.com vs .org: Price, Renewal and Availability
Pick .com for a business and .org for a nonprofit, community or open-source project: that is what visitors read from each. .org is cheaper to start ($7.98 vs $10.88) but renews higher ($11.64 vs $10.88), so five years cost about the same: $54.55 vs $54.40. Anyone can register a .org; nobody checks nonprofit status. 75% of .com names checked on domhaul were already registered, against 67% of .org.
Standard (non-premium) names, USD per year, quoted October 24, 2026.
| Measure | .com | .org |
|---|---|---|
| First year (lowest) | $10.88 | $7.98 |
| Renewal (lowest) | $10.88 | $11.64 |
| Renewal vs first year | same | +46% |
| 5 years, cheapest registrar | $54.40 (Dynadot) | $54.55 (Dynadot) |
| Minimum term | 1 year | 1 year |
| Porkbun first year | $11.08 | $7.98 |
| Porkbun renewal | $11.08 | $11.84 |
| Porkbun transfer | $11.08 | $11.84 |
| Dynadot first year | $10.88 | $7.99 |
| Dynadot renewal | $10.88 | $11.64 |
| Taken when checked on domhaul | 75% of 4,260 | 67% of 39 |
| Type | Generic | Generic |
| Registry | VeriSign Global Registry Services | Public Interest Registry (PIR) |
| Rules | Open to anyone | Open to anyone; no nonprofit check |
| DNSSEC | Signed | Signed |
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Pick .com if
- You sell something: a product, a service, a store.
- You want the default extension people type without thinking.
- You want a price that never jumps after year one.
Pick .org if
- You run a nonprofit, charity, association, community or open-source project.
- You want visitors to read the site as mission-driven rather than commercial.
- The .com is taken and the project is not a business.
.com vs .org questions
Do you need to be a nonprofit to register a .org?
No. .org has no eligibility rules: individuals and companies register it too, and no registrar asks for proof of nonprofit status. It is a convention, not a requirement, which is also why a .org alone proves nothing about a site's tax status.
Is .org cheaper than .com?
.com costs $10.88 for the first year and $10.88 to renew; .org costs $7.98 and $11.64. Over five years (first year plus four renewals at the cheaper registrar) that is $54.40 for .com and $54.55 for .org, so .com is the cheaper one to keep. Standard names at Dynadot and Porkbun, quoted October 24, 2026.
Who runs .org?
Public Interest Registry, a nonprofit set up by the Internet Society, with Identity Digital Limited running the registry back end. In 2020 ICANN blocked a plan to sell PIR to a private equity firm, so .org is still run by a nonprofit.
Is .org more trustworthy than .com?
For a charity or community, visitors often read .org as a signal of purpose, and that can help donations and sign-ups. For a business it reads oddly. Google ranks pages, not extensions: neither one gives a ranking boost or penalty, and links, content and how people respond to the result decide where a site ranks.
More comparisons
- .net vs .org 5 yrs $62.60 vs $54.55
- .com vs .net 5 yrs $54.40 vs $62.60
- .com vs .co 5 yrs $54.40 vs $140.30
- .com vs .io 5 yrs $54.40 vs $235.32
- .com vs .ai 5 yrs $54.40 vs $413.50
- .com vs .app 5 yrs $54.40 vs $68.47
Full price pages: .com and .org. All domain extension comparisons, the price list for every TLD, and the long read on .com vs .io vs .app vs .dev for startups. Have a name? The domain value calculator prices it and finds available alternatives.