.church Domains: Addresses for Congregations and Parishes
.church entered the root zone on 8 May 2014, and the IANA record names Binky Moon, LLC as the sponsoring organisation, operating under Identity Digital. The nTLDstats page accessed on 11 August 2026 shows 40,157 names in the zone. Common uses are congregation sites, service calendars, sermon archives and giving pages.
On a community site, how the address reads matters more than how the page looks: an address pinned to a noticeboard, printed in a newsletter or said out loud has to be short and easy to guess. Putting the congregation's known name in the root works well, adding a town only where another community shares that name. If a giving page is part of the plan, weigh options such as the .charity domain alongside it.
Nothing on the registry side describes a check on faith, congregation or legal status. An address carrying this ending is therefore not proof that the community behind it exists. As a visitor landing on a giving page, confirm the organisation from the site's own imprint and from public registers; as the site owner, publish that information where it can be found.
.CHURCH Domain at a Glance
- Sponsoring organisation Binky Moon, LLC
- Root zone record 8 May 2014
- Eligibility condition No verified restriction
- Organisation check Not defined on the registry side
- Registered names 40,157 (nTLDstats, 11 August 2026)
- Document Requirement No documents are required to register a .church domain
- Character Length 1 - 63 characters
- Registration Period 1 - 10 years
- Name Server Count 1 - 13 servers
.church 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
$17.49 /year -
Transfer
$58.49 /year -
Renewal
$62.99 /year -
Restore
$134.90 -
Late Renewal
$7.32
Included With Every .church 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.
.church Domain Lifecycle
What happens day by day after it expires
Day 0 is the domain's expiry dateIn short: your .church 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 .church 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 .church 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 $7.32 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 .church 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
.church Domain Specifications and Registration Rules
Registration conditions, supported features and the registry's own timelines in a single table.
.church Domain Registration
- Document Requirement No documents are required to register a .church domain
- Character Length 1 - 63 characters
- Registration Period 1 - 10 years
- Name Server Count 1 - 13 servers
.church Domain Support
- IDN Support No
- Transfer Support Yes
- Late Renewal Support Yes
Frequently Asked Questions About .church Domains
The questions people actually ask before registering — answered plainly.
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No — no document or eligibility condition has been verified.
Nothing on the side of Binky Moon, LLC, the sponsoring organisation, describes a check on faith or legal status. That does not mean the ending endorses an organisation; if anything, it means visitors have to confirm identity from the site's own imprint. To find out whether a name is free, run a domain name search.
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Use the name the community already knows, and add nothing else.
The address gets printed in a newsletter, pinned to a board and passed on out loud, so being short and guessable matters before any question of design. Add a town or district only where another community carries the same name. To try several candidates at once, the bulk domain name search does the job.
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The domain permits it but grants no authority; the rules sit in your national law.
Fundraising is subject to permission or notification in most countries, and that obligation follows from the activity rather than from the address. Publish the organisation's name, tax registration and contact details where they can be found. A page taking payments needs an encrypted connection — choose one from the SSL certificate page.
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The function of the page decides, not the type of organisation.
.church speaks to a place of worship and a congregation's identity, which suits service calendars, sermon archives and community announcements. .charity puts the giving and relief work first and reads more directly on a page aimed at donors. Plenty of communities run both. Details sit on the .charity domain page.
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A transfer starts with the authorisation code from your current registrar.
The transfer lock has to be open and sixty days must have passed since registration; the administrative email address needs to work, because the approval link is sent there. Check what the record currently says with whois search, then start the move on the domain transfer page.
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Not really — at 40,157 registrations the zone counts as mid-sized.
The nTLDstats page accessed on 11 August 2026 gives that figure, which leaves combinations of a community name and a town largely open. Short generic single words may well be gone. Before you shorten a candidate, check that the spelling still survives being said out loud.
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