The .foo Domain: A Namespace That Only Serves HTTPS
.foo entered the root zone on 20 March 2014, and the IANA record names Charleston Road Registry Inc. — Google's registry arm — as the sponsoring organisation. The string comes from foo, the placeholder word software documentation reaches for when an example needs a name. The nTLDstats page accessed on 12 August 2026 shows 5,873 registrations, with 4,612 present in the zone file.
The ending carries a familiar signal for developer tools, sandbox environments, technical writing and internal service addresses. The zone is mid-sized, so short technical roots can still be found. Test candidates with a .foo domain search, and before you go live, check your certificate setup with the SSL checker.
The ending sits on the HSTS preload list: a query to hstspreload.org on 12 August 2026 returns the status preloaded. Browsers therefore load any address ending in .foo over HTTPS only, and without a valid certificate the visitor cannot click past the warning — the site simply does not appear. Google's registration policy for the ending also requires registrars to tell prospective registrants about this before they buy. Plan certificate issuance and automatic renewal before you register.
.FOO Domain at a Glance
- Sponsoring organisation Charleston Road Registry Inc.
- Root zone record 20 March 2014
- Mandatory condition HSTS preload: HTTPS only
- Registered names 5,873 (nTLDstats, 12 August 2026)
- Present in the zone file 4,612 names, about 79%
- Document Requirement No documents are required to register a .foo domain
- Character Length 3 - 63 characters
- Registration Period 1 - 10 years
- Name Server Count 2 - 10 servers
.foo 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
$5,000.00 /year -
Renewal
$5,500.00 /year
Included With Every .foo 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 forwarding
Point the domain at your existing site, a campaign page or a social profile — at no extra cost.
.foo Domain Lifecycle
What happens day by day after it expires
Day 0 is the domain's expiry dateIn short: your .foo 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 .foo 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 .foo 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 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 .foo 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
.foo Domain Specifications and Registration Rules
Registration conditions, supported features and the registry's own timelines in a single table.
.foo Domain Registration
- Document Requirement No documents are required to register a .foo domain
- Character Length 3 - 63 characters
- Registration Period 1 - 10 years
- Name Server Count 2 - 10 servers
.foo Domain Support
- IDN Support No
- Transfer Support Yes
- Late Renewal Support Yes
Frequently Asked Questions About .foo Domains
The questions people actually ask before registering — answered plainly.
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The ending is on the HSTS preload list, so the browser forces HTTPS before a connection is even attempted.
That list ships inside the browser, which means the rule applies before any request reaches your server. With no certificate, or an expired one, the warning cannot be clicked through. Install the certificate and switch on automatic renewal before launch, then confirm the result with the SSL checker.
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Technically yes, but the association is narrow: the word is known as a placeholder in programming.
To a visitor who does not know that convention the name may read as meaningless; to one who does, it lands as a greeting. If your audience is developers, data teams or technical communities, that is an advantage. For a general consumer product, a more descriptive ending will do more work for you.
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It does, because compulsory HTTPS makes staging behave like production.
Mixed content and cookie problems usually surface only once a certificate is in place. Since the behaviour is the default across this zone, you cannot accidentally leave a test setup running over plain HTTP. You will still need to keep staging out of search results by other means.
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According to the IANA record the contracting party is Charleston Road Registry Inc., the registry arm of Google.
The same organisation runs several other technology-oriented endings, a number of which also serve over HTTPS only. Its registration services address is recorded as registry.google, and the policies specific to this ending are published there.
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Yes, through the standard authorisation code process.
One thing is specific to this ending: line the certificate up as part of the move. If the new server has no valid certificate ready, the address stops opening the moment traffic shifts, because the browser will not fall back to plain HTTP. Prepare that first, then start from the domain transfer page.
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