.folio

Is .folio a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?

Culture
applicants
  • Starlight RegistryAnnounced
on the record since Aug 19, 2026 · updated Aug 19, 2026
AI score
40/ 100
Usable but limited

A tidy word for portfolio sites that creatives may like, but most will still default to mainstream domains, so expect niche use.

assessed by claude-fable-5 · Aug 19, 2026
AI score 40 of 100. .com scores 96, .ai scores 84.
who it’s for

creatives building portfolio sites — designers, photographers, illustrators, writers — plus a smaller tail of fintech and investing products that lean on the "portfolio" sense

CultureBrandCommerce
applicants
1 on file
Starlight RegistryAnnounced
Aug 19, 2026

One of 40 strings Starlight Registry (established by registrar Namecheap) applied for in the ICANN 2026 round, reported by Domain Name Wire on 2026-08-19.

closest 2012 bets
3 of 1,408

The 2012 applications making the most similar bet. Chosen by AI from every string in that round, without being told what happened to any of them.

.blogstrong parallel
delegated 2016 · live

Same bet: the string names the *kind of site* being published rather than an industry, so the buyer is an individual creator putting their personal identity on the format word itself (name.blog / name.folio), which only works if people accept a site-type label as a permanent address.

9 applicants contested it · scored 70* in 2012 · run by PRIMER NIVEL S.A.

.pagemoderate
delegated 2015 · live

Also a generic web-object noun (and literally what 'folio' means — a leaf/page) sold as an everyman personal-presence container, but its bet is mass-market and format-neutral where .folio narrows to people who have work to show.

uncontested · scored 40* in 2012 · run by Charleston Road Registry Inc.

.gallerymoderate
delegated 2013 · live

A showcase-container noun with the same dual literal/metaphoric play — real venues plus anyone displaying a body of work — but it leans more toward established businesses than the individual freelancer identity .folio is aimed at.

uncontested · scored 40* in 2012 · run by Sugar House, LLC

* A separate 2012-only read, time-locked to what was public that year. Different scale from this page’s score — the two are not comparable.

history
  1. Starlight Registry · first recordedAug 19, 2026
    Domain Name Wire
news & sources
NewsNamecheap's Starlight Registry applies for 40 TLDs
Aug 19, 2026
For us, moving into the registry side is a natural extension of what we have been building.
Domain Name Wire
Considering a name on .folio?Appraise a name on this TLD →

This record is corrected in the open. See the changelog and methodology.