Read an ending's rules before you hold names there

The registry's rules sit above yours

Every ending has a registry, the company or body that keeps its list of names. You hold a name through a registrarRegistrarThe company you buy and renew a domain through, such as Namecheap or GoDaddy. It does not own the name, it only registers it for you.Read the definition, under a registration agreement, and that agreement defers to the registry's policies. So your name lives inside those rules.

ICANN contracts the generic endings, which are called gTLDsgTLDAn ending open to everyone worldwide, like .com or .shop.Read the definition, and its registry agreementRegistry agreementThe contract between ICANN and the company that runs a generic ending. It limits what that company may do, on renewal pricing for instance.Read the definition limits what their registries may do. A country ending, called a ccTLDccTLDAn ending for a country, like .fr or .io, sometimes open to anyone and sometimes only to residents.Read the definition, answers to its own country instead. ICANN has little oversight of country endings, and each country can set its own policies, as Andrew Allemann wrote on Domain Name Wire on 9 October 2024.

That article pointed to .ai, the code of the island of Anguilla, where basically one person set the policies, and those policies had changed. On 1 June 2026, Allemann wrote the same of .co: it is not subject to ICANN's rulemaking, and it can change its policies as it wishes.

Who may hold a name, and how that changes

Many endings limit who may hold a name, and that limit can change. EURid, the .eu registry, told UK holders about Brexit: from 1 January 2021 they would no longer be eligible, unless they showed an entity, a residence or a citizenship in a member state (OnlineDomain, 28 December 2020).

Some endings check a holder's identity. On .music, holders must verify their identity, and their link to the music industry, within 90 days, according to Domain Incite on 1 October 2024. Until then, the name is on holdHoldA status that takes a name offline: it stays registered but stops working. A registrar or a registry sets it, often over an unpaid bill or a dispute.Read the definition and does not resolve. Without that check, the registry can delete or suspend the name, with no refund.

Other endings bar holding a name only to resell it. Australia's policy, as Domain Incite described it on 14 June 2018, had barred this since 2012: nobody could register a .au name only to resell or transfer it. Investors relied on a gap in that rule: a name that showed ads was not held for resale alone.

The case below is the 2026 move on that gap by auDA, the .au registry. It also planned, subject to board approval, to grandfatherGrandfatheringLetting those who already hold something keep it under the old rule when a new rule arrives. Only newcomers face the new rule.Read the definition existing .com.au and .net.au holders (Domain Name Wire, 21 October 2026). That would spare those holders the new rule, while new registrations would still face it.

Re-priced, reserved, taken back or on hold

Premium names on newer endings sit in price tiers that the registry sets. A registry can raise the renewal of a whole tier if it gives registrars six months' notice (Allemann, Domain Name Wire, 26 July 2022).

Moving one name to a higher tier when it is already held is less clear. Allemann, writing on Domain Name Wire on 26 July 2022, knew of no such case. ICANN's first reading was that such a move might break the uniform renewal pricing in its contract, pending a full review.

Expiry can reset the price. When a name expires, Allemann added, the price can change for the next holder.

On .co, premium renewalsPremium renewalA yearly renewal the company that runs an ending sets above its standard price for one name. Whoever holds the name pays it, so a buyer counts it with the price.Read the definition came after the ending's launch, as Domain Name Wire reported on 1 June 2026. Names that were already registered kept the old renewal, but a name that is fully deleted and re-registered takes the premium. The registry's new rule, due by 1 October 2026, would bar registrars from auctioning an expired .co name without the registry's authorization.

A registry can also hold names back from sale and release them later. Identity Digital planned to release about 5,000 reserved names at premium first-year prices, with rock.band and box.wine among them (Domain Incite, 1 September 2022).

A registry can take a name back, too. ICM Registry deleted ads.porn and ads.adult about two days after a buyer registered them, OnlineDomain reported on 11 June 2015. ICM's chairman said the two names had been released by mistake, and that they were cancelled as the registration agreement provides. The registrar refunded the buyer, and the chairman also offered the buyer another reserved name.

And a registry can put a name on hold. Telegram's short link for usernames and channels, t.me, showed a Server Hold, which is a status that the registry sets (Domain Name Wire, 13 July 2026).

Once t.me was back online, the .me registry said the hold was due to US sanctions rules. Domain Name Wire, updating its report of 13 July 2026, added that one link on t.me led to a company on the sanctions list.

When the registry changes hands or the code goes

When the registry of a gTLD quits, ICANN has a safety net. ICANN placed .desi, an ending with about 1,900 names, with its Emergency Back-End Registry OperatorEmergency Back-End Registry OperatorA stand-in operator ICANN appoints to keep an ending’s names working when the company that ran it shuts down or stops meeting its duties.Read the definition while it sought a new operator (Domain Name Wire, 17 October 2023). That emergency operator was set up to keep names working when a registry shuts down. Desi Networks had chosen to end its contract.

A country code can be retired. ICANN's policy, approved in 2022, retires a code once its territory leaves ISO 3166-1, the standard list of country codes. The retirement comes after five years by default, and that period can be extended by up to five more years. ICANN had privately told the .su registry of a plan to retire .su by 2030, according to Domain Name Wire on 11 March 2025.

.su, the Soviet Union's code, left the ISO list in 1992. It still held around 100,000 names. ICANN's chief executive said that no formal notice had been sent, and that there was no timeline for one (Domain Incite, 13 March 2025). As .su shows, a code that could be retired can stay open for decades.

Apps, forms and browsers have rules too

A newer ending also meets software that was written before the ending existed. WhatsApp did not turn a name into a link if the name's ending was delegatedDelegationThe day a new ending is added to the root zone and starts working.Read the definition after roughly November 2015 (Domain Incite, 11 September 2023). The cause was apparently an Android library whose list of endings had not been updated since 24 November 2015. Typing www. in front of the name made the link work.

WhatsApp on Android now made those names clickable, Domain Incite reported on 30 May 2024, citing the .tube registry. By our count, that was about eight and a half years after the cut-off. Apple devices had not caught up.

Email forms are a second filter. In a study of 749 popular websites with email forms, 22% of the sites would not recognize addresses on endings longer than four characters (Domain Incite, 28 September 2017). Murphy noted that the paper did not mention testing .com addresses for comparison.

Browsers are a third filter. After .sx launched, Chrome showed search results when someone typed a .sx name in the address bar, by Domain Incite's account of 3 September 2013. Murphy gave that as an example of how browsers tend to mishandle an ending that is missing from the Public Suffix ListPublic Suffix ListA public list of every ending, kept by volunteers, that browsers and other software read to know where a domain name ends.Read the definition. Browsers read that list to know which endings exist.

Some endings carry a rule of their own. A .app name needs a security certificate before it can be used, Domain Name Wire wrote on 3 January 2019. The reason is that .app is on the HSTS preload listHSTS preload listA list built into browsers of sites and endings that must always load over an encrypted connection. A name on a listed ending needs a security certificate to work.Read the definition, which makes browsers use encrypted connections. That makes .app names tricky to park, Allemann wrote, though some people found ways.

What the ending's page shows and leaves out

In Unique Domains, an ending's page reads the ending's public record. Registry status names the registry operator and its country, and a terminated contract when there is one. It also gives the day the ending entered the root zoneRoot zoneThe master list of every ending that works on the internet.Read the definition, which is the master list of endings. Launch timeline lists the ending's phases, and In the news lists our stories that name the ending.

What it costs lists each registrar's first-year price and renewal, with the renewal trapRenewal trapA cheap first year followed by a renewal at least twice the first year and at least $10 more. The low price wins the sale, and the yearly fee afterwards is where the cost really is.Read the definition flag. On .us, the median renewal across the registrars we price is $7.50. On the website, Before you register adds a stored note where we hold one.

The website's page is free for endings such as .us, .co, .eu and .me. Market > TLDsTLDThe ending of a domain name, like .com, .ai or .io. Short for top-level domain.Read the definition, on the Investor plan, covers every ending and adds a Watch on the prices of an ending we price. That Watch says what it sends today.

We do not hold the registry's terms, its eligibility rules in full, its reserved and premium lists, its expired-name policy, or a warning of a policy change. Nothing we show flags an ending's policy risk. That reading is yours to do, at the registry and, for a gTLD, at ICANN.

Before the twentieth name

• Find out who runs the ending, and whether ICANN or a country sets its rules.
• Read who may hold a name there, and what a holder must prove.
• Check whether holding a name only to resell it is allowed.
• Look for the registry's lists of reserved and premium names.
• Read what happens to an expired name, and who may auction it.
• Search the trade press for the ending's last year: a rule review, a hold, a new registry or a retirement.
• Test a link on the ending in a messaging app, and an address on it in an email form.
• Count the names you hold on one ending: they all depend on one registry.