The .download Domain: An Address for File Distribution
.download was recorded in the root zone on 5 February 2015, and the IANA entry names dot Support Limited as the sponsoring organisation. The nTLDstats page accessed on 11 August 2026 counts 12,641 registrations, of which 7,901 appear in the zone file — a publication rate near 63%, the lowest among the endings measured in this group.
Software release archives, installers, open data sets, manuals and template libraries all sit naturally on this address. The rule: separating distribution from your main site makes scaling and cache control easier, but it also puts the burden of proving where a file came from squarely on you. Taking this alongside your main address, check both together in a bulk domain name search.
A distribution address demonstrates nothing about a file's safety; only the evidence you publish does that. What works: put the checksum, and a signature where you have one, on the same page as each release, keep old versions archived instead of deleting them, and tie the changelog to version numbers. Corporate users look for those three before downloading, and without them the download often never starts.
.DOWNLOAD Domain at a Glance
- Sponsoring organisation dot Support Limited
- Root zone record 5 February 2015
- Eligibility condition No verified restriction
- Registered names 12,641 (nTLDstats, 11 August 2026)
- Present in the zone file 7,901 names, about 63%
- Document Requirement No documents are required to register a .download domain
- Character Length 1 - 63 characters
- Registration Period 1 - 10 years
- Name Server Count 2 - 10 servers
.download 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
$29.99 /year -
Transfer
$29.99 /year -
Renewal
$34.99 /year -
Restore
$119.90 -
Late Renewal
$7.00
Included With Every .download 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.
.download Domain Lifecycle
What happens day by day after it expires
Day 0 is the domain's expiry dateIn short: your .download 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 .download 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 .download 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 $7.00 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 .download 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
.download Domain Specifications and Registration Rules
Registration conditions, supported features and the registry's own timelines in a single table.
.download Domain Registration
- Document Requirement No documents are required to register a .download domain
- Character Length 1 - 63 characters
- Registration Period 1 - 10 years
- Name Server Count 2 - 10 servers
.download Domain Support
- IDN Support No
- Transfer Support Yes
- Late Renewal Support Yes
Frequently Asked Questions About .download Domains
The questions people actually ask before registering — answered plainly.
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Anyone may; there is no requirement to be a software company.
dot Support Limited asks for no company record, publishing permit or undertaking about file types at registration. An open source project and a corporate product team apply on exactly the same terms. Suitable names can be tried in a domain name search.
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Version number, checksum, changelog and file size.
Before downloading, a visitor wants to know what the file is and how to verify it, and publishing the checksum on the page makes that verification possible. Keeping older versions archived also makes rolling back easier. The connection has to be encrypted; the SSL certificate page describes that step.
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Of 12,641 registrations, 7,901 are in the zone file — about 63%.
That is the lowest rate among the endings measured here, with figures from the nTLDstats page accessed on 11 August 2026. A sizeable share of registrations has not been attached to a site. For you, that raises the odds that the product or project name you want is still free.
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For traffic and cache control it usually is.
Serving large files from a separate host keeps them from affecting the response time of your main site, and lets you scale distribution on its own. The trade-off is that the link between the two addresses has to be obvious to visitors, which naming the main site and contact details on the download page achieves.
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The product name or the project name is the right choice.
Adjectives such as free or fast are both heavily used and prone to setting expectations you cannot keep. A product name in the label keeps the source visible even when a download link is passed around on a forum. Test the variants together in a bulk domain name search.
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Start by requesting the authorisation code from your registrar.
Distribution addresses are usually embedded in install scripts and documentation, so list which releases call this host before you move. Change the name servers during a quiet window. The domain must be unlocked and at least sixty days past registration. Begin the process at domain transfer.
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