Domains
Domain ending explorer
See who runs each domain ending, when it was delegated and who it suits - then check your name on it.
Free, no accountLive check
Result
Fill in the form and press Explore these endings. The verdict and the detail appear here.
What this is
Most every list of domain extensions online is either a wall of 1,500 rows nobody reads or a sales page for whichever ending pays best, so this one covers 34 endings people actually consider and says, per ending, who runs it, when IANA delegated it, what we think it suits and whether your name is already registered there.
An ending is run by one organisation, and IANA’s Root Zone Database is the public record of which one: the sponsoring organisation for a generic ending, the ccTLD manager for a country-code one, with the date the delegation was registered. That is the part of this page that is a fact rather than an opinion, and every row links the IANA record it came from.
A handful of endings also publish rules about who may hold a name at all - .gov takes verified US government organisations, .bank takes regulated banks, .eu takes EU, Icelandic, Liechtenstein and Norwegian citizens, residents and organisations, .au needs an Australian presence. Those are quoted from the registry’s own page and linked, because getting them wrong costs a launch, not an argument.
Everything else about an ending - whether .io reads as technical, whether .xyz looks cheap, whether .shop is better than .store - is taste. We write ours down because a blank column is useless, and we label it as ours.
How to read the result
Start with the table of endings: the first three columns are IANA’s, the last two are ours. Then read the check table, which asks the registry behind each ending you picked whether your exact name is registered there right now.
A warning tone means at least one registry said nothing at all. That is different from a "no": some endings run no RDAP service, so the honest answer for them is that this page does not know, and you should check at a registrar or the registry’s WHOIS.
If an ending you like turns out to publish eligibility rules, read that rule before anything else. A name being free under .bank is irrelevant if the registry will not sell to you, and that check happens before any order reaches a registrar.
Choosing an ending is one step before holding it: our guide Holding a domain portfolio: renewals, status codes and the names that attack yours covers renewals, transfer costs and the other checks a name picked up here will need once it is registered.
Common mistakes
What goes wrong most often, and how to tell.
- Reading an ending’s "meaning" as a restrictionEndings almost never police what a site is about. A directory that tells you .tech is for technology companies is describing a convention, and the registry behind it will happily sell to a bakery; the rare genuine restrictions are published by the registry and say so in writing.
- Picking a country-code ending without reading its rulesSeveral country-code endings restrict who may register, and a few more change policy with their government. Buying .au or .eu without checking the presence and residency rules is how a brand ends up with an address it has to hand back.
- Trusting a price range in a list of endingsRegistration prices vary by registrar, by promotion, by renewal year and by whether a name is flagged premium, so a single "typical price" in a directory is stale within a quarter. The only price that means anything is the one at the checkout you are actually going to use.
- Assuming an old delegation date means an old registryA delegation date says when the ending entered the root, not who runs it today or how it is run now. Several endings have changed operator, policy and even purpose entirely while keeping a date from the 1980s.
Questions
What people ask about this tool.
- Thirty-four, chosen because people actually weigh them up against each other. IANA’s Root Zone Database listed 1,595 entries when we read it on 2026-10-13, most of them brand endings nobody outside one company can register, and listing all of them would bury the thirty you might really choose between.
- IANA records .io as a country-code ending whose manager is Internet Computer Bureau Limited, with a delegation registered on 1997-09-16. Everything else about it - that it reads as "input/output" to engineers and so became the default for developer tools - is convention among buyers, not a rule the registry applies.
- Because we will not invent one. A price per ending is only worth printing if it can be cited to a registry’s or registrar’s own published list, and that list changes with promotions, renewal terms and premium flags. We would rather show nothing than a "typical range" you cannot check against anything.
- Of the ones we could read a policy for: .gov is limited to verified US government organisations, .bank to regulated banks and their holding companies, .eu to EU, Icelandic, Liechtenstein and Norwegian citizens, residents and organisations, .au to registrants with an Australian presence, and .us is subject to the registry’s published nexus policy.
- No. It is our editorial guidance, written to be useful when you are choosing between two endings, and the result says so next to the table. The only binding rules on this page are the eligibility policies quoted from a registry’s own page and linked to it.
Sources
Every fixed value here comes from the provider’s own documentation. These pages change, so each says the day it was last read.
- IANA, “Root Zone Database” read 13 October 2026
- CISA, “Eligibility for .gov domains” read 13 October 2026
- fTLD Registry Services, “.Bank Eligibility” read 13 October 2026
- EURid, “Rules for domain names” read 13 October 2026
- auDA, “.au Domain Administration Rules: Licensing” read 13 October 2026
- Registry Services, LLC, “usTLD Nexus Requirements Policy” read 13 October 2026
- IETF, “RFC 9083: JSON Responses for the Registration Data Access Protocol (RDAP)” read 13 October 2026
Use it from the API
The same check, as one request.