.shop, .store, .online vs .com: pricing and SEO 2026

Opening an online shop in the coming weeks, with Black Friday and Christmas in sight, almost always raises the same question: register a branded domain like .shop or .store, or stick with the classic .it or .com? The answer depends on what you're looking at: your budget, SEO performance, or customer trust.

What they actually cost

To compare extensions without mixing different price lists (each registrar applies its own margins), we've used the official Register.it price list as our reference, checked on 25 October 2026. Prices exclude VAT and cover one year:

Extension	Registration	Renewal Tier A	Renewal Tier B
.it, .com, .eu, .net, .org, .info, .mobi	€58.55	€58.55	€50.55
.online	€70.50	€70.50	€68.15
.shop	€82.30	€82.30	€79.50
.store	€77.60	€77.60	—

Extension	Registration	Renewal Tier A	Renewal Tier B	Transfer
.online	€70.50 excl. VAT	€70.50 excl. VAT	€68.15 excl. VAT	€70.50 excl. VAT
.shop	€82.30 excl. VAT	€82.30 excl. VAT	€79.50 excl. VAT	€82.30 excl. VAT

Tier B applies to those who exceed a spending threshold for domain purchases at the same registrar within a year.

The .store is listed at €0.90 instead of €77.60 (excl. VAT) as a limited-time first-year promotion: the full price, which you pay on renewal, remains €77.60.

Watch out for loss-leader offers: as an independent domain pricing guide points out, the 0.99 or 3.99 offers you see everywhere only apply to the first year—from year two you pay full price, which can be triple on some providers. This applies to .shop and .store just as much as .com: the number to watch is always the renewal price, not the figure on the homepage.

What about SEO?

Here the source is direct: Google itself. In an official blog post for developers, Google stated that its systems treat new gTLDs the same as other gTLDs (like .com and .org), and that keywords in a TLD carry no SEO advantage or disadvantage. This isn't an isolated statement: in the latest Ask Googlebot series responses, John Mueller reiterated that newer top-level domains are equivalent to other generic first-level domains like .com for SEO purposes, simply inviting people to choose whichever extension they prefer.

A .shop domain, then, doesn't start at a disadvantage in the algorithm. What changes is everything downstream: user trust and click-through rate. Someone launching a new e-commerce with no track record can rely on a .com or .it domain as the "safe" choice for perception, but doesn't automatically gain ranking points by choosing it.

The practical choice

For anyone making the decision before Black Friday: if the .com or .it name you need is available and your budget can handle it, it remains the lowest-risk perceptual option. If your ideal name is already taken on .com, a thematic .shop or .store doesn't penalise your SEO and costs around €20–24 more per year on the Register.it price list compared to a .com renewal in Tier A. In any case, note the renewal price from year two onwards, not the promotional rate.