The one-sentence difference
If you only remember one line from this post, make it this one: .dev says who you are, .app says what your product does. A .dev domain reads like a developer's home — a portfolio, a docs site, an API, an open-source project. A .app domain reads like a promise to a user — open this, use this, get something done.
That distinction matters more than the price difference, because these two extensions are closer than most comparisons admit. Both are run by Google Registry, open to everyone, on the HSTS preload list (browsers only ever load them over HTTPS), and in roughly the same price band.
So the real question is not "which is better?" It is "which signal do you want the domain itself to send before anyone reads a word of your site?"
Same registry, same HTTPS rule — and why that rule is a feature
.app opened to the public in May 2018 as the first top-level domain where HTTPS was a technical requirement rather than a recommendation. .dev followed in 2019 under the same Google Registry policy. Porkbun's knowledge base puts it plainly: Google Registry added .app, .dev, .page and others to the HSTS preload list before launch, so a domain under one of these extensions is on the list automatically and cannot be removed.
In practice, that means:
- Your site will not load without a valid SSL certificate. A browser will refuse plain HTTP for your .dev or .app domain — there is no click-through warning to bypass.
- You need HTTPS from day one, including subdomains. Staging, docs, and API subdomains all inherit the rule, so plan certificates for them too.
- Free certificates solve this completely. Most modern hosts and registrars issue free certificates automatically — Porkbun, for example, notes that its free SSL covers .dev sites hosted with it or reached through its forwarding. Cloudflare's free tier does the same job for sites hosted elsewhere.
One historical quirk: before .dev went live, developers widely used myproject.dev as a fake local domain. When Chrome 63 shipped in December 2017 with .dev on the preload list, those local setups broke overnight. Use .test or .localhost for local work, never a real public extension you do not own.
For a production site, the HTTPS rule is a selling point, not a burden: it removes an entire class of downgrade attacks and costs nothing extra with a host that automates certificates.
Price comparison: what .dev and .app actually cost in October 2026
Prices below were checked against independent price aggregators on 24 October 2026. First-year prices are often promotional; the renewal column is the price you will pay every year after that, so read that column first. Always confirm at checkout — registrars change prices without notice.
Registrar | .dev first year | .dev renewal / yr | .app renewal / yr |
|---|---|---|---|
Cloudflare | $8.20 | $12.20 | $14.20 |
Dynadot | $8.00 | $12.50 | $14.50 |
Porkbun | $7.75 | $12.87 | $14.93 |
Spaceship | $6.44 | $12.62 | ~$14.69 |
Sav | $4.99 | $12.68 | — |
Namecheap | $10.98 | $21.18 | ~$20–$23 |
Sources: .dev prices from tldes.com's .dev comparison (92 registrars, updated 24 October 2026); .app renewals from DN Detector and DomainOffer's October 2026 tracking, which puts the average .app renewal across 111 registrars at about $24.27.
Three things jump out:
- .dev is consistently a couple of dollars a year cheaper to renew than .app at the flat-rate registrars — roughly $12–$13 versus roughly $14–$15. Over five years at Cloudflare's flat rates, that is $57.00 for .dev ($8.20 + 4 × $12.20) versus $71.00 for .app (5 × $14.20).
- The renewal cliff matters more than the first-year deal. Namecheap's .dev looks ordinary at $10.98 in year one, then renews at $21.18 — nearly double Cloudflare's renewal. On a domain you plan to keep for a decade, that gap is worth more than any launch promo.
- First-year promos are real but small here. Sav's $4.99 .dev first year and Spaceship's ~$4.98 .app first year save a few dollars once; they do not change the long-term maths.
Bottom line on price: if you are choosing purely on cost, .dev wins by a small margin. But a $2-a-year difference should never override the branding decision below — you will live with the domain far longer than you will notice the saving.
What .dev signals — and what it is best for
Google Registry itself describes .dev as "a home for all the interesting things you build." That framing matches how developers actually use it:
- Personal portfolios and blogs. yourname.dev reads as a working developer's identity, and is instantly legible to the audience a portfolio needs to impress: hiring managers, collaborators, other developers.
- Documentation and project homes. Framework docs, API references, and open-source project sites sit naturally on .dev — the extension tells a visitor "built by developers, for developers" before they read a line.
- Tools, demos, and experiments. A side-project tool or weekend experiment gets a credible home on .dev without implying a commercial product with support obligations.
- Developer-focused companies. Dev-tool startups, agencies, and consultancies use .dev as their main domain when the .com is unavailable, and it rarely hurts them: their buyers are developers who recognise the extension.
Where .dev is weaker: it says little to a non-technical consumer. If your product is aimed at the general public, a .dev domain can read as insider jargon.
What .app signals — and what it is best for
Google Registry's own line for .app is that it is "the perfect place for your app." The extension does two jobs at once: it names the product category and it implies action. Someone seeing yourproduct.app understands, without any other context, that there is an application to open.
- SaaS and web apps. This is .app's home turf — a SaaS landing page on .app matches the mental model of every user who has ever opened an app in a browser.
- Mobile apps and their landing pages. If your product lives in an app store, a matching .app domain is the cleanest web companion — same name, same promise.
- Single-purpose tools. A converter, a checker, a generator, a dashboard — tools that do one thing well feel native on .app, because the domain itself describes the interaction.
- Product launches and waitlists. For a pre-launch page, .app converts curiosity into signups slightly better than a generic extension, because the visitor already expects an app behind the page.
Where .app is weaker: it can sound presumptuous for something that is not really an app. A personal blog or a content site on .app creates a small expectation mismatch — visitors arrive expecting software and find articles.
SEO: does either extension rank better?
No — and this is one of the few questions in this post with an unambiguous answer. Google has stated publicly that its systems treat new gTLDs like other gTLDs, and that keywords in a TLD give no advantage or disadvantage in search. A .dev page and a .app page with equal content, links, speed, and user experience compete on equal footing, and both compete equally with .com.
What does differ is human behaviour around the result, which affects SEO indirectly:
- Click-through trust. Developers click .dev results readily; general consumers may hesitate at an unfamiliar extension on first sight. That hesitation is about familiarity, not ranking — and it fades as .dev and .app become more common in search results.
- Memorability and word of mouth. A short, exact-match name on either extension beats a long, hyphenated .com for direct traffic and for being remembered after a talk or podcast mention.
- Brand searches. Once people know your product's name, they search for it directly. A domain that matches the product name exactly converts those searches better than a .com with a modified name.
Do not pick an extension for ranking. Pick it for the humans who will read it, remember it, and type it.
The five-minute decision framework
Work through these in order. The first question that gives a clear answer decides it.
- Who is the audience? Developers, hiring managers, and open-source users → lean .dev. End users opening a product → lean .app.
- What is the thing? A person, a project, docs, or a tool for builders → .dev. A product with users, accounts, and a signup button → .app.
- Is there an app-store presence? If yes, .app matches it and removes doubt about which site is official.
- Which exact name can you actually get? Check both extensions before deciding. A clean, short name on the "second-choice" extension beats a compromised name on the first-choice one.
- Are you buying both? If the name matters, register both and redirect one to the other. At roughly $26–$29 a year combined at flat-rate registrars, it is cheap insurance against impersonation.
If you are still torn after those five questions, here is the tiebreaker: choose the extension that matches what you will put on the homepage in six months. A portfolio that grows into a SaaS product should start on .app; a SaaS idea that is really a developer's side project should start on .dev.
Before you buy: a short checklist
- Check availability on both extensions — and on .com, so you know what you are giving up and whether the .com owner might cause confusion later. Nomlen's bulk domain search checks a name across every TLD at once.
- Budget the renewal, not the promo. Put the renewal price — about $12–$13 a year for .dev, about $14–$15 for .app at flat-rate registrars — in your calendar, not the first-year price.
- Confirm free SSL at your host before launch. Remember: without a valid certificate, a .dev or .app site simply does not load. Test it on staging first.
- Watch for trademark conflicts. An available domain is not necessarily a safe brand name — check trademark databases before investing in a launch. Our guide to checking if a business name is trademarked walks through the free checks.
- Read Nomlen's dedicated guides for the full picture on each extension: .dev domains and .app domains.
FAQs
Is .dev or .app better for a developer portfolio?
.dev, clearly. It signals developer identity, it is what hiring managers and collaborators expect from a working developer's site, and it is slightly cheaper to renew. Reserve .app for the products you build, not for the person building them.
Can I use .dev or .app without HTTPS?
No. Both extensions are on the HSTS preload list at the registry level, so browsers will only load them over HTTPS. You need a valid SSL certificate before the site will work at all — but free certificates from hosts like Cloudflare or Porkbun make this a non-issue.
Do .dev and .app domains rank differently on Google?
No. Google states that its systems treat new gTLDs like other gTLDs and that keywords in a TLD give no ranking advantage or disadvantage. Content, links, speed, and user experience decide rankings — not the extension.
Which is cheaper, .dev or .app?
.dev, by roughly $2 a year at flat-rate registrars. As of 24 October 2026, .dev renews at $12.20 at Cloudflare, $12.50 at Dynadot, and $12.87 at Porkbun, while .app renews at $14.20, $14.50, and $14.93 at the same registrars. First-year promos (from $4.99 for .dev and ~$4.98 for .app) do not change the long-term picture much.
Can I register both and redirect one to the other?
Yes, and for a serious product you should. Registering both costs roughly $26–$29 a year combined at flat-rate registrars, and it protects your brand from impersonators and from users typing the wrong extension.
Can I use .dev for local development?
Not anymore. Since Chrome 63 shipped in December 2017 with .dev on the HSTS preload list, browsers refuse to load .dev over plain HTTP, which breaks local setups. Use .test or .localhost for local development instead.
Should a startup pick .dev or .app over .com?
Only if the .com you want is taken, unaffordable, or a worse name. .com remains the most universally recognised extension. But a short, exact .dev or .app name beats a long, compromised .com — and for developer-facing or app products specifically, the extension itself becomes part of the brand.
