The .hamburg Domain: A Community Ending Tied to the City
.hamburg was recorded in the root zone on 22 May 2014; its ICANN registry agreement is dated 20 February 2014 and names Hamburg Top-Level-Domain GmbH as the contracting party. ICANN lists the agreement type as a community TLD carrying Specification 12. The nTLDstats page accessed on 12 August 2026 shows 17,545 registrations, 15,259 of them in the zone file.
Unlike most endings around it, this really is a restricted zone: the address is reserved for those with a link to the city, and the name is expected to be put to use. Try candidates through a .hamburg domain search, or look at an unrestricted German-language alternative on the .haus page.
Specification 12 of the agreement defines eligibility this way: the registrant must have an economic, cultural, historical, social or other connection to the metropolitan area of Hamburg, shown by a residence, an office or place of business, a branch, a Whois contact domiciled in the area, or other suitable evidence such as an employer's letter, school enrolment or a birth certificate. The second condition is use: within one year of registration, and thereafter, the name must serve a site carrying Hamburg-related content relevant to it. No proof is demanded at registration, but eligibility can be tested through a dispute procedure, and a name that fails the conditions may be deleted.
.HAMBURG Domain at a Glance
- Sponsoring organisation Hamburg Top-Level-Domain GmbH
- Agreement type Community TLD (Specification 12)
- ICANN registry agreement 20 February 2014
- Root zone record 22 May 2014
- Registered names 17,545 (nTLDstats, 12 August 2026)
- Present in the zone file 15,259 names, about 87%
- Document Requirement No documents are required to register a .hamburg domain
- Character Length 1 - 63 characters
- Registration Period 1 - 10 years
- Name Server Count 2 - 10 servers
.hamburg 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
$74.99 /year -
Transfer
$74.99 /year -
Renewal
$79.99 /year -
Restore
$336.61 -
Late Renewal
$16.00
Included With Every .hamburg 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.
.hamburg Domain Lifecycle
What happens day by day after it expires
Day 0 is the domain's expiry dateIn short: your .hamburg 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 .hamburg 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 .hamburg 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 $16.00 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 .hamburg 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
.hamburg Domain Specifications and Registration Rules
Registration conditions, supported features and the registry's own timelines in a single table.
.hamburg Domain Registration
- Document Requirement No documents are required to register a .hamburg domain
- Character Length 1 - 63 characters
- Registration Period 1 - 10 years
- Name Server Count 2 - 10 servers
.hamburg Domain Support
- IDN Support Yes
- Transfer Support Yes
- Late Renewal Support Yes
Frequently Asked Questions About .hamburg Domains
The questions people actually ask before registering — answered plainly.
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Living in the city is not required; the agreement accepts an economic, cultural, historical or social connection.
An office, a branch, a second home in the region or a contact domiciled there all demonstrate that link, and an employer's letter, school enrolment or birth certificate are listed among acceptable proofs. Without any such connection the ending is not for you, and the name can later fail a check.
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No. The registry states in its own policy that eligibility is not routinely examined at the moment of registration.
Verification happens afterwards: anyone may open a dispute procedure, and the registry may review a registration at its discretion. Where the details are incomplete the registrant gets a window to correct them, and a name that still fails the conditions is deleted. So the absence of a document check is not the absence of a condition.
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No. The agreement requires the name to be in use within one year of registration.
Once you build a site, the content is expected to relate to the ground on which you qualified. Redirection is accepted provided the destination also carries content relevant to the name, and another form of use such as email may be approved after the registry reviews it. If your plan is to hold a name and wait, choose a different ending.
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Of 17,545 registrations, 15,259 appear in the zone file — about 87%.
That is one of the highest rates among neighbouring endings, and it follows directly from the use requirement: this zone does not accumulate names bought and left idle. For a search it means a root that comes back as taken very likely has a working business behind it. Test the alternatives together through the bulk domain name search.
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Yes, and any party taking the name over must meet the eligibility conditions as well.
If you are handing the name to another person or company, verify their connection to the city first: a transfer to someone who does not qualify leaves the name open to a dispute procedure. Changing registrar needs only the authorisation code; you can start from the domain transfer page.
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