Buy your .build domain today

A .build domain has two established groups of users. Contractors, architects, developers, renovation firms and trade suppliers make up one, and software teams shipping build tools and developer platforms make up the other, with some of the most recognized names in the extension coming from that second group.

Both readings work because the word describes an activity rather than a category. A firm name plus .build says what you actually do, which a generic company suffix never manages.

No, a .build domain is open to anyone, with no trade qualification, license or industry check. The registry publishes no eligibility policy for it, and its landrush rules stated outright that the phase was open to the general public with no qualification requirements.

The registry does hold broad discretion over conduct rather than identity, which is a different thing entirely. It can lock or suspend a name at its own discretion, and its published list of what counts as abusive is wider than most.

No, .build has been open since it launched and there was never a restricted phase to relax. Its application to ICANN described an open extension allocating names on a first come, first served basis. The contract is a standard non-sponsored agreement with no community registration policy attached.

The confusion is understandable, because the extension was founded with construction backing and is still marketed that way. Founding intent is not the same as an eligibility rule, and in this case no such rule was ever written.

A .build domain is marketed to both, and the registry groups its featured sites into construction, architecture technology, software and manufacturing. The best-known names in the extension are developer tools, while the construction side is well represented by contractors, engineering firms and civic projects.

Neither reading blocks the other in practice. Context resolves it immediately: a firm name with local project photos reads as a builder, and a tool name with documentation reads as software.

A .build address is read from its context rather than its extension, so a building firm's site will not be mistaken for a developer tool. The name in front of the dot, the photography and the first line of copy settle it before anyone thinks about the ending.

Where the overlap does cost you is availability. Short generic words under .build were taken early by software projects, so a one-word name is less likely to be free than the cheaper trade extensions would lead you to expect. Plan around a firm name rather than a category word.

Running a .build domain next to an existing .com is straightforward, and both can reach the same site. You point the second name at the same place and pick one as the primary address, so search engines have a single version to index.

Which one leads is a judgment about how you win work. A firm found through referrals and signage may want the .com people guess at, with .build as the memorable one on printed material. A firm competing in search results often prefers to lead with the descriptive name.

Choose between .build and .house on what you actually sell. .build describes the act of constructing and covers commercial, industrial and infrastructure work as comfortably as residential. .house points at the finished home, which suits residential developers, agents and interiors.

Cost behaves differently too, and that is the more practical distinction. .build tends to register and renew in a similar range, while .house is more often sold cheaply for a first year and renewed at a good deal more. Over three years the ordering can reverse.

A .build domain has no first-year loss leader, which is why it looks expensive next to the trade alternatives. The extension is run by a small independent registry rather than a large portfolio operator, and it prices registration and renewal in much the same range.

That works in your favor if you keep the name. The cheaper-looking alternatives are usually discounted for twelve months and then renew at several times the entry price, so the gap narrows in year two and reverses after that. Compare the renewal rather than the headline.

The .build registry publishes a wider list of prohibited uses than most extensions, and it is worth reading before you buy. Alongside the usual malware, phishing and fraud entries it explicitly names gripe sites, pay-per-click parking, traffic diversion and deceptive or offensive names as abusive.

For a working business site none of that is a constraint. It matters if you were planning to park the name on ads while you decide what to do with it, or to register a variant of a competitor name, because both sit inside what the registry says it will act on.

A .build address asks slightly more of a local client than a .com does, and the honest position is that it depends on how they find you. Someone typing your name from memory reaches for .com, so word-of-mouth work is where the gap shows.

Everywhere else it is an advantage. In a search result, a directory listing or on the side of a van, .build says what you do without needing a tagline and reads as deliberate rather than left over. If referrals are most of your work, hold both names and redirect one.