.software Domain: A Technology Address That States the Product
The .software registry agreement is dated 20 March 2014 and the zone entered the root on 22 May 2014. It was delegated to United TLD Holdco, Ltd and transferred on 2 June 2021 to Dog Beach, LLC, the contracting party today. As measured on 13 August 2026, the zone holds 33,420 registrations, of which 25,898 appear in the zone file.
Independent software products, subscription services, open source projects, enterprise solution vendors and development teams populate this zone. No eligibility rule applies and no document is requested at registration. Test candidates on the .software domain search page, or compare with .dev if your audience is developers rather than buyers.
This extension and .social sit with the same legal entity today, yet the voluntary commitment sections of their agreements follow different templates. The .software text stresses that the string is a dictionary term and protects lawful registrants who represent a minority reading of it; the .social text instead gives a direct undertaking to operate an open extension. Never copy one sibling's rules onto another.
.SOFTWARE Domain at a Glance
- Registry operator Dog Beach, LLC
- Root zone entry 22 May 2014
- Eligibility None; the agreement bars identity-based limits
- Zone size 33,420 names, 25,898 published (13 August 2026)
- Document Requirement No documents are required to register a .software domain
- Character Length 1 - 63 characters
- Registration Period 1 - 10 years
- Name Server Count 2 - 10 servers
.software 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
$16.90 /year -
Transfer
$41.59 /year -
Renewal
$44.79 /year -
Restore
$129.90 -
Late Renewal
$6.73
Included With Every .software 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.
.software Domain Lifecycle
What happens day by day after it expires
Day 0 is the domain's expiry dateIn short: your .software 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 .software 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 .software 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 .software 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
.software Domain Specifications and Registration Rules
Registration conditions, supported features and the registry's own timelines in a single table.
.software Domain Registration
- Document Requirement No documents are required to register a .software domain
- Character Length 1 - 63 characters
- Registration Period 1 - 10 years
- Name Server Count 2 - 10 servers
.software Domain Support
- IDN Support Yes
- Transfer Support Yes
- Late Renewal Support Yes
.software Domain Registration Periods
- Registration Periods 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 years
- Renewal Periods 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 years
- Pre-registration 1 days
- Accounting Period 5 days
- Finalization Period 1 days
- Failure Period 44 days
- Payment Period 61 days
- Redemption Period 30 days
- Deletion Hold Period 5 days
- Renewal Time 5 days
Frequently Asked Questions About .software Domains
The questions people actually ask before registering — answered plainly.
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No. The agreement forbids identity-based eligibility criteria, so the operator cannot ask for a company registration, a tax record or a developer credential. Solo developers, open source communities and enterprise teams register on identical terms. Matching content to the extension still matters commercially. Test your shortlist on the .software search page.
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Look at who you address. A .software address tells a buyer what the product is and reads naturally on marketing pages. .dev speaks to the developer community and is well established for documentation, APIs and tooling. Many teams run both, putting the marketing site on one and the technical documentation on the other. The two zones belong to different registry operators.
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Add a function or an audience to the product name, not a generic adjective. A second route names the problem your product solves rather than the product itself. Avoid abbreviations: for a product nobody knows yet, an acronym communicates nothing. The zone held 33,420 registrations on 13 August 2026, so two-word combinations still leave room. Bulk search shows several candidates in a single pass.
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Because downloads, licence keys and API credentials create real exposure over an unsecured connection. Browsers also warn visitors on insecure pages, which cuts your installation flow off at the very first step. Settle the certificate plan before you go live. Review the options on the SSL certificate page and check an existing setup with the SSL checker.
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Yes. Release the lock, obtain the authorisation code and file at the gaining registrar. In software projects the delicate part is dependencies: package registries, update servers and webhooks often point at this address. Export a copy of your DNS records before you start and run the process from the domain transfer page.
Get Help for .software Domain Registration
Need help registering a .software domain? Our team is ready to assist.