.best Domain
Claim the Top Spot in Your Category
Register your .best domain from just £21.99/yr. Free DNS management, email forwarding, and 10GB mailbox included with every domain.
This domain has registration restrictions
Anyone may register a .best, but a superiority claim used in UK advertising has to be evidenced under the CAP Code. Read the full eligibility rules.
What is a .best domain?
The .best domain works for comparison sites, award programmes, and brands that position themselves as leaders in their field. "Best" is one of the most searched adjectives online, appearing in queries like "best restaurants near me" and "best WordPress hosting". A .best domain puts that search intent right in your URL.
Who should register .best?
Comparison websites, product review platforms, award programmes, and brands positioning themselves as category leaders.
Why choose .best?
- Matches high-intent search queries
- Strong positioning for comparison sites
- Four letters with built-in authority
- Works across every industry
Who runs .best, and since when
Registry data from the .best delegation record held by IANA, which maintains the internet's root zone. Eligibility comes from the registry's own policy, and the prices are ours.
- Extension type
- Generic (gTLD)
- Registry operator
- BestTLD Pty Ltd
- The organisation that runs the extension
- In the root zone since
- 2014
- Delegated 20 February 2014
- Who can register
- Open to anyone worldwide, with nothing to prove about being the best
- Checked against the registry's own policy
- Our price
- £21.99 a year
- Ex VAT. Renews at the same price
Can you claim .best without evidence to back it?
BestTLD Pty Ltd, an Australian company, has run .best since ICANN signed the registry agreement in December 2013, and it has never asked a registrant to prove the claim in the name. That is the obvious joke about this extension and also the useful part: the word is a positioning device, not a certification.
The search argument for it is weaker than it looks. Best is one of the most typed modifiers in English, but a query like best wordpress hosting is answered by pages that earn it, not by the letters after a dot. Google reads .best as a generic extension with no special meaning attached. Where the word does real work is in the address itself, when somebody reads it on a card or hears it in a podcast and the proposition is already made before they arrive.
The trap is British advertising rules rather than domain policy, and it is worth understanding before you build a comparison site on this. A brand name ending .best is usually fine as obvious exaggeration. Copy that turns it into a testable claim is a different matter, and the exposure sits on the page, not on the domain.
Who is allowed to register .best?
Anyone may register a .best, but a superiority claim used in UK advertising has to be evidenced under the CAP Code.
- Who may register
- Anyone, anywhere. BestTLD Pty Ltd sets no eligibility criteria and asks for no proof of a ranking, an award or a comparison. No registration is refused on those grounds and none is taken away on them either.
- Puffery is allowed
- CAP Code rule 3.2 permits obvious exaggerations and claims the average consumer is unlikely to take literally, provided they do not materially mislead. A brand name that happens to end .best will normally sit comfortably here.
- Objective claims are not
- Rule 3.7 requires marketers to hold documentary evidence before publication for claims consumers are likely to regard as objective and that are capable of objective substantiation. Rule 3.6 adds that marketing must not mislead by implying an expression of opinion is an objective claim. Wording such as best in the UK, rated first or independently tested needs evidence behind it.
- Where the risk lands
- On the advertising, not on the name. The Advertising Standards Authority rules on marketing communications, so the consequence of an unevidenced claim is an upheld complaint about your copy, not the loss of your domain. Keep the boast in the address and the proof in the body text.
Rules taken from CAP Code section 3, misleading advertising. Registry policy can change, so check before you buy if the answer matters to you.
Not sure whether you qualify? Ask us before you order and we will check the registry rules with you. We would rather answer the question than take an order the registry will refuse.
Is .best the right choice for you?
We would rather sell you the right extension once than the wrong one twice.
.best works well if
- You run a comparison, review or awards site, where the whole proposition is ranking things and the address states it in four letters.
- You want a category name that a .com lost decades ago. Words like villas, dentists and hostels are still findable here in a way they simply are not on .com.
- You are naming a campaign or an annual list rather than a company, so a strong claim in the URL is doing deliberate work.
Look elsewhere if
- You are a small UK service business chasing local search. A .co.uk costs less than half as much and carries a country signal this does not.
- You expect the word in the domain to help you rank for best-something queries. It does not, and building on that assumption wastes a year.
- Your sector is regulated or your buyers are cautious. A superlative in the address invites scrutiny of every claim on the page behind it.
Selling a local UK service rather than running a ranking site? A .co.uk is cheaper and works harder in search. See .co.uk pricing.
.best vs .co.uk: which should you register?
These two are aimed at different jobs. A .co.uk is the workhorse for a British business selling to British customers: cheap, expected, and read by Google as a UK signal. A .best is a marketing asset, and it earns its place when the site itself is about ranking, comparing or awarding something.
If you are building a UK comparison site, there is a decent case for both, with the .co.uk as the canonical address and the .best pointed at it for print, radio and social. Do not expect the .best to lift you in search, and do not let it write cheques the page cannot cash under the CAP Code.
.best domain questions, answered
What people ask us before registering a .best domain.
Can't find what you're looking for?
Ask us directlyNo. BestTLD Pty Ltd sets no eligibility criteria whatsoever, and the ICANN registry agreement is a standard non-sponsored one with no community policy attached. You are not asked to evidence an award, a ranking or a test result, and nobody reviews the site afterwards. The evidence question arrives later, in your advertising: CAP Code rule 3.7 requires documentary proof before publication for claims a consumer would treat as objective, and that applies to your copy whatever domain it sits on.
No. Google treats .best as a generic extension and there is no keyword bonus for the string after the dot. Ranking for a query like best running shoes comes from the content, the comparisons, the freshness and the links, exactly as it would on a .com. What the extension does give you is a memorable address for that content and access to category words that vanished from .com twenty years ago, which is a real advantage of a different kind.
Not to the domain by itself in most cases. Rule 3.2 of the CAP Code allows obvious exaggeration that the average consumer is unlikely to take literally, and a brand name ending .best usually falls there. The risk is in what the page says. If your copy converts the name into a measurable claim, rule 3.7 requires documentary evidence held before publication, and rule 3.6 stops you dressing an opinion up as an objective finding. The remedy is an upheld ruling on the ad, not the loss of the domain.
Included with Your .best Domain
DNS Management
Full DNS zone editor to manage A, CNAME, MX, TXT, and all record types.
Email Forwarding
Set up professional email addresses and forward to any inbox.
Auto-Renewal
Never lose your domain with automatic renewal protection.
Free 10GB Mailbox
One 10GB mailbox (POP3/IMAP) included with every domain, on any TLD.
Other Lifestyle Domains Extensions
Register your .best domain today
Secure your .best domain from just £21.99/yr. Free DNS management, email forwarding, and 10GB mailbox included.
