.com vs .xyz: Price, Renewal and Availability
Pick .com. .xyz's $1.99 first year is a promotion: it renews at $14.21, more than .com's flat $10.88, so five years of .xyz cost $58.88 vs $54.40. Choose .xyz only when the name itself is the point and the .com is out of reach.
Standard (non-premium) names, USD per year, quoted October 24, 2026.
| Measure | .com | .xyz |
|---|---|---|
| First year (lowest) | $10.88 | $1.99 |
| Renewal (lowest) | $10.88 | $14.21 |
| Renewal vs first year | same | 7.1x |
| 5 years, cheapest registrar | $54.40 (Dynadot) | $58.88 (Porkbun) |
| Minimum term | 1 year | 1 year |
| Porkbun first year | $11.08 | $2.04 |
| Porkbun renewal | $11.08 | $14.21 |
| Porkbun transfer | $11.08 | $14.21 |
| Dynadot first year | $10.88 | $1.99 |
| Dynadot renewal | $10.88 | $14.45 |
| Taken when checked on domhaul | 75% of 4,260 | Too few checks |
| Type | Generic | Generic |
| Registry | VeriSign Global Registry Services | XYZ.COM LLC |
| Rules | Open to anyone | Open to anyone |
| DNSSEC | Signed | Signed |
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Pick .com if
- You will keep the domain more than a year or two.
- Email deliverability and first impressions matter.
- The .com is free or affordable.
Pick .xyz if
- It is a side project, test or short campaign you may drop after a year.
- The .xyz spells something (a brand that ends in xyz, like Alphabet's abc.xyz).
- The .com is taken and you accept the renewal.
.com vs .xyz questions
Why is .xyz so cheap?
.com costs $10.88 for the first year and $10.88 to renew; .xyz costs $1.99 and $14.21. Over five years (first year plus four renewals at the cheaper registrar) that is $54.40 for .com and $58.88 for .xyz, so .com is the cheaper one to keep. Standard names at Dynadot and Porkbun, quoted October 24, 2026. The first year is priced to win registrations; the renewal is the real yearly price.
Is .xyz a legitimate domain?
Yes. .xyz is a generic extension run by XYZ.COM LLC with CentralNic as the back end, in the root zone since 2014 and open to anyone. Alphabet, Google's parent company, uses abc.xyz.
Does a .xyz domain hurt email deliverability?
It can start at a disadvantage. Cheap first-year pricing has drawn bulk registrations, and some mail filters and corporate firewalls score low-cost extensions with a history of abuse more harshly. A .xyz with SPF, DKIM and DMARC set up and a clean sending history delivers fine, but a new .com starts with less suspicion.
Is .xyz bad for SEO?
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. What hurts is the company a cheap extension keeps: users who have seen spam on it may click less.
More comparisons
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- .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 .xyz. 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.