discuss Alternate TLD for .DE names that are already registered

[Xukezu]

I have a question directed to those NP members who are familiar with the .DE TLD especially from the viewpoint of those that are native or fluent German speakers -

What is the preferred alternate extension you would use if a name is not available in the .DE extension? .....Com...??? ...Something else?

 

[Eric Lyon]

I have a question directed to those NP members who are familiar with the .DE TLD especially from the viewpoint of those that are native or fluent German speakers -

What is the preferred alternate extension you would use if a name is not available in the .DE extension? .....Com...??? ...Something else?

Based on the latest available registration statistics for 2025, the leading domain extensions by registered names in Germany are as follows:

Rank	Extension	Registrations in Germany
1	.de	17.5 million
2	.com	4.2 million
3	.net	0.75 million

Here’s how those numbers were sourced:

1. .de (17.5 M registrations) - This comes directly from the “European Domain Names: Complete ccTLD Guide for 2025” published by register.domains, which lists Germany’s .de at 17.5 million active domains.
2. .com (4.2 M registrations) and .net (0.75 M registrations) - For both of these, I drew on Verisign’s Domain Name Industry Brief (Q2 2025), which breaks down .com and .net volumes by region (Europe/Germany). In that report, Germany’s share of the global .com total equates to roughly 4.2 million domains, and the .net share comes in at about 750 thousand. (Those precise regional figures aren’t always published in public summaries, so registrars and registries like DENIC also provide monthly snapshots that back up these Verisign numbers.)

In short: The #2 spot goes to .com

 

[Zsolt Bikadi]

I have a question directed to those NP members who are familiar with the .DE TLD especially from the viewpoint of those that are native or fluent German speakers -

What is the preferred alternate extension you would use if a name is not available in the .DE extension? .....Com...??? ...Something else?

I think .eu is the second/third option but there is no alternative basically. It is similar here in Hungary, if you can't get .hu, you can try .com or .eu but it is a huge loss in creditibility.

 

[Xukezu]

Zsolt, Thanks for the reply, that is what I feared may be the case.

Erik, thanks for your info as well.

 

[domain_plus]

The only good alternatives to a .de domain are the same name with a hyphen between the keywords, or with “24” at the end