Register a .ws domain
Split your brand name across a .ws domain and it reads as "website" — Samoa's ccTLD, one flat price at Modusdom. Samoa owns .ws, but the letters get borrowed constantly for a different reason: split a name across the dot and it parses as "website" or "world site." Modusdom prices it flat, with email authentication set up before you launch.
Who picks .ws?
- Consumer apps punning on "website" by splitting the brand name at the dot
- Businesses or organizations genuinely serving Samoa and the wider Pacific
- News or link-shortening projects chasing the ne.ws-style split-word pattern
What it signals
A .ws purchase means one of two things: a real Samoa or Pacific connection, or a founder who liked that "yourbrand.ws" reads as "yourbrandsite" out loud — it's a wordplay call, not a default.
Pros
- No citizenship, residency, or local-presence requirement for the standard .ws
- The split-word "website" trick is a real, repeatable naming device, not a stretch
- Google indexes it generically rather than geo-targeting to Samoa, so it can rank for a worldwide audience
- Legitimate option if you're actually building for the Samoan market
- Current registration and renewal rates are shown separately below; rates can change
Watch-outs
- Most people still read .ws as an unfamiliar country code before they parse it as "website" — you're spending effort teaching that trick
- The split-word trick is popular enough that good word-break names get claimed fast
- No UDRP-caliber, court-backed dispute process specific to this ccTLD — recourse leans on general policy
Registry restrictions
The base .ws is open worldwide with no citizenship, residency, or local-presence requirement to register. Reserved second-level zones such as .gov.ws and .edu.ws are restricted to qualifying Samoan government and education entities, but the plain .ws that most registrants want carries no such limits.