The .direct Domain: Buying Without the Middle Layer
.direct was recorded in the root zone on 22 May 2014, and the IANA entry names Binky Moon, LLC as the sponsoring organisation. The nTLDstats page accessed on 11 August 2026 counts 16,366 registrations, 12,291 of which appear in the zone file. No eligibility condition has been verified for registration.
Maker-to-buyer sales, booking without an intermediary, insurance sold in-house, a company's own support channel: the message this address carries is short and hard to misread. The rule: if the point is that nobody sits in between, .direct states it in the address itself; if the emphasis is on moving goods, the .delivery domain belongs there instead. Compare both in a domain name search.
.DIRECT Domain at a Glance
- Sponsoring organisation Binky Moon, LLC
- Root zone record 22 May 2014
- Eligibility condition No verified restriction
- Registered names 16,366 (nTLDstats, 11 August 2026)
- Present in the zone file 12,291 names, about 75%
- Document Requirement No documents are required to register a .direct domain
- Character Length 1 - 63 characters
- Registration Period 1 - 10 years
- Name Server Count 2 - 10 servers
.direct 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
$16.90 /year -
Transfer
$41.59 /year -
Renewal
$44.79 /year -
Restore
$129.90 -
Late Renewal
$6.73
Included With Every .direct 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.
.direct Domain Lifecycle
What happens day by day after it expires
Day 0 is the domain's expiry dateIn short: your .direct 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 .direct 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 .direct 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 $6.73 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 .direct 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
.direct Domain Specifications and Registration Rules
Registration conditions, supported features and the registry's own timelines in a single table.
.direct Domain Registration
- Document Requirement No documents are required to register a .direct domain
- Character Length 1 - 63 characters
- Registration Period 1 - 10 years
- Name Server Count 2 - 10 servers
.direct Domain Support
- IDN Support No
- Transfer Support Yes
- Late Renewal Support Yes
Frequently Asked Questions About .direct Domains
The questions people actually ask before registering — answered plainly.
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Anyone is; you need not prove that you manufacture anything.
Binky Moon, LLC asks for no company registration, production site or sales-channel document. A cooperative, a farm and a software firm apply on equal terms. Suitable names can be tested in a domain name search.
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By naming who sells, who ships and who answers support.
A visitor reading the word direct wants to see the structure behind it, so the trading name, the returns address and the support channel belong on the same page. Payment and contact forms need an encrypted connection; the step is described on the SSL certificate page.
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One describes the selling relationship, the other the carriage.
A single business may well do both, and the address decides which one you put forward. Selling your own product yourself, the emphasis is on the relationship. Selling courier work to others, the emphasis is on carriage, and the .delivery domain page covers that.
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It holds 16,366 registrations with 12,291 of them live.
The data is from the nTLDstats page accessed on 11 August 2026. A rate around 75% points to a mid-sized zone in genuine use. Labels combined with a brand name remain open, while single generic words are considerably tighter.
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A brand name, or the name of a product family.
Labels hinting at bargains weaken the message here, because selling direct is a statement about the relationship rather than about price. Brand joined to product family stays available and does not depend on campaign copy. Try variants in a bulk domain name search.
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Obtain the authorisation code from your current registrar first.
On a site selling straight to customers, the order flow is sensitive to interruption, so choose quiet hours and prepare the name servers in advance. The domain must be unlocked and at least sixty days past registration. Confirm it with a whois search, then go to domain transfer.
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