2018 Domain Insights & Trends Report

Using proprietary data and statistics, Namecheap produced this unique report that covers important domain industry insights from the first half of 2018. We've also included relevant registration trends throughout the last decade that show the evolving impact of different top-level domains over time.

With more than 10 million domains under management, Namecheap is among the world's top domain registrars and web hosting providers. The company is part of the 2018 Inc. 5000 list honoring the fastest growing companies in America. Namecheap is an ICANN-accredited technology company and domain registrar founded by Richard Kirkendall in 2000.

This release consists of domain registration statistics from Namecheap going back up to 10 years. TLDs owned by ‘Famous Four Media’ have been excluded because they were frequently offered at promotional prices that would skew data unfairly. However, some data does include other top-level domains that were registered during sales and special promotions.

Domain Report Executive Summary 2018

As one of the world's leading registrars handling more than 10 million domains, Namecheap has a substantial amount of data on registration trends, such as which are most popular, how they are developing, and what registration trends may be unfolding in the future.

The domain industry saw some compelling trends between January and June 2018. The ever-reigning .com still stands at the top of the list, followed by .info, and the relatively new arrival .club at number three. No doubt the adaptability of .club makes it attractive to businesses and hobbyists alike.

Some other notable items in this year’s 20 best-selling domains include the rookies .space, .website, and .online.

Regarding country code top-level domains (ccTLDs), as could be expected, .us is the most popular, with a vast number of individuals and businesses wanting an association with the United States within their site’s domain name. The flexibility and brevity of .co, as well as its comparability to .com, put it next on the list. Similarly, other ccTLDs, like .ai and .io prosper from their potential to be applied to other industries.

This year, the technology sector has taken in .app as a top choice, as determined by Namecheap’s aggregate number of registrations during H1 2018. Companies supplying financial services have chosen .cash, .exchange, and .capital as their most popular TLDs this year.

Download the full report for complete lists of top performers in several categories, including extensive insights regarding today’s TLD market in general, and how it has changed since in the past decade.