Domain name comparison · by the numbers
Compare your shortlist. Get a ranking only when the data earns one.
Paste up to 5 candidate names and see each one’s appraised wholesale range side by side. Other comparers score availability and SEO metrics; this one compares what the reported aftermarket says the names are worth — and refuses to declare a winner when the ranges can’t be told apart.
OVERLAP — the appraised ranges don’t separate cedar.com from getcedar.com. The data can’t rank them, so we won’t: the choice between these candidates rests on brand fit, audience, and acquisition cost — the judgment half the engine doesn’t model.
Ranges are wholesale: the middle half of reported investor-to-investor sales for each name’s class, adjusted by the same named factors the homepage tool itemizes. For any candidate’s full record — every factor priced, retail range, confidence reasoning — run it through the appraisal tool.
Informational only, not professional advice. The comparison ranks reported-market resale ranges — not brand fit, not availability, not what a name would cost you to acquire. Runs entirely in your browser; nothing you type is sent or stored.
How the comparison works
Last reviewed: July 2026
Each row is a full appraisal
Every candidate runs through our appraisal engine — the full pipeline behind the homepage tool, with its methodology published there — verbatim, so this comparison can never disagree with the single-domain appraisal. Ranges are anchored to reported sales in the NameBio public sales database, itemized factor by factor on the homepage record. Names typed without an extension are appraised as .com, and the row says so.
When a leader is named — and when it isn’t
The verdict applies one strict test: the top candidate’s low end must clear the runner-up’s high end. Pass, and the leader is named with the gap stated — even the most pessimistic reading of its range beats the most optimistic reading of the next one’s. Fail, and the verdict is OVERLAP: the ranges intersect, so any ranking between them would be precision the sales data doesn’t contain. Overlap is the common outcome, and that’s the point — a comparer that always crowns a winner is making the number up. Because rows are ordered by range top, a leader that separates from the runner-up separates from every other candidate too.
What the comparison can’t see
- Resale value is not brand value. Audience trust, memorability, pronunciation, and legal clearance decide naming outcomes and appear nowhere in sales data — which is exactly why an OVERLAP verdict hands the decision back to those factors instead of pretending the numbers settled it. Our guide on choosing between domain name candidates walks both halves of the decision, each labeled.
- Acquisition cost is invisible. An appraised range describes the reported resale market, not what each name’s current owner will charge you. Weigh the verdict against the asking prices you’ve actually been quoted — our guide on judging a domain’s asking price works that side of the decision.
- Not a trademark check. A candidate containing someone else’s mark can be worth less than zero (UDRP risk) — the engine’s standing note applies to every row.
- Confidence grades vary by row. Comparing a measured-cell A-grade range against a judgment-band C-grade range is weaker than it looks, and the grades are printed on each row so you can see when that’s happening.
Comparing the same name across extensions is a different job with measured multipliers behind it — that’s the TLD value comparison. For lists longer than 5, the bulk appraisal handles up to 1,000 names.
Frequently asked questions
Why won't the tool just tell me which name wins?
Because most of the time the data can't. An appraisal is a range, not a point, and when two candidates' ranges overlap, any single-score ranking between them is precision the underlying sales data doesn't contain. This tool names a leader only when the top candidate's low end clears the runner-up's high end — meaning even the most pessimistic reading of one beats the most optimistic reading of the other. Anything less than that gets an honest OVERLAP verdict, because a comparison tool that always produces a winner is manufacturing certainty, not measuring it.
Does a higher appraised range mean the better business name?
No — it means the better resale asset, which is a different question. The ranges rank names by what comparable reported aftermarket sales suggest they'd fetch, and say nothing about whether your audience trusts the name, whether it's memorable or pronounceable, or whether it clears a trademark search. A founder can rationally pick a lower-appraised candidate for brand reasons; this tool's job is to make sure that choice is made knowing the resale numbers, not guessing them.
The comparison ignores what each name would cost me to buy — why?
Because asking prices aren't public data the way reported sales are. A candidate's appraised range describes its reported-market resale value, not the number its current owner will quote you — and a "leader" you can't afford loses to a runner-up you can. Pair this comparison with the asking prices you've actually been quoted; if you're weighing one specific price, our offer and asking-price tools work that side of the question.
My candidates show different confidence grades — can I still compare them?
Yes, but read the comparison as weaker than the ranges alone suggest. A grade-A range comes from a directly measured sales cell with no judgment multipliers; a grade-C range involves a labeled judgment call, like an unmeasured extension's wide ×0.1–0.5 band. When an A-grade range and a C-grade range overlap, the honest reading is "we especially can't rank these" — the C-grade range could sit almost anywhere inside its band. The grades are printed on every row precisely so a cross-grade comparison can't masquerade as a like-for-like one.