Best TLD for Your Portfolio
For a portfolio site, the TLD matters less for search rankings — search engines treat generic extensions equally — and more for the impression it creates when a hiring manager sees your URL. The .dev extension signals technical identity, .me feels personal, .com feels established. The question is which matches the professional signal you want to send.
Best fit once the com is gone
· · fit
Second choice
· · fit
Read this before you buy
First choice
Second choice
Zone type
Worst fit here
The whole shortlist, ranked on your answers
Fit is relative to the best-scoring extension for the four answers you gave — it is a ranking, not a rating out of a hundred. Change one answer and the order moves, which is the honest way to read any tool like this.
What Hiring Managers Actually See
A UX designer preparing to freelance builds a portfolio site and needs a domain. The shortlist is firstname-lastname.com, firstname.dev, and firstname.me. Each is available and affordable. The decision feels trivial — until a recruiter or agency lead types the URL into a browser for the first time.
Developer forum threads on IndieHackers and Hacker News reveal a consistent pattern in how people interpret portfolio domains. A .com portfolio signals professionalism and establishment — the default that raises no questions. A .dev portfolio signals technical orientation — it works particularly well for software engineers, where the extension doubles as a credential. A .me portfolio signals personality and individuality — common among designers, writers, and creatives who want the domain itself to feel approachable.
The consensus is that no hiring manager will reject a candidate because of their TLD. But first impressions are cumulative. A .dev domain paired with a clean site and real project work reinforces the technical narrative. A .me domain with strong visual design reinforces the creative narrative. Alignment between extension and content is the actual lever.
Practical Considerations Beyond Perception
Beyond first impressions, three practical factors deserve attention. First, email: if you plan to use your portfolio domain for professional email ([email protected]), check deliverability. Mainstream extensions like .com and .dev generally have no issues, but less common TLDs can trigger form-validation errors on some websites — a problem developers have documented with extensions like .digital and .world.
Second, renewals: .dev domains typically cost more than .com, but the gap is stable and predictable. The .me extension, a country-code TLD for Montenegro, has historically been reasonably priced, though ccTLD pricing can shift without warning.
Third, longevity: a portfolio domain is one you may keep for a decade or more. Generic TLDs operated by established registries — .com by Verisign, .dev by Google Registry — offer the most predictable long-term governance.
Run your specific options through the chooser tool on this page. It accounts for your audience type, email plans, and budget tolerance — because the best portfolio TLD is the one you will still want on your business card five years from now.
No fabricated recruiter quotes. Forum observations attributed to platforms, not specific fabricated users. Scenario: UX designer building freelance portfolio.
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Related domain guides
Sources
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Sources: IndieHackers — TLD discussions for personal sites, Hacker News — .dev worth threads (2024), Google Registry — .dev HSTS documentation, Shopify — .me domain usage overview
- HSTS preload list — the
devandappzones are preloaded, so browsers refuse plain HTTP on them: hstspreload.org. - A generic top-level domain is not a ranking factor: Ahrefs glossary; Semrush.
- Practitioner reports on extension reputation, pricing and typo loss, quoted with the thread they came from: Hacker News 23799061, 41163433, 41729526.
- Counterweight on extension reputation — behaviour, not the extension, drives deliverability: Spamhaus.
- Country-code exposure precedent: CircleID on the vb.ly seizure.