The domain you want is taken? Your options, in order

You typed the name into a registrar, hit search, and got the little red “unavailable.” It feels like a wall. It isn’t — it’s a fork, and most of the roads leading away from it are good ones. “Taken” only closes one specific door: this exact string on this exact extension, owned by someone else right now. Everything else is still open. This page is the map. We’ll walk your options roughly from cheapest and easiest to most expensive and least likely, so you can stop at the first one that fits instead of jumping straight to the costly end. Each option links out to a full guide — this is the “start here” node, not the whole encyclopedia.

First, do you actually need this exact string?

Before you fight for it, ask whether the name is genuinely great or just your first idea. A taken .com stings most when you’ve already fallen a little in love — but early attachment is a poor guide to a name’s quality. Sometimes the string really is the one: it’s short, it says itself, it fits the product. Often it’s the first thing that popped into your head, and the second or third idea would be better anyway. Run the name through the same tests you’d apply to any candidate before committing; our guide on how to name a startup lays them out. If the name doesn’t survive honest scrutiny, “taken” just saved you a rebrand. If it does survive, read on — the rest of these options exist precisely for names worth keeping.

Can you use a different extension?

This is the most common fix, and usually the cheapest. The name yourbrand.com being gone says nothing about yourbrand.io, .ai, .co, or .dev — all of which are registered fresh at normal prices and are entirely respectable, especially with technical audiences. Which one fits depends on your product and your buyers; we compare the big four in .com vs .io vs .ai vs .co. There’s also a more creative route: a domain hack that reads the name across the dot, like del.icio.us, so the extension becomes part of the word. Domain hacks explained covers when that works and when it’s too cute. The one honest caveat is whether the .com specifically matters for how your customers reach you — that’s a real question with a real answer, and we settle it in when you genuinely need the .com. For most early-stage projects, a strong alternative TLD is not a compromise; it’s the plan.

The extension that comparison skips is the one most people reach for first: .net. It’s the oldest alternative there is — live since January 1985, originally intended for network infrastructure, open to anyone for decades since — and it’s still the second-largest generic extension after .com, run by the same registry. Two things are worth knowing before you take it. First, it is quietly shrinking: around 12.4 million registrations in early 2026, down roughly 10% from where it sat in 2019, while .com and .org have held their size. The “second choice” reputation isn’t purely perception; it shows up in the registration numbers. Second, it carries the same practical risk as a modifier — if your audience is mainstream and someone else owns the matching .com, a real share of the people typing your name from memory will land on them instead of you. Nor is it a budget option: at several registrars .net costs about the same as a .com, sometimes a little more. Where it genuinely works is infrastructure and networking-adjacent products, where the name reads as deliberate rather than second-best, and where you own the .com as well and simply run both. As the standalone identity for a consumer brand whose .com belongs to someone else, it’s the weakest option on this page.

Can you add a modifier?

Prefixing or extending the name is a well-trodden path. get-, try-, and use- in front, or the app name plus a category word after, turn a taken string into an available one: getyourbrand.com, yourbrand-app.com, and the like. Plenty of real companies launched exactly this way. Keep it brief, and mind the trade-off: modifiers quietly reintroduce a memory problem. Someone who hears your brand spoken will type yourbrand.com, not tryyourbrand.com, and land nowhere — or worse, on whoever owns the bare name. It’s a legitimate option, best when your growth comes through links and search rather than word of mouth. If say-it-once-and-they-find-you matters to your product, weigh a different extension against a modifier before you decide.

Should you buy it from the current owner?

Sometimes the name is worth paying for — but do it safely. “Registered” is not “impossible”: domains held by investors, or parked on a forgotten side project, change hands all the time. The move is to find out who owns it, reach them through a safe channel, and close through escrow rather than wiring money to a stranger. The full playbook — finding the owner, using brokers, negotiating without overpaying, and knowing when to walk — is in how to buy a taken domain. Set your walk-away number first. And brace yourself on price: short, generic, or obviously desirable names can carry a real premium, for reasons we unpack in what is a premium domain. This option can absolutely be the right one. It’s just rarely the cheap one.

Can you wait for it to drop?

Occasionally — but treat it as a lottery ticket, not a plan. We measured the odds: across every Y Combinator company domain, nine of 6,063 were available to register, and none of them was a .com. If the domain looks abandoned (a dead site, an expired certificate, an expiry date approaching), it may lapse and return to open registration. A cheap backorder buys you a shot at catching it the moment it drops. For any genuinely good name, though, professional drop-catchers and other bidders are chasing the same moment, so your odds are low and your timeline is out of your hands — how to buy a taken domain covers the odds and the mechanics. Fine as a bonus path running in the background. Never something to block a launch on.

Or: pick a better, available name

The honest default, and usually the fastest. Most of the options above are effort spent contorting around one taken string. The cheaper, calmer move is often to generate a distinctive name whose .com is simply free — no premium, no prefix, no waiting. A great available name beats a mediocre one you had to buy or bend.

One thing to keep straight through all of this: a domain being taken doesn’t automatically mean a trademark conflict, and an available domain doesn’t mean you’re legally clear either — the two are separate questions, as we explain in does your domain have to match your business name.

If you’d rather skip to the honest default, Domain Yoga generates a batch of availability-checked, brandability-ranked names in one search — and one of them usually beats the string you were about to fight for.