What’s the difference between .com, .net, .org?
In: Other
**.com -** Businesses, industries, etc. ‘*com*mercial’,
**.org** – Non-profit businesses/organization and the like.
**.net -** ISP’s, phone networks, PC networks, etc.
The above rules are not enforced, however, domains like **.edu** (Schools), **.gov** (Government organizations) and **.us** (Any entity that has a presence in the US) are enforced. So basically .com, .org and .net really don’t mean anything.
The only difference is intent.
“.com” was originally intended to be used for commercial (hence “com”) businesses, while “.org” was meant to be used for non-profit organizations. “.net” was intended to be used for networking businesses (internet providers, infrastructure companies, etc).
No restrictions on the use of these was ever enforced, though, so over time people came to realize that you could register whatever top-level domain you wanted for any purpose and it just didn’t matter.
In the distant past the domains (.com, .net, .org, .gov, etc.) were meant to be given out to different types of organizations. It was supposed to be a way to organize the net a bit.
.com for commercial purposes (and companies) but was open to anyone.
.net for networks and internet stuff
.org for kinda “other” but really for non-commercial organizations and stuff, this was always a janky one.
However… this never really worked, because .com became the preferred one for just about everything, and the names lost all meaning very very quickly and everyone just assumed you would be a “.com” no matter what you were.
They are all currently open and unrestricted now, anyone can get a .com, .net, or .org for any reason they want.
[A search](https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/search/?q=org%20net%20com&restrict_sr=1&sort=new)
The original intent was for .com to represent businesses/commercial websites, .net was for networking/ISPs, and .org was for non-profit organizations.
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