.social Domain: An Address Built Around Community
The .social registry agreement is dated 7 November 2013 and the zone entered the root on 9 January 2014. It was delegated to United TLD Holdco Ltd. and transferred on 2 June 2021 to Dog Beach, LLC, the contracting party today. Measured on 13 August 2026, the zone contains 67,881 registrations, of which 47,765 appear in the zone file.
Community platforms, associations and foundations, corporate responsibility programmes, event and meet-up pages, plus agencies and consultancies all use this zone. No eligibility rule applies: the agreement commits the operator to running an open extension where nothing restricts registrants pursuing legitimate and lawful purposes. Test candidates on the .social domain search page.
The public interest section of this agreement is unusually direct: the operator audits registration data periodically and undertakes to suspend services for any registrant who does not respond to requests to correct and update that data. The practical implication is simple. Keep the mailbox on file reachable, and update the record immediately when your company details or address change.
.SOCIAL Domain at a Glance
- Registry operator Dog Beach, LLC
- Root zone entry 9 January 2014
- Eligibility None; the agreement carries an open registration commitment
- Zone size 67,881 names, 47,765 published (13 August 2026)
- Document Requirement No documents are required to register a .social domain
- Character Length 1 - 63 characters
- Registration Period 1 - 10 years
- Name Server Count 2 - 10 servers
.social 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
$9.99 /year -
Transfer
$41.59 /year -
Renewal
$44.79 /year -
Restore
$129.90 -
Late Renewal
$6.73
Included With Every .social 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.
.social Domain Lifecycle
What happens day by day after it expires
Day 0 is the domain's expiry dateIn short: your .social 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 .social 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 .social 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 $6.73 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 .social 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
.social Domain Specifications and Registration Rules
Registration conditions, supported features and the registry's own timelines in a single table.
.social Domain Registration
- Document Requirement No documents are required to register a .social domain
- Character Length 1 - 63 characters
- Registration Period 1 - 10 years
- Name Server Count 2 - 10 servers
.social Domain Support
- IDN Support Yes
- Transfer Support Yes
- Late Renewal Support Yes
Frequently Asked Questions About .social Domains
The questions people actually ask before registering — answered plainly.
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No, and nothing about your legal form matters here. The agreement commits the operator to keeping the extension open to anyone registering for legitimate and lawful purposes, so no association record, charter or nonprofit status is required. Companies, agencies, informal communities and individuals all apply on identical terms. The extension certifies no organisational status. Try your candidates on the .social search page.
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In this zone it does. The agreement obliges the operator to audit registration data periodically, and to suspend services for any registrant who ignores requests to correct that data. The most common failure in practice is a personal mailbox used at setup and unread years later. Use a durable organisational address and check your record occasionally through whois search.
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Name the community itself rather than the activity. A city, a shared interest, a professional group or an organisational abbreviation all work well. Very generic words are largely taken in this zone and would not distinguish you even if free. Say the name aloud too: community addresses spread by word of mouth. Test several variants together with bulk domain search.
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On 13 August 2026 the zone held 67,881 registrations with 47,765 in the zone file, a ratio around seventy percent. Seven names in ten point at a site. That is a mid-to-high level and it carries a message: this is a zone in active use rather than an accumulation of parked names. When a name you want is taken, the odds are that its holder is using it.
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Yes. Release the lock, request the authorisation code and file with the gaining registrar. One point deserves attention here: community sites are usually wired into membership and newsletter systems, so export your mail verification records before the move begins. Start the process from the domain transfer page.
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