The .com vs .de Domain - what advantages do they offer in comparison?

The selection of an ideal domain address is often crucial for long-term success - the desired domain should be memorable, simple, easy to recognise, and unique. In this context, the domain extension Top-Level Domain (TLD) plays an important role in more than one way, as it affects not only the availability in a domain check, but also the costs, search engine optimisation (SEO), and additional technical factors such as the internationalisation of the address through special characters. Therefore, there is a broad controversy over whether, for example, a .de or a .com address offers more advantages or disadvantages - or whether there are other alternatives such as .eu or .info.

The .com Address - How Has It Become a Classic?

When the current Domain Name System (DNS) was created in the 1980s, global distribution seemed unlikely - the number of expected networked computers was in the low thousands and private use seemed simply unthinkable. To provide users with a rough orientation, a specific subdivision into several categories was undertaken in the initial phase:

• .gov: Reserved exclusively for US government entities
• .net: Originally intended for network infrastructure
• .edu: Initially for educational institutions, later exclusively allocated to US institutions
• .org: Non-commercial and non-state organisations
• .info: Specifically for information providers such as the press or technical data sheets
• .biz: For business-related commercial projects
• .com: Extension for registered companies and firms

This original classification, however, did not last long. Despite initially very low demand, the need for additional domain extensions became apparent early on, reflected not least in the introduction of country-specific Country Code Top Level Domains (ccTLDs). Nevertheless, the .com domain has established itself as the TLD for international private or commercial use in less than a decade, largely due to its very liberal allocation. Today, it is by far the most registered domain extension with more than 150 million addresses (as of 2021), even though there are also numerous alternatives to the .com domain.

The .de Address - What Makes It Attractive?

The .de address was introduced in winter 1986 and initially received very little attention. However, with the spread of the Internet from the early 90s, the situation changed rapidly. As the World Wide Web evolved from a commercially and scientifically used network to a socially used medium with the increase in private PCs in a short period of time, the interest in .de addresses grew exponentially. Not least due to Germany's economic significance, many companies and increasingly individuals reserved attractive .de domains for their own use or potential sale.

It is evident that the .de domain is particularly popular in the German-speaking region including Austria and Switzerland, as well as in border regions - however, its international reach should not be underestimated. It is considered by transcontinental companies more as a digital business card for the European market compared to, for example, the .fr or .es domain. Its advantages and features include:

• Clear identification within the EU as an economic area
• Good technical IT infrastructure for virtual or dedicated servers
• High legal certainty and comprehensive data protection in accordance with national legislation
• Good reputation in international comparison
• Registration is straightforward and uncomplicated despite requirements
• Low costs for corresponding services and high reliability
• Support for internationalisation with IDN in multiple foreign languages
• High address security through support for DNSSEC

The high popularity of the .de domain is evident in its wide distribution - with around 17 million registered addresses, it ranks second among ccTLDs behind .cn for the People's Republic of China and ahead of other popular extensions like .net or .uk (As of 2021). After a steady increase until and a slow flattening of reservations from 2015, the demand alone has increased by about one million addresses since the beginning of 2020. And this is despite there being many good alternatives to the .de domain.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of .com and .de?

In a direct comparison, the .com domain statistically proves to be clearly superior to the .de domain - it is about ten times more commonly registered. However, this also means that significantly more free and attractive addresses can be found, which, as one of the few internationally renowned ones, also allows for internationalisation through Internationalized Domain Names (IDN) with German special characters such as umlauts or the eszett. In terms of cost, the .de domain proves to be above average efficient, thereby offering further advantages over the also relatively inexpensive .com domain. A crucial difference lies in the level of possible anonymity - the .de domain requires the provision of a legally binding postal address, which can also come from a trustee, such as a domain trader. Anonymisation, as offered by many providers for the .com address through so-called "Privacy Shields" with a non-European residence, is not possible with it.

Photo: Gerd Altmann on Pixabay