The .how Domain: An Ending for Instructions
.how was recorded in the root zone on 12 June 2014 and its ICANN registry agreement is dated 23 January 2014; the contracting party is Charleston Road Registry Inc., Google's registry arm. The nTLDstats page accessed on 12 August 2026 lists 4,695 registrations, 3,579 of them present in the zone file. The operator's own registration policy states plainly that no special restrictions apply to this ending.
Course publishers, product manuals, technical support centres, workshop sites and recipe collections all use it. The main draw is that the ending completes a sentence: put a verb or a subject in the root and the address already makes a promise. Try candidates through a .how domain search, and compare the .guide page, which serves a similar purpose.
Some endings from the same operator sit on browsers' HSTS preload list, which means addresses there open only over an encrypted connection. .how is not on that list, and its registration policy imposes no HTTPS requirement either. Installing a certificate is therefore your job: the zone adds no security layer on its own. For instructional sites the detail matters, because a form or comment field carried over an unencrypted connection triggers a browser warning that costs you readers directly. Once installed, make checking the certificate chain and its expiry date a habit.
.HOW Domain at a Glance
- Sponsoring organisation Charleston Road Registry Inc. (Google)
- ICANN registry agreement 23 January 2014
- Root zone record 12 June 2014
- Eligibility condition None; the policy states no special restrictions
- Registered names 4,695 (nTLDstats, 12 August 2026)
- Present in the zone file 3,579 names, about 76%
- Document Requirement No documents are required to register a .how domain
- Character Length 3 - 63 characters
- Registration Period 1 - 10 years
- Name Server Count 2 - 10 servers
.how 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
$32.30 /year -
Transfer
$32.30 /year -
Renewal
$35.53 /year -
Restore
$240.00 -
Late Renewal
$7.11
Included With Every .how 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.
.how Domain Lifecycle
What happens day by day after it expires
Day 0 is the domain's expiry dateIn short: your .how 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 .how 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 .how 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 $7.11 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 .how 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
.how Domain Specifications and Registration Rules
Registration conditions, supported features and the registry's own timelines in a single table.
.how Domain Registration
- Document Requirement No documents are required to register a .how domain
- Character Length 3 - 63 characters
- Registration Period 1 - 10 years
- Name Server Count 2 - 10 servers
.how Domain Support
- IDN Support Yes
- Transfer Support Yes
- Late Renewal Support Yes
Frequently Asked Questions About .how Domains
The questions people actually ask before registering — answered plainly.
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There is none; the operator's registration policy states in as many words that no special restrictions apply.
The single specific clause covers two-character letter-letter labels: the registrant represents that it will take steps against misrepresenting or falsely implying an affiliation with a government or country-code manager where none exists. Beyond that, no country, profession or document is asked for.
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It is not; this zone does not appear on browsers' HSTS preload list.
Some endings from the same operator only open over an encrypted connection, but no such rule applies here. Even so, if your instructional pages carry forms or comments, a certificate is a practical necessity rather than an option. You can review the state of yours with the SSL checker.
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If your root names an action, .how reads more naturally; if it names a subject, .guide does.
A repair walkthrough works better with an action-led root, while a comprehensive reference works better with a subject-led one. Testing the same root in both zones is the quickest way to settle it, and the .guide page is a sensible place to begin that comparison.
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Give every walkthrough its own permanent address and keep that address when you revise it.
Preserving the address through a revision preserves both the inbound links and the position already earned in search results. Keep step numbers inside the page rather than in the address, so adding a step breaks nothing. Showing the publication date next to the last-updated date also helps readers judge the material.
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3,579 of 4,695 registrations appear in the zone file, roughly 76 percent.
The zone is small and its usage rate high, which means names here are being used rather than held. Short single-verb roots are largely gone, yet two-word instructional patterns remain open. Sweep your candidate list in one pass with bulk domain name search.
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