If you’re living in Singapore and in the market to buy a new domain name, you’re probably wondering what type of domain to choose. It can be especially confusing if you’re registering a domain name for the first time as there are so many different domain extensions to select from.
For the people of Singapore though, there are two domains that should be considered the right domain above all others.
On one hand, you’ve got .sg domain names. Classified as a country-code top-level domain name (ccTLD), it is the go-to domain if you’re looking to have a website or email address that speaks exclusively and directly to a Singapore-based audience.
On the other hand, you’ve got .com domain names, a generic top-level domain name (TLD or gTLD) that’s popular worldwide. It has no borders, nor boundaries and can be used for just about any purpose you can think of.
So, should you go with the local .sg domain or the global .com domain? Let’s pit both domains against each other and find out what’s better between .com vs .sg.
What Audiences Do .com And .sg Reach?
If you’re only concerned about reaching a Singapore-based audience, .sg is the domain for you. Everyone within Singapore knows .sg. It’s highly trusted and highly marketable so it will give Singaporeans visiting your business website piece of mind that what your offering speaks directly to them. You don’t get this level of instant credibility with a generic domain like .com, which can mean your website is based anywhere and targets anyone.
If you see yourself going after an audience beyond Singapore borders, .com is probably the domain for you. That’s not to say that .com will hinder your chances of cultivating an audience within Singapore. As mentioned in the opening paragraphs, .com has no borders so it will allow you to generate an audience not just in Singapore but also in the USA, Canada, France, Australia, and so on.
Your desired target audience should always be your primary concern when determining what domain name to register so if you want to target Singapore, .sg is better for you but if you want to target beyond Singapore, .com is better.
You could also consider a .com.sg domain name if you’re targeting a Singaporean audience, especially if you’ll be using it for local business purposes. You can read all about .com.sg in our sister article .sg vs .com.sg.
Will Domain Availability Be an Issue For .com or .sg?
Domain availability is one area where .sg wipes the floor .com.
At the time of writing, there are currently around 161 million .com domains registered globally versus the 200,000 registered Singapore domains. To put it into another perspective, there are 805 times the amount of registered .com domains than there are Singapore domains. We haven’t even considered that a good percentage of that 200,000 isn’t even .sg domains but rather the other Singapore domain extensions like .com.sg and .org.sg.
The fact is, every country on earth is the target market for .com whereas the target market of .sg is much smaller, consisting of the 5.5 million population of Singapore, close by countries in Asia like Malaysia, and international companies looking to establish a business presence in Singapore. When you take that into consideration, it makes sense that .com dwarfs .sg in registration numbers.
Don’t let these numbers discourage you though as the smaller number of registered domains is a huge benefit for .sg. You’ll need to be very lucky (or have a time machine) to register the exact domain name you want in the .com variant but for .sg, you’ll probably have no issues at all.
If you don’t want to compromise on the domain name, go with .sg.
.com vs .sg SEO
Search engines like to provide users with localised search results as it’s a much better user experience. Think about it. If you’re in Singapore and looking to buy a tv or a new shirt, would you want to see listings within Google search for companies based in the United States or Canada that probably don’t offer SGD pricing, or ship to Singapore? I certainly wouldn’t. I would much prefer to see Singapore businesses that service the Singapore market. Search engines like Google know this so that’s why they give a boost to localised domains within localised search engine results.
If you’re using a .sg domain for your website, you’ll receive an automatic ranking boost within Singapore-targeted search engines like google.com.sg.
Using a .com domain for a website won’t give you any benefits within search engines like Google as the .com extension is a generic domain, so it doesn’t have any target country. You’re not going to receive any penalties on a .com but you’re not going to receive any benefits either.
For SEO, go with .sg.
Is There a Price Difference Between .com And .sg?
There tends to be a very big difference between .com and .sg domain name registration pricing.
Most Singapore-based registrars charge around $20 – $25 SGD for .com domain registrations and for .sg, the cost can more than double, with the price range being $40 – $60 SGD.
At OnlyDomains, we charge $14.99 SGD for .com domain registrations and $54.90 SGD for .sg domain registrations. We include the same extras with each domain, including a free business email trial, 24-hour customer support, free URL forwarding, and free DNS hosting.
You’re probably wondering why there’s such a large price difference between .com and .sg. It comes down to two reasons:
- .com has a lower wholesale price than .sg.
- .sg is a more niche product than .com. More niche means fewer competitors and fewer competitors means less aggressive pricing.
If cost is a concern to you, .com is the domain you want. Having said that, you can register .sg domains for around $10 SGD during the month of August as part of the annual ‘I Love .SG’ promotion so if you are budget-conscious but would prefer a .sg domain, consider waiting for the August promotion.
Does .com Or .sg Have Any Domain Requirements?
Due to the open and global nature of .com domains, you don’t need to supply any special details to buy one. Providing your name, address, and contact details should be all you need to successfully register a .com domain.
This isn’t the case for .sg domains, which are classified as restricted domains. This means that before you can register one, there are certain domain requirements that need to be met. Thankfully, the .sg domain requirements aren’t very strict, so the only special information required is a valid Singapore postal address.
Source: SGNIC .SG Category Rules
The administrative contact Singapore postal address requirement might be an issue if your located outside Singapore but since most of the readers of this article will most likely be based in Singapore, you shouldn’t have any issues fulfilling the .sg domain requirements.
So, Is .com or .sg Better?
That brings us to the end of this analysis. To help draw a conclusion, let’s look at a table consisting of the talking points we’ve gone over:
| .com | .sg | |
| Registration Price | $14.99 SGD | $54.90 SGD |
| Target Audience | Any audience | Singapore audiences |
| Availability | Very Limited | Not Limited |
| Popularity | Very popular globally | Very popular in Singapore |
| SEO | No benefits | Benefits in Singapore |
| Registration Requirements | No requirements | Anyone with Singapore address |
When put side by side, it’s easy to see that .com and .sg are very different domains. There’s a very big price difference between them, each domain targets a different audience, .com is very limited whereas .sg isn’t, their popularity is widely different, .sg provides good SEO benefits and .com doesn’t, and one domain is restricted and the other is not.
Despite the major differences, both are very good domains and are worthy of being registered so the question probably shouldn’t be ‘Is .com or .sg better?’ but rather ‘What domain between .com and .sg is better for you?’
If having a domain that targets the Singapore market is important to you then despite the higher price, .sg is the domain you should go for. It offers everything you need to succeed in Singapore.
If you don’t want to limit yourself to just Singapore and plan on targeting many countries, register a .com. Be prepared to compromise on the domain name though.
You could also be greedy and register both domains, giving yourself the best of both worlds.
We appreciate your time today. If you’re ready to register a .com or .sg domain, please visit our domain registration page to start your online journey.
