The .design Domain: The Craft Is in the Address
.design entered the root zone on 18 December 2014, and the IANA record names Registry Services, LLC as the sponsoring organisation. The nTLDstats page accessed on 11 August 2026 reports 146,084 registrations, 113,967 of which appear in the zone file — the second largest zone measured in this group.
Freelance designer, agency, architecture office, product studio: because the ending states the trade, the first screen of a portfolio can get straight to the work. The zone is large, so most single-word generics have gone. The rule that follows is simple — narrow with a personal name, a discipline or a city. Remaining variants turn up quickly in a domain name search.
The IANA record lists Registry Services, LLC as the sponsoring organisation. That name is easy to confuse with the registrar shown elsewhere: a registrar is the company that sells you the name, while the registry operates the whole zone. The technical back end is frequently a third party again. Checking the IANA record is the shortest way to keep the three apart when you read a zone's rules.
.DESIGN Domain at a Glance
- Sponsoring organisation Registry Services, LLC
- Root zone record 18 December 2014
- Eligibility condition No verified restriction
- Registered names 146,084 (nTLDstats, 11 August 2026)
- Present in the zone file 113,967 names, about 78%
- Document Requirement No documents are required to register a .design 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.
.design 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
$58.49 /year -
Transfer
$58.49 /year -
Renewal
$62.99 /year -
Restore
$159.90 -
Late Renewal
$11.22
Included With Every .design 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.
.design Domain Lifecycle
What happens day by day after it expires
Day 0 is the domain's expiry dateIn short: your .design 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 .design 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 .design 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 $11.22 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 .design 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
.design Domain Specifications and Registration Rules
Registration conditions, supported features and the registry's own timelines in a single table.
.design Domain Registration
- Document Requirement No documents are required to register a .design domain
- Character Length 1 - 63 characters
- Registration Period 1 - 10 years
- Name Server Count 2 - 10 servers
.design Domain Support
- IDN Support No
- Transfer Support Yes
- Late Renewal Support Yes
Frequently Asked Questions About .design Domains
The questions people actually ask before registering — answered plainly.
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Anyone is; no professional credential or portfolio is asked for.
Registry Services, LLC requires no diploma, chamber membership or work samples at registration. A student and a ten-person agency register on identical terms. What is left can be scanned through a domain name search.
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Yes, though not among the single-word generics.
In a zone of 146,084 names, labels such as studio or web have predictably gone. Compound labels that add a personal name, a city or a discipline remain broadly open. To test dozens of variants at once, use a bulk domain name search.
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Choose .design for form and craft, .digital for transformation work.
In graphics, product, interiors and interface work the visitor arrives expecting a visual portfolio, and the address sets that expectation up front. Consultancy, data and infrastructure work meet a different expectation. That side is covered on the .digital domain page.
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No. The registry runs the zone; the registrar sells you the name.
For this zone the IANA record names Registry Services, LLC as the registry, while the technical platform may sit with another firm entirely. A third name appearing on invoices usually belongs to the registrar. When you chase the source of a rule, the IANA record is the shortest check available.
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Your own name, or the studio name, lasts longest.
Specialisms shift over a career, so a label like logo or poster describes the wrong scope a few years later. A first and last name stays accurate throughout and is recognised when someone cites your work. Plan the certificate step from the SSL certificate page.
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Start by requesting the authorisation code from your registrar.
A portfolio tends to be opened in the middle of a pitch, so it is sensible to schedule the move away from proposal season. The domain must be unlocked and at least sixty days past registration. Check the record with a whois search and go on to domain transfer.
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