The .foundation Domain: An Address for Mission Work
.foundation entered the root zone on 6 February 2014, and its registry today is Public Interest Registry, the operator behind .org. The ending moved to PIR from the Donuts portfolio: the transfer was announced on 8 December 2021 and the ending began to be offered through PIR during 2022. The nTLDstats page accessed on 12 August 2026 reports 44,739 registrations, of which 31,159 appear in the zone file.
The ending closes cleanly on charitable trusts, grant programmes, endowments and the software foundations that steward open source projects. Placed after an organisation's name, the purpose is legible at address level. See what remains open with a .foundation domain search, and compare where the site and its mailboxes will live on the hosting page.
PIR's published registration policy covers .foundation, but its seven-point eligibility test is defined for .ngo and .ong only. Nothing in this zone tests non-profit character, legal form or the right to solicit donations. For a donor the practical reading is direct: the word at the end of an address does not show that an organisation is officially recognised. When describing your own body, publishing the registered name, the charity or company number and any audited accounts builds the trust the ending itself cannot.
.FOUNDATION Domain at a Glance
- Sponsoring organisation Public Interest Registry (PIR)
- Infrastructure provider Identity Digital Limited
- Root zone record 6 February 2014
- Transfer announced 8 December 2021, from Donuts to PIR
- Registered names 44,739 (nTLDstats, 12 August 2026)
- Present in the zone file 31,159 names, about 70%
- Document Requirement No documents are required to register a .foundation domain
- Character Length 3 - 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.
.foundation 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
$14.99 /year -
Transfer
$27.99 /year -
Renewal
$30.09 /year -
Restore
$134.90 -
Late Renewal
$5.72
Included With Every .foundation 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.
.foundation Domain Lifecycle
What happens day by day after it expires
Day 0 is the domain's expiry dateIn short: your .foundation 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 .foundation 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 .foundation 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 $5.72 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 .foundation 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
.foundation Domain Specifications and Registration Rules
Registration conditions, supported features and the registry's own timelines in a single table.
.foundation Domain Registration
- Document Requirement No documents are required to register a .foundation domain
- Character Length 3 - 63 characters
- Registration Period 1 - 10 years
- Name Server Count 2 - 10 servers
.foundation Domain Support
- IDN Support No
- Transfer Support Yes
- Late Renewal Support Yes
Frequently Asked Questions About .foundation Domains
The questions people actually ask before registering — answered plainly.
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No. PIR applies no test of legal form or non-profit character to this ending.
Its seven-point eligibility standard is written for .ngo and .ong. Software foundations, family funds and grant programmes all use this address as well. If you collect donations, the obligations that come with that arise from your own law and are unrelated to the domain.
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Not on its own. Confidence is built by what the page itself shows.
The registered name, a charity or company number, the board, audited accounts and a page explaining where money goes carry far more weight than the ending. Checking who holds the domain through whois search and keeping that record consistent with the organisation belongs to the same picture.
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The difference is the eligibility test: .ngo and .ong are screened, while .foundation falls under the general registration policy only.
The same organisation runs .org, and all of these endings appear in one policy document. If your body wants broad international recognition, .org still carries it; if you want the mission legible in the address, this ending states it. Holding both is a common arrangement.
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Yes — software foundations are among the established users of this ending.
Handing copyright, trade marks and donation handling to a legal entity is a well-worn path for maturing projects, and an address that reflects it removes ambiguity. Keeping the project name and the foundation name on separate addresses lets you present governance and technical documentation without mixing the two.
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Yes. It runs on an authorisation code and the registry asks for no extra documents.
In charities the recurring problem is a domain still registered to a founder or a former trustee, so when roles change the approval message lands in a mailbox nobody opens. Move the registrant to the organisation's legal name first, then start from the domain transfer page.
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