What Is The Best Domain Extension For Cold Email? (2024)

The best domain extension for cold email is .com

If you send cold emails from an email address that uses the wrong domain extension, then your emails will go to spam.

In this article, I cover everything that you need to know about choosing the right domain extension for your next cold email campaign:

• What is a domain extension?
• Why are some domain extensions better than others?
• What is the best domain extension for cold email?
• What are the worst domain extensions?
• Final thoughts

What is a domain extension?

A domain extension, also known as a top-level domain (TLD), is the part in a URL that follows the domain name.

For example, www.emailchaser.com uses the “.com” domain extension (TLD).

There are nearly 1,600 different domain extensions listed in the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) Root Zone Database.

There are generic TLDs (domain extensions), such as .com, .net and .org. There are also country code top-level domains (domain extensions) such as .uk, .mx and .fr (these are known as ccTLDs).

Why are some domain extensions better than others?

Some domain extensions have better deliverability than others.

This means that if you send cold emails from email addresses that are set up with certain domain extensions, then you are significantly more likely to reach the primary inbox (not spam).

Email service providers (such as Gmail and Outlook) are fighting a war against spam, and one of the easiest things that they can do to fight spam is to automatically send all emails from certain domain extensions to the spam folder.

Spammers will typically use less expensive domain extensions to send their emails. As a result, it is effective for email service providers to automatically send these emails to spam folders.

For example, a .fun TLD costs less than $2 per year to register. Whereas a .com can be $10 to $20 per year to register. Spammers are much more likely to choose the cheaper domain extensions, and thus, email service providers trust them less.

What is the best domain extension for cold email?

The best domain extension for cold emailing is the .com TLD.

There is a strong consensus in the cold email community that .com email addresses have the best deliverability.

The below tweet from Chris Frantz highlights this reality:

guys please stop sending email from .xyz tld's

you’re going to have a bad time

send from a .com and redirect to your .xyz primary domain

— Chris Frantz (@frantzfries) August 31, 2023

I recommend that you do not cut corners and try to save money when buying your domains, as this will result in your emails going to spam.

What are the worst domain extensions?

In my opinion, any domain extension that isn’t .com is not good for cold email sending.

However, if I had to rank which TLDs are the worst, then I’d reference this page from Spamhaus that shows the The 10 Most Abused Top Level Domains.

These domain extensions have the worst reputations, and should never be used. If you send cold emails from these extensions, then your emails will definitely go to the spam folder.

Frequently asked questions

Final thoughts

The best domain extension for cold emailing is the .com TLD.

I recommend that you only use .com domains for your email addresses.

If you want to learn how to correctly buy and set up your .com domains, then check out my article How To Set Up A Domain For Cold Email.

I also recommend that you read my article Should You Send Cold Emails From Your Primary Domain?