Acilox Reads
· 5 min read
The case for boring domain names
Why we standardized on acilox.com over four cleverer alternatives, and what we would do again on the next brand decision.
We had five domains shortlisted. We picked the boring one.
The shortlist
- acilox.com (boring, canonical)
- getacilox.com (cute “get” prefix, growth-coded)
- acilox.studio (TLD-as-adjective, very 2023)
- acilox.app (premium-feeling, but locks the story to “app”)
- acilox.dev (developer-coded, can narrow non-technical verticals)
Why the primary .com won
Three reasons:
- Category-neutral — one domain has to credibly host SaaS, games, long-form editorial, and downloadable templates. A TLD that whispers a single vertical becomes a cage within two years.
- Muscle memory — browsers and address bars reward repetition. A short brand plus
.comis easy to say on a podcast, easy to spell from audio, easy to type from memory. - Aging gracefully — the branded houses we respect most picked the plain version early and stopped debating it. Clever domains feel clever until you are reading them aloud to a customer support agent.
The cleverer options felt clever right up until we imagined writing them on a whiteboard during a sales call. Boring domains compound.