.black Domains: A Short Ending Built on a Colour
.black entered the root zone on 20 March 2014, and its registry is Identity Digital Limited; the extension comes from the former Afilias portfolio. It belongs to the group that describes no sector at all — it names neither a profession nor a product class, only a colour. That places the address in suggestive rather than descriptive territory, and it also settles why people choose it: the meaning arrives from the brand.
No published eligibility condition could be verified, so the name appears open on a first-come basis. The decision rule follows from that: if the address will not state your line of work, the rest of the name has to do that job. Fashion, design, limited runs and campaign pages work well with short endings of this kind. Keeping the corporate address on a descriptive ending and reserving this one for a campaign is also common. Try candidates with a domain name search.
.BLACK Domain at a Glance
- Sponsoring organisation Identity Digital Limited
- Root zone record 20 March 2014
- Eligibility condition No verified restriction
- Type of extension A colour name, describing no sector
- Document Requirement No documents are required to register a .black domain
- Character Length 1 - 63 characters
- Registration Period 1 - 10 years
- Name Server Count 2 - 10 servers
Related Domain Extensions
Registering the same name on more than one extension keeps someone else from taking your brand.
.black Domain Prices — No Surprise Fees
Registration, transfer and renewal fees are listed separately. The renewal price can differ from the first-year price, so you see both up front.
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New Registration
$21.90 /year -
Transfer
$69.99 /year -
Renewal
$69.99 /year -
Restore
$164.90 -
Late Renewal
$12.44
Included With Every .black Domain
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Free DNS management
Change A, MX, TXT and CNAME records yourself from the panel — no waiting on anyone when you move a site or mailbox.
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Domain lock
While the lock is on, nobody can move your domain to another registrar without your approval.
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Domain forwarding
Point the domain at your existing site, a campaign page or a social profile — at no extra cost.
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Free WHOIS privacy
Your name, address and phone stay out of public WHOIS records, which cuts down spam and scam calls.
.black Domain Lifecycle
What happens day by day after it expires
Day 0 is the domain's expiry dateIn short: your .black domain is put on Client Hold on its expiry date, so the site and e-mail stop that same day. You can still renew during the first 20 days, but from this point a late renewal fee is added on top of the renewal price. On day 20 the registration is deleted and until day 50 only a paid restore brings it back. Nothing at all can be done in the 5 days that follow, and on day 55 the name is open to anyone. There is exactly one way never to enter this chain: keep auto-renewal on.
Domain Is Available (Available)
A .black address at this stage has not been taken yet, and it goes to whoever registers first. Check the name you have in mind — if it is free, it can be yours within minutes.
Domain Is Active (Active Period)
Once registration is complete, the domain is registered to you for the term you selected. You can renew at any point before it expires to keep it active, or switch on auto-renewal so you never have to watch the date.
Renewal Window (Client Hold)
On its expiry date your .black domain is put on Client Hold: the site and e-mail go down that day, but the registration is still yours. A single renewal within these first 20 days brings everything back exactly as it was — nothing is lost. The only difference is that a $12.44 late renewal fee is now added to the renewal price; renewing before the expiry date avoids that fee entirely.
Redemption Period (Redemption / RGP)
On day 20 the registration is deleted and the 30-day redemption period that ICANN requires of every gTLD registry begins. The name is not released to anyone during this time; only you can take it back, by paying the restore fee, until day 50. That fee is far higher than a renewal — renewing on time is always the cheaper route.
Pending Delete (Pending Delete)
Once the redemption window closes too, the domain enters its final 5 days and there is no way back. Neither renewal nor restore works here; nobody — your registrar included — can return the name to you. The registry uses this window as the last hold before the name goes back into the pool.
Open to Anyone Again (Released)
On day 55 the name .black returns to the pool and anyone can register it. Sought-after names are often gone within seconds, and there is no guaranteed way to get one back. Yet staying out of this timeline is entirely in your hands: leave auto-renewal on and the expiry date will never catch you off guard.
The timeline above is the schedule Atak Domain applies and publishes. The ICANN chart you will find elsewhere shows a renewal window of up to 45 days after expiry; ICANN's policy on expired registrations (section 2.2.1) lets registrars delete an expired domain at any time, provided they disclose their policy in advance. We apply that window as 20 days and publish it here in plain sight. Full text of the policy: ICANN Expired Registration Recovery Policy
.black Domain Specifications and Registration Rules
Registration conditions, supported features and the registry's own timelines in a single table.
.black Domain Registration
- Document Requirement No documents are required to register a .black domain
- Character Length 1 - 63 characters
- Registration Period 1 - 10 years
- Name Server Count 2 - 10 servers
.black Domain Support
- IDN Support No
- Transfer Support Yes
- Late Renewal Support Yes
Frequently Asked Questions About .black Domains
The questions people actually ask before registering — answered plainly.
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No published eligibility condition could be verified; the name appears open on a first-come basis. You need not operate in a given sector, file documents or wait for approval. That is the difference from restricted endings: the ordering flow carries no extra verification step. Read your registrar's own agreement even so, because some conditions are set on the seller's side and vary from one registrar to the next.
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The decision rule is this: does the whole address say what you do? A colour suggests rather than describes, so it works when the brand is already known or the name carries meaning by itself. For a new and unfamiliar business where the visitor must learn from the address what is being sold, a descriptive ending is the safer choice. Compare both approaches on one root with a bulk domain name search.
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Yes, and it is one of the most productive uses of a short ending. Keeping the corporate address on a descriptive ending while moving a seasonal or one-off campaign to its own address simplifies both measurement and messaging. When the campaign ends the address goes to a redirect, and as long as the registration runs nobody else can take it. Confirm the ownership record with a whois search.
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Yes, the extension is transferable and the process matches other generic endings. You remove the lock, collect the authorisation code and start the request at the new registrar; the name is expected not to have been registered or transferred in the previous 60 days. The site keeps working throughout, because DNS records are independent of the transfer. Run it from the domain transfer page.
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Because it attaches to no sector, use is shaped by the brand instead. In practice it turns up where visual identity leads: fashion, design, limited production runs and event communications. The absence of a sector claim becomes the advantage here — the address conveys the tone of the brand rather than the nature of the work. When choosing, favour a short root that is easy to read aloud.
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