.boston Domains: An Address That Shows Local Roots
.boston entered the root zone on 21 November 2016, and the IANA record names Registry Services, LLC — GoDaddy Registry — as the sponsoring organisation. This is a city extension: it points at Boston, in the state of Massachusetts in the United States. The registry describes the name as a way to show pride in the city and refers to it by its local nickname.
Despite carrying a city name, there is no nexus requirement: according to secondary sources you need not live in Boston or operate there. That cuts both ways. For a business genuinely working in the city the address builds local trust; used with no connection to the city, it sets an expectation the site cannot meet. Test candidates with a domain name search.
.BOSTON Domain at a Glance
- Sponsoring organisation Registry Services, LLC (GoDaddy Registry)
- Root zone record 21 November 2016
- City and country Boston, Massachusetts — United States
- Nexus requirement None — no residence or local operation required
- Document Requirement No documents are required to register a .boston domain
- Character Length 1 - 63 characters
- Registration Period 1 - 10 years
- Name Server Count 1 - 13 servers
.boston 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
$23.39 /year -
Transfer
$23.39 /year -
Renewal
$25.19 /year -
Restore
$119.90 -
Late Renewal
$5.50
Included With Every .boston 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.
.boston Domain Lifecycle
What happens day by day after it expires
Day 0 is the domain's expiry dateIn short: your .boston 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 .boston 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 .boston 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 $5.50 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 .boston 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
.boston Domain Specifications and Registration Rules
Registration conditions, supported features and the registry's own timelines in a single table.
.boston Domain Registration
- Document Requirement No documents are required to register a .boston domain
- Character Length 1 - 63 characters
- Registration Period 1 - 10 years
- Name Server Count 1 - 13 servers
.boston Domain Support
- IDN Support No
- Transfer Support Yes
- Late Renewal Support Yes
Frequently Asked Questions About .boston Domains
The questions people actually ask before registering — answered plainly.
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According to secondary sources no nexus requirement applies; you need not live or operate in the city. Practical advice runs the other way, though: the address promises a city, so visitors expect a local service. Without a connection you cannot meet that expectation, and the first visit ends in disappointment. The absence of a rule does not make the name suitable for every business.
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The ending brings no ranking by itself; the contribution is indirect. What decides local results is your business listing, consistent address data, reviews and the location details on the page. A city name in the address establishes context at the moment of the click and aligns user expectation with the content. So treat the address as a supporting signal, with page structure and accurate location data doing the real work.
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The IANA record names Registry Services, LLC as the sponsoring organisation, a company trading as GoDaddy Registry. The project's own registry record carries a different institution name, which has been flagged as a stale entry. The content here follows the current legal entity from IANA. You can separately see which registrar holds your name with a whois search.
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According to the project's registry data, privacy service is not available on this extension, so registrant details are not masked behind a privacy layer. Plan to register under a company name rather than a personal one, and use a general corporate mailbox for contact. Ask your registrar which fields are published before you order; this is a decision that is awkward to undo after registration.
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Scope and rules both differ. Country endings often carry country-bound conditions, and some require a local address or a trustee. On this city extension no such requirement could be verified, so the barrier to entry stays low. The other difference is scale: a city name makes a narrower and more personal promise, which favours businesses serving a local area. For another ending built on the same logic, see .capetown.
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