.craft
Is .craft a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
.craft is contested: 5 applications for it are on ICANN’s Reveal Day list, as of 8 October 2026. They are Identity Digital, GoDaddy Registry, Automattic, Starlight (Namecheap) and Link Freedom Group. XYZ Registry named .craft as a backup string for its .portal application. ICANN deactivated it, because another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup. XServer named .craft as a backup string for its .official application. ICANN deactivated it, because another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup.
Who is applying, and what they run today
Three of the five already run TLDs, 22.41M names between them. One runs one of .craft's closest 2012 strings: GoDaddy Registry .design. Link Freedom Group and Starlight (Namecheap) run none.
Will names sell?
A friendly address for makers, artisans, and craft brewers, but most serious businesses will still prefer .com over it.
Last round the AI scored the 2012 strings blind to their fate. Strings it scored 60 or more hold a median 27,168 names today; those under 30, a median of 30. .craft’s closest 2012 strings hold .art 315K, .design 119K and .diy 8K.
The nearest 2012 strings, and how many names each holds today
The closest 2012 string, .art, held 315,128 names, June 2026. .design held 118,808; .diy held 8,159. Chosen by AI from every string in the 2012 round, without being told what happened to any of them.
Same bet: a single generic noun naming a whole creative practice, sold as primary identity to a dispersed population of individual makers and small studios, and dependent on that community accepting an outsider-run word as its collective home.
Same bet: a practice/discipline noun that independent practitioners and small shops put their own name in front of, monetized by the breadth of a self-identifying professional community rather than by any anchor tenant.
Same maker-culture bet on a hands-on identity word, but it skews hobbyist/consumer and reads as an initialism rather than the trade noun a professional would hang a business on.
Where they meet elsewhere
Identity Digital and XYZ Registry face each other in 77 contests this round, .craft included.
- Identity Digital × XYZ Registry
- Identity Digital × Link Freedom Group
- Identity Digital × GoDaddy Registry
- Link Freedom Group × XYZ Registry
- Link Freedom Group × GoDaddy Registry
makers, artisans, and craft-beverage businesses (breweries, distilleries, roasters), plus studios and workshops selling handmade or skill-forward goods, with a secondary fringe of software teams who identify with 'craft' as an ethos
What a .craft domain is
.craft is not a TLD yet. It is a string on our record of the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, in our Culture category. 5 applications for it are on ICANN’s Reveal Day list.
Is the .craft domain extension real yet?
.craft is not yet a domain extension you can register: nothing resolves under it, and no registrar sells names in it. It is a string applicants have put forward in the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, the process that decides whether it becomes one.
When can you buy a .craft domain?
You can’t yet. A .craft name can only be registered once the string is delegated (added to the DNS root) and its registry opens. Last round's closest parallel to .craft was .art, delegated on 23 June 2016.
Is .craft a real TLD?
Not yet. .craft is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because .craft is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list of applied-for strings. Every entry on this page links to its source.
- Starlight (Namecheap) · noteDomain Name Wire
- 2 applicants · first recordedICANN
- 4 applicants · first recordedICANN
- Link Freedom Group · now confirmedICANN
- Link Freedom Group · first recordedLink Freedom Group
The source’s 5 linesHide the lines
BEI2691T-T99138 · Bellatrix Exploration, Inc. · primary · contention set 2026-53 KKWT2621T-T78272 · Knock Knock WHOIS There, LLC · primary · contention set 2026-53 LFGL2683T-T10005 · Link Freedom Group Ltd · primary · contention set 2026-53 NA2631T-T74490 · Registry Services, LLC · primary · contention set 2026-53 SS2654T-T73111 · Hair Apparent, LLC · primary · contention set 2026-53
The source’s 7 linesHide the lines
BEI2691T-T99138 · Bellatrix Exploration, Inc. · primary · contention set 2026-53 KKWT2621T-T78272 · Knock Knock WHOIS There, LLC · primary · contention set 2026-53 LFGL2683T-T10005 · Link Freedom Group Ltd · primary · contention set 2026-53 NA2631T-T74490 · Registry Services, LLC · primary · contention set 2026-53 SS2654T-T73111 · Hair Apparent, LLC · primary · contention set 2026-53 XCI2688T-T22077 · XServer Cloud Incorporated · replacement string of .official · Deactivated XL2625T-T16424 · XYZ.COM LLC · replacement string of .portal · Deactivated
“For us, moving into the registry side is a natural extension of what we have been building.”Domain Name Wire
“.craft · Culture · “Where expertise becomes identity.””Link Freedom Group
- Band chosen: 30-49, usable but limited. The string is a real, warm, broadly understood English word with several plausible buyer pools: craft beverages, handmade goods, craftsmanship-branded studios, and 'software craft' culture. That breadth supports registration volume and occasional genuine primary-identity use over the next 5 years. It is not in the 50-69 band because, by analogy (flagged as analogy) with creative-vertical TLDs like .design and .art, even the stronger of those achieved primary-identity use mainly among portfolio-driven professionals, and 'craft' lacks an equivalent profession whose members need a personal web identity; makers and brewers largely live on marketplaces and social platforms and treat domains as secondary, so sustained demand that needs no explaining is unlikely. It is not in the 10-29 band because the word is not a joke or event-driven string: it carries positive brand connotation, reads naturally right-of-the-dot (beer.craft, leather.craft), and by analogy with hobby/vertical strings like .coffee or .studio it should sustain a modest but real registration base rather than a novelty spike. Applicant context: the string is an announced application by Link Freedom Group in the ICANN 2026 round, cataloged under 'Culture' with the tagline 'Where expertise becomes identity.'; a portfolio applicant of this scale implies standard registrar-channel distribution rather than a single-vertical evangelism push, which tempers expectations of concentrated category adoption. Aftermarket outlook is thin: a small set of generic left-of-dot words (beer, gin, wood, home) could command real resale premiums, but the long tail would trade near registration price. Main market uncertainty: whether the craft-beverage segment, the one vertical with dense branding spend, will treat a new TLD as identity-worthy or continue defaulting to .com and compound brand names. Registration volumes, renewal behavior, and pricing for this or comparable TLDs are unknown; all quantitative dynamics here are reasoned qualitatively from analogy.