

Rules:

No judging. If it’s not obviously offensive or generic like “AI Software Inc”, it stays.
Don’t check domains yet. Context switching kills volume.
Bias toward:
- Easy to say
- Easy to spell after hearing once
- Doesn’t pin you to a single feature

You’re generating raw material, not winners.

Minute 15–25: Domain triage like an adult

Now you filter against reality.

Practical passes:

Exact .com check.
- If exact .com is available at normal pricing, star it.
- If it’s clearly a premium in the 4–5 figure range and you’re pre‑revenue, move on.
Smart variations if .com is gone.

Use clean, intuitive modifiers, not desperate ones:
- use[name].com
- try[name].com
- get[name].com
- [name]hq.com If all you can get is “my‑awesome‑ai‑solution‑123.com”, kill the name.
Plan B TLDs.

Because .ai and .io now have strong positive sentiment and are seen as credible, premium startup brands, don’t be afraid to choose a better name on .ai or .io over a wrecked .com.A look at who invests in domain names .ai TLD explainer

You want 5–10 candidates that:

Have some reasonable domain option (.com/.ai/.io + clean modifier).
Don’t look like a spam site or MFA blog.

Minute 25–30: Sanity + conflict checks

This is where most “move fast” founders get sued later.

Two quick passes:

Google + marketplaces search.
- Search "YourName" + software, "YourName" + app.
- Also check obvious places: GitHub, Product Hunt, maybe LinkedIn.
- If there’s another SaaS with a close name in your category, kill it.
Basic trademark risk pass.

Legal content is clear: trademark disputes often start from customer confusion when two companies use similar names or logos in the same market.Trademark disputes clip
- Search your name plus “®” and “™” in your main jurisdictions.
- If you see a very similar mark in your vertical, especially in SaaS, don’t be clever. Pick another.

You’re not doing a full attorney search right now. You’re weeding out landmines.

Minute 30–35: Human radio test

If a name fails here, it dies.

For each of your remaining 3–5:

Say it out loud as if you’re on a podcast.
Send a quick voice note or message to 2–3 friends or users: “What did you hear? Can you spell it?”
Ask one question: “What do you think this company does from the name alone?”

You’re looking for:

They can spell it after hearing it once.
They don’t confuse it with a common word or competitor.
Their guess is at least in the same galaxy as your actual product.

Anything that requires a TED talk to explain is out.

Minute 35–38: Decide like a founder, not a poet

Pick one default winner and one backup.

Tie-breakers:

Slightly worse name + clean domain beats “perfect” name with ugly domain.
Names that can stretch with you win. Don’t name it “CSVFixer” if you know you’ll be a full data platform in 18 months.
If you’re debating between .com with a clumsy prefix and a clean .ai, remember: .ai is now a mainstream global SaaS extension, not a stunt..ai TLD explainer

You have 2 minutes. Decide.

Minute 38–40: Lock it in (and protect your downside)

Do three things immediately:

Buy the domain.

Budget in your head: $10–20/year for standard domains, with slightly higher renewals, plus the knowledge that ICANN’s small fee hike is already priced in.Domain name statistics Domain name market trends
Grab the handles.

Lock down X, LinkedIn, maybe GitHub. You don’t need TikTok yet, but you do need consistency.
Note your legal plan.

Common hack: use a plain LLC/Ltd name and a different public trading name. Legal guidance still frames using a different trading name as acceptable as long as it doesn’t mislead and meets disclosure rules.Using a trading name

Then schedule a real trademark search with counsel once you have traction.

You don’t need the “perfect” name.

You need a good, defendable one that lets you get back to shipping.

The 25 best AI domain name generators for 2026 (and how they actually compare)

Eddie Dev — Fri, 19 Jun 2026 15:10:20 +0000

Your domain name is a UX decision disguised as marketing.

Pick a bad one and you’ll bleed clicks, trust, and referral traffic for years.

I’ve burned weeks on naming rabbit holes. I eventually built NameBuddy.ai to keep myself from shipping yet another getsomethingnow.app clone. But you don’t need my stack. You need a fast, opinionated way to choose the right AI domain generator for your next SaaS or AI tool.

Here’s how 25 of the best options stack up in 2026 — and which ones are actually worth a founder’s time.

The “get it done today” workhorses

These are the tools you use when you want less browsing, more buying.

1. Hostinger AI Domain Name Generator — default choice for most

Hostinger’s AI generator covers 400+ TLDs and shows live pricing beside each suggestion, with one‑click registration into their registrar flow.Hostinger That matters: you see right away that yourai.dev is cheap while yourai.com renews at a premium.

Typical .com promos sit in the $1.99–$2.99 first‑year range in 2026, then renew at standard rates.Hostinger For most indie projects, that’s an easy yes. The real win: you go from prompt → suggestion → checkout in one flow, without bouncing across tabs.

Use this when:

You care about cost and TLD choice.
You want to register right now and move on to building.

2. BigIdeasDB Free AI Domain Name Generator — quick idea shotgun

BigIdeasDB fires back 12+ brandable domains per prompt and runs live availability across .com, .io, .ai, .co, .app and similar startup TLDs, with no sign‑up.BigIdeasDB

It’s a good “first pass” tool:

Throw in 3–4 keywords.
Grab a few patterns you like.
Then refine elsewhere if needed.

Use this when:

You’re still at “vibe” level, not final decision.
You want to know if any clean .com/.io/.ai is left without logging in.

3. Instant Domain Search — for impatient founders

Instant Domain Search streams AI suggestions in real time as you type, mixing synonyms and niche‑specific terms with live WHOIS/availability so you can register instantly.Hostinger

Strengths:

Speed: feels like a REPL for domain names.
Great when you already have a rough name pattern.

Weakness:

Less context about branding; it optimizes for “available now,” not “perfect story.”

Use this when:

You already have a name like “SentryLoop” and just need to find the cleanest TLD variant fast.

Power user tools when you want leverage, not just options

4. NameStation — the “Linux distro” of domain generators

NameStation ships 17 specialized domain name generators plus support for 471 domain extensions, more than most competitors.Hostinger

Distinctives:

Niche generators (e.g., for compound words, blends, keyword‑rich domains).
Crowdsourced feedback and naming contests if you want outside opinions.

Use this when:

You’re picky and willing to iterate.
You care about non‑obvious TLDs or regional domains.

5. Namemesh — for SEO‑minded founders

Namemesh leans into SEO‑focused AI suggestions.Hostinger

You plug in 2+ keywords and it groups results into buckets like:

Common — straightforward, brand‑adjacent.
Premium — rarer, often pricier.
SEO — keyword‑heavy options for long‑tail search.
Short — compact names.
Country‑specific — localized ccTLD ideas.

Use this when:

You’re building content or programmatic SEO and want the domain to pull its weight.
You want to see, explicitly, the tradeoff between “brandable” and “keyword‑rich.”

Brand kits in a box

Sometimes you’re not just naming a domain; you’re naming a company.

6. Looka — full branding in one sitting

Looka is a branding‑suite generator, not just a domain search box.Hostinger

In one workflow you can:

Generate a business name.
Check domain availability.
Spin up logo concepts.
Check social handles.
Run a basic trademark check.

Use this when:

You want to walk away from a single session with “brand, logo, domain” locked.
You’re mixing productized services (agencies, studios) with SaaS.

7. GoDaddy AI business name generator — small‑business assembly line

GoDaddy bundles an AI business name generator with its AI website builder, logo maker, and content tools.TechRadar AppyPie

Site plans run around $10.99+/mo in 2026 website‑builder rankings, which makes it more of a fast setup stack than a pure naming toy.TechRadar AppyPie

Use this when:

You’re helping a non‑technical client.
You want “name → domain → website → logo” in one non‑scary UI.

Other generators worth a quick spin

These don’t need essays, but they’re in my rotation:

Network Solutions AI — enterprise‑oriented, lots of extensions and integrated registration, often called out in 2026 “best of” lists for corporate naming.Yahoo Finance
Namelix — great for short, brandable names with logo suggestions; ideal for consumer apps and tools.Namelix
DomainsGPT — AI‑heavy suggestions tuned for memorability.DomainsGPT
Squarespace Domains AI — similar to GoDaddy’s flow: describe your project, browse AI‑generated options with prices, then register inside Squarespace.Squarespace

Round those out with a handful of niche tools you’ll find in 2026 review posts, and you easily get to a “top 25” list. But the pattern is the same: some optimize for speed, some for SEO, some for brand kits, some for extension depth.

How to actually pick a tool (and a name)

Forget the list for a moment. Start from constraints:

If your priority is cheap + fast checkout → start with Hostinger, then Instant Domain Search.
If your priority is SEO → start with Namemesh, validate with a content plan.
If your priority is brand storytelling → start with Looka or Namelix, then sanity‑check availability.
If your priority is weird TLDs or global scope → start with NameStation, then confirm with your registrar.

My own workflow these days:

Use BigIdeasDB to rough‑out themes.
Run the best ones through Hostinger to see real prices and alternate TLDs.
Stress‑test the finalists with a couple of friends and a “radio test” (say it out loud, have them spell it back).

If you want to skip the “is this even available?” dance entirely, NameBuddy.ai automates the verification step so you spend your time evaluating good names, not chasing dead ones.

Because the real goal isn’t to “generate 500 ideas.”

The real goal is to buy one domain today that you’ll still be proud to say out loud in five years.

I spent 45 minutes typing names into Namecheap so you don't have to

Eddie Dev — Fri, 19 Jun 2026 15:01:26 +0000

I spent 45 minutes typing names into Namecheap so you don't have to

You know the loop.

You have an idea. You open Namelix, type three words, get a list of names. Half of them look like CVS pharmacy brands. You pick the three you actually like, switch to Namecheap, and start typing.

Taken. Taken. Taken. Taken. Taken.

Pivot to .io. Taken. Taken. Pivot to .ai. Taken at $4,500 / year.

Forty-five minutes later you've registered something with two extra syllables and a number in it, and you tell yourself it's fine.

That's the loop I built NameBuddy.ai to break.

The bug in every other AI naming tool

Every AI domain generator I tried has the same architecture:

LLM generates 30 names from your prompt
Tool shows you all 30
You click each one to check availability — usually via the registrar's affiliate link, because that's how they get paid

The first two steps are easy. The third one is where 90% of those names die. The "creative .com" the AI just invented? Some domain investor squatted it in 2014.

So you're spending your evening clicking through names that were never going to work.

The fix is unglamorous

NameBuddy.ai does one extra step before showing you anything:

For every name the LLM generates, we hit the registry's RDAP endpoint directly. Not the registrar's search box. Not a sales feed. The authoritative registry record that says whether the domain exists.

If it's taken, we don't show it. Full stop.

The result is what looks like a shorter list — because it IS shorter — but every single name on it is registrable right now, at the registrar of your choice, at the published price.

The trick is making this fast enough that it feels like normal generation. We stream the verified names as they come back, so you start seeing options in ~2 seconds even though we're checking dozens in parallel.

Why it's free, and why it's going to stay free

Here's the part that always gets a raised eyebrow:

We don't take affiliate cash from registrars.

Most "free" naming tools earn $5-15 every time you click through to register at GoDaddy or whoever. That sounds harmless until you realize it shapes the entire product:

They'd rather show you names available at expensive registrars
They'd rather suggest .ai (the registrar margins are fatter) than .com
They'd rather you register today than think tomorrow

We earn nothing from your pick. Register at Cloudflare for $9. Register at Porkbun. Don't register at all and come back next month. We don't care. We don't even know.

That's not generosity — it's the only way I could think of to make a tool I'd actually trust if someone else built it.

What's in v1

AI-generated names from a one-line project description
Real-time RDAP verification — never shows taken names
Five TLDs simultaneously: .ai .com .io .app .net
Live-streamed results — verified names appear as they're found
Sign in with Google → every search saves to your history with shareable links

What's not in v1:

Logo generation (you don't need a logo to test a name)
Trademark check (you should still check USPTO yourself before betting on it)
Bulk export (coming if anyone asks)

A naming heuristic I keep coming back to

The best startup names I've seen are usually one of two things:

An invented word that sounds like English — Spotify, Zalando, Twilio
A real word slightly out of context — Apple, Stripe, Patreon

The ones that fail are the literal compounds: "AppGenie", "BrandifyAI", "FlexHubPro." If you can write your tagline by removing two syllables from the name, the name is doing the tagline's job badly.

NameBuddy.ai biases toward the first two — partly because I think they're better, partly because they're the names everyone else's generator can't find since they're invented.

Try it

namebuddy.ai

Type one sentence. Get 10 names that are actually available. Pick one, register it wherever, never give me a cent.

If you want to nerd out on which AI registrar is cheapest right now, the .com vs .ai breakdown covers it. The registrar comparison covers the rest.

Feedback welcome — reply here or hit me on the site. The whole point is making the loop shorter.