Buy highly priced domain or rebrand?

I've been over this dilemma multiple times.

For me, what would matter is the status of the name, and not the domain. You say it's quite popular and most extensions are taken - why use it then? It will diminish your chances for standing out and having a memorable brand.

If your name is unique, is a good fit, specific for your space, not trademarked etc., then great! But in that case you are fine with any extension. getting "getbrandname.com" instead of "brandname.app" won't make or break your project.

If your name doest not fit the above criteria, pick a different one. Go wild, go bold. I suggest the book 'hello my name is awesome' (bad title, but on-point, actionable content) if you go ahead.

99.9% of regular people think website = .com. All of the other TLDs are functionally equivalent to ThingApp.com (not Thing.app) or ThingIo.com (not Thing.io.)

Choose whichever name works with a .com domain.

> i can try in make an offer to get that one, but I'm afraid this will cost us a lot

You haven't asked for a price yet?

Do that first. You may very well have this dilemma, but until you ask and get a price, you are fretting over something that might be an easy decision.

Use another name. Most names are fine as long as they're relatively short, memorable and pronounceable.

That money could be put to better use.

Don't make this a blocker. Rebranding will hit your momentum. Since you already seek a x.app domain might as well go with xapp.com . Let's be honest for a sec - the .app gets you more nerd points but your market would be more comfortable with a .com

I'd suggest prefixing/suffixing, e.g "get.com" or "app.com"

If word of mouth is important, it is usually better to have a dot-com web address. IMO, the two additional rules are to make it memorable and make sure people can easily spell it. Other than that, don't obsess over a descriptive name.

ps, if you go with zzzz.app, make sure you can also get zzzzapp.com

You don't have a domain yet so it's not a rebrand, you're not taking steps backwards. It isn't too good to be wedded to an idea, just think, do what you can to analyse the problem and be comfortable with the uncertainty/risk and move

Rebrand if you have a clearly better alternative. Otherwise just go with xyz-app.com or something similar and no one will bat an eye... unless xyz.app will suddenly spring to life and starts aggressively market itself.

I'm shocked no one has mentioned this so far.. check the SEO profile of the domain you're looking to buy, if it has a strong domain authority and pulls in organic traffic just through the domain name I would purchase it straight away. Use these factors to determine if it's 'worth it'.

If you intend to really buy this domain place an offer now, it will cost much more later. A lot of domain owners work with bonus pay, which means if you raise money then you pay them additional amount. This is one way to negotiate.

But as such name needs to be easy to remember, so it can enable word of mouth. Choose a name that is tied to an object or thing that your target users do every day. Its one way to keep your brand on top of the mind of users. Thats how memory works.

This is mentioned in contagious (book)

I believe you are better off rebranding. Only if the project is still in its Infancy. Any momentum you lose you’ll be able to gain it back. But if it’s a really a tld problem. you could always make it part of the brand anyways. you could get one like a .geek then could add that to your make it your logo like think.geek or what not.

Buy the .com if you can.

If you are in a market with a strong local ccTLD get that - examples being .co.uk and .com.au

Good names cost money - perhaps look to see if you can rent or do staged payments?

What is your objective?

There is no right answer, having a think about what your objective is, and what you want to achieve - may help making the decision easier; or at least provide a guiding light.

the opportunity to change your brand will disappear soon, take it now as it may be your last chance. You can then try to cover the .app, .com. .io range with your new choice.

There are 1590 TLDs last time I checked. Just pick a domain in one of them and stick with it.

just add a prefix to your brand and/or use a more obscure tld

people are literally not typing in domain names anymore and have not been for a very long time

they click and tap what was shared to them

Hmm checkin.app or strive.app better find a new name.

I negotiated a user.com domain aquasition for over one year, >300 emails.

Price started from ~10 mln USD, we bought for 150k USD (didn't have more)

Yes, we know that I was extremely lucky, but is always worth to try.