How TLDscout makes money and ranks results

Last updated 2 October 2026

Paid links

TLDscout is free and has no ads. To pay for running it, C.S. Assets LLC may join registrars' affiliate programs. The registrars we link to this way are Dynadot, Namecheap, NameSilo and Spaceship. When we're in a registrar's program, its links on TLDscout are paid links: if you follow one and buy, that registrar may pay us a share of what you spend (typically 10–30% of a first order by a new customer). You pay exactly the same as you would by going there directly.

• Every paid link says "paid link" right on it, and a line above the results says that some links are paid.
• A registrar link without that label earns us nothing.
• Paid links go straight to the registrar's affiliate network and then to the registrar's search. They carry the extension you were looking at (for example "tv") as a tag, so we can see which extensions are useful, and nothing about you or the name you searched.
• We don't show these registrars' prices. A registrar's price appears on TLDscout only if it has agreed to it in writing.
• We don't show coupon codes, and we don't pre-load or hide registrar pages to set their cookies before you click.

Reference prices (unpaid)

Porkbun's and Cloudflare's prices are shown as reference prices: their published standard prices per year, with the time the price list was fetched. Neither pays TLDscout anything (Porkbun ended its affiliate program and Cloudflare has none). We show them because they're useful: they're often among the lowest standard prices, and a known price helps you compare.

Cloudflare's prices come from cfdomainpricing.com by NameBeta (MIT licence), an unofficial list, not from Cloudflare itself.

How results are ordered

No one can pay for a better position, a different label or a highlighted row. You choose the order with the sort menu:

• Popular first (the default): extensions in a fixed order of how widely used they are (.com, .net, .org, .io, .co, .ai, .app, .dev …), then the rest alphabetically. The list is the same for every search and has nothing to do with commissions. "Domain hacks" (names that use the extension as part of the word, like moonbake.ry) get their own list above.
• A–Z: alphabetical by extension.
• Cheapest first: by the lowest reference price for the minimum term (first year plus any required extra years, such as .ai's two years). Names priced as premium, and extensions without a reference price, go last.
• Shortest first: by the length of the whole name as shown.

The chips above the results ("Likely available", "Available", "Unavailable" …) filter rows by what DNS or the registry said, nothing else. The registrar buttons on each row are always in the same order: Porkbun and Cloudflare with their reference prices, then the other registrars alphabetically.

What we never do

• Sell or share what you search for, or publish searches.
• Register, reserve or "front-run" names people search for.
• Let a commission change a result's label (Taken, Not in DNS, Available) or its place in the list.

Questions: [email protected].