The Most Popular Top-Level Domains

There are 1,773,486,300 currently online at the time this post was written. However, by the time you read it – there will be many more. Luckily, all of these websites aren’t fighting over domains any longer.
As the final piece of any web address, the top-level domain identifies a site’s purpose or geographic location. For example, WestHost.com utilizes the .com top-level domain.
Today’s marketplace has expanded to incorporate over 1,500 country code and generic top-level domains. Most of the websites launched since 2000. But have these new TLDs surpassed any of their established rivals in terms of popularity? You may be surprised. 

.com – 147,997,952 

The best-known TLD remains a runaway market leader. The .com TLD underpins 47.7% of the world’s websites. Most firms across America have selected the .com TLD in preference to our .us country-code TLD, or ccTLD.

.ru – 4,822,398

While we prefer a global top-level domain, Russian websites proudly proclaim their origins. The world uses the .ru suffix for 5% of the top ten million websites. Very few Russians choose any other TLD for their website.

.org – 10,177,804

Created to identify non-profit organizations, .org has become synonymous with websites that can’t be described as commercial, academic, or governmental. It was also the first gTLD to implement Domain Name System Security Extensions, or DNSSEC, for extra security.

.net – 13,260,803

Like .org, .net has expanded beyond its original brief of identifying networks. It’s now unrestricted, and 4.5% of the ten million top websites use it. Superior availability over .com has helped its growth, alongside fewer corporate connotations.

.info – 4,474,340

With ccTLDs comprising most of W3Techs’ top 20 list, .info has managed to match the popularity of Australia’s and Iran’s country code domains. ICANN launched .info in 2001 and it is the most successful of seven new TLDs to rival .com.

.biz – 1,510,528

The new TLDs from 2001 included .biz, which is the only other domain to have achieved mainstream adoption. This TLD powers less than half as many sites as .info, but businesses often use it when they can’t obtain a .com domain.

.online – 1,438,440

Perfect for all of your .online activities, this web address ending is perfect for websites that would like a .com, but either can’t afford it or would like to double down on their domain options.
So, don’t miss out on other exciting top-level domains, including the WordPress owned .blog to the hugely flexible .web and .app. In a decade’s time, these domains could potentially be as popular as those featured above…