.dev Domain Names
38 registrars compared — cheapest from $4.99 at Sav
When Charleston Road Registry Inc. — a Google-affiliated entity — pulled .dev from the internet's shadows in 2014, it wasn't just launching another TLD. It was betting that developers would pay for a name that once only existed behind firewalls.
| # | Registrar | Registration | Renewal | Transfer | 5-Year Cost | 10-Year Cost | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sav Cheapest | $4.99 | $12.68 | $12.68 | $55.71 | $119.11 | Visit |
| 2 | Spaceship | $6.41 | $12.62 | $12.62 | $56.89 | $119.99 | Visit |
| 3 | All Domains | $6.66 | $18.64 | $18.64 | $81.22 | $174.42 | Visit |
| 4 | Dynadot | $8.00 | $12.50 | $11.99 | $58.00 | $120.50 | Visit |
| 5 | Cloudflare | $8.20 | $12.20 | $12.20 | $57.00 | $118.00 | Visit |
| 6 | Porkbun | $8.75 | $12.87 | $12.87 | $60.23 | $124.58 | Visit |
| 7 | INWX | $9.50 | $19.92 | $19.92 | $89.18 | $188.78 | Visit |
| 8 | OVHcloud | $9.84 | $17.19 | $17.19 | $78.60 | $164.55 | Visit |
| 9 | Gandi | $9.99 | $39.98 | $16.39 | $169.91 | $369.81 | Visit |
| 10 | NameSilo | $9.99 | $14.99 | $12.99 | $69.95 | $144.90 | Visit |
| 11 | OnlyDomains | $9.99 | $23.49 | $23.49 | $103.95 | $221.40 | Visit |
| 12 | Regery | $9.99 | $13.69 | $13.69 | $64.75 | $133.20 | Visit |
| 13 | Hostinger | $10.19 | $19.19 | $10.19 | $86.95 | $182.90 | Visit |
| 14 | Namecheap | $10.98 | $20.98 | $15.98 | $94.90 | $199.80 | Visit |
| 15 | Truehost | $11.43 | $18.71 | $18.19 | $86.27 | $179.82 | Visit |
| 16 | Netim | $12.00 | $24.00 | $15.00 | $108.00 | $228.00 | Visit |
| 17 | IONOS | $12.50 | $25.00 | $21.25 | $112.50 | $237.50 | Visit |
| 18 | MrDomain | $13.26 | $16.59 | $16.59 | $79.62 | $162.57 | Visit |
| 19 | DreamHost | $13.99 | $15.99 | $15.99 | $77.95 | $157.90 | Visit |
| 20 | Blacknight | $14.97 | $14.97 | $14.97 | $74.85 | $149.70 | Visit |
| 21 | Name.com | $14.99 | $22.99 | $19.99 | $106.95 | $221.90 | Visit |
| 22 | Infomaniak | $15.42 | $18.48 | $18.48 | $89.34 | $181.74 | Visit |
| 23 | Gname | $15.99 | $22.99 | $22.99 | $107.95 | $222.90 | Visit |
| 24 | Alibaba Cloud | $16.00 | $16.00 | $60.00 | $80.00 | $160.00 | Visit |
| 25 | 101domain | $16.17 | $24.17 | $19.67 | $112.85 | $233.70 | Visit |
| 26 | Cosmotown | $16.17 | $24.17 | $19.67 | $112.85 | $233.70 | Visit |
| 27 | GoDaddy | $16.19 | $24.19 | $24.19 | $112.95 | $233.90 | Visit |
| 28 | Internet.bs | $16.79 | $17.49 | $16.99 | $86.75 | $174.20 | Visit |
| 29 | Regtons | $17.00 | $17.00 | $16.00 | $85.00 | $170.00 | Visit |
| 30 | Marcaria | $19.00 | $19.00 | $19.00 | $95.00 | $190.00 | Visit |
| 31 | Epik | $19.95 | $19.95 | $19.95 | $99.75 | $199.50 | Visit |
| 32 | Directnic | $20.99 | $20.99 | $20.99 | $104.95 | $209.90 | Visit |
| 33 | Hover | $21.19 | $21.19 | $21.19 | $105.95 | $211.90 | Visit |
| 34 | UK2 | $21.49 | $22.49 | $22.49 | $111.45 | $223.90 | Visit |
| 35 | Moniker | $24.99 | $28.35 | $27.49 | $138.39 | $280.14 | Visit |
| 36 | EuroDNS | $25.31 | $25.31 | $25.31 | $126.55 | $253.10 | Visit |
| 37 | Squarespace | $30.00 | $30.00 | $30.00 | $150.00 | $300.00 | Visit |
| 38 | Crazy Domains | $41.99 | $19.19 | $41.99 | $118.75 | $214.70 | Visit |
Prices updated daily. Some registrars show promotional first-year prices. Always verify the final price on the registrar's website before purchasing.
The Dev That Was Hidden Before It Was Born
Before 2014, the string "dev" was already precious to Google — it operated as an internal network domain for staging services, accessible only to engineers on their VPN. When Google applied for it in the new gTLD round, they had to prove they weren't squatting on their own name. Charleston Road Registry Inc., a Google subsidiary, holds the contract, and the delegation happened on November 20, 2014 (IANA record). That backstory explains why .dev feels less like a commodity and more like a piece of internet history that was pried from a mega-corp's internal tooling.
The Search-Indexing Quirk That Made It Unmissable
Because .dev was once an internal-use network, it never appeared in public DNS — which meant no search engine could crawl it. The delegation to the public root changed everything: overnight, web crawlers could finally index .dev sites. For developers who had been relying on local ".dev" domains for years, the release meant updating their localhost configs, but for the broader web it meant a namespace that felt instantly familiar. The delegation round — 2012's new gTLD program — created hundreds of new TLDs, but few carried the irony of a domain that was already beloved by its target audience before it ever went live.
A Locked-Down Namespace, By Design
Charleston Road Registry chose to put .dev on the HSTS preload list from day one, meaning every .dev website runs over HTTPS or doesn't load at all in modern browsers. That's a deliberate call — for a TLD aimed at developers, shipping a secure-by-default namespace sends a clear message about how web development should be done. The Wikipedia entry notes its intended use is for software and web developers, and that's exactly what it got: GitHub Pages, Netlify, and countless dev tools offer .dev domains to their users. But the HSTS requirement adds friction — you can't spin up a plain HTTP test site under .dev, which surprises developers who expect the lazy flexibility of other TLDs.
Why Dev Beats Tech for Your Actual Project
Compare .dev to the other wordmark TLDs that chased the same audience. .tech is a broad flag for anything technology-flavored; .cloud implies infrastructure and storage. But .dev is narrower — it signals code, building, and the act of development itself. A portfolio, an open-source library, a documentation site, or a SaaS dashboard all speak the same language in .dev. Where .io leans startup-cool and .ai screams artificial intelligence, .dev is the plain-spoken professional: it doesn't need to be trendy because it's the natural home for anything a developer actually ships.
The Price of Precision
All that focus comes at a cost. .dev sits in the premium tier — it's nowhere near as cheap as .app or other vanity TLDs. The spread across 38 registrars is wide, with Sav undercutting the rest, but you'll rarely see a bargain bin price for a first-year .dev. That's partly the Google effect: premium TLDs like this get priced to signal quality. For a side-project that may never make money, the annual renewal ($12.68) might make you hesitate. But if the name matters — if it's your product, your open-source project, or your personal brand — the premium buys you a URL that tells recruiters and users exactly what you do, with no explanation needed.