.hire
Is .hire a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
.hire is contested: 3 applications for it are on ICANN’s Reveal Day list, as of 7 October 2026. They are GoDaddy Registry, Automattic and Intercap. Albedo named .hire as a backup string for its .voice application. ICANN deactivated it, because another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup. Link Freedom Group named .hire as a backup string for its .outlet 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 three already run TLDs, 7.62M names between them.
Will names sell?
A clear hiring-themed web address that recruiting and gig services may like, but most will still build their main brand on .com.
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. .hire’s closest 2012 strings hold .careers 10K, .career 1K and .xn--otu796d 51.
The nearest 2012 strings, and how many names each holds today
The closest 2012 string, .careers, held 9,847 names, June 2026. .career held 1,376; .招聘 held 51. Chosen by AI from every string in the 2012 round, without being told what happened to any of them.
Same bet: an unowned generic employment-vertical word sold to recruiters, staffing firms, and employers who want their hiring identity right-of-dot, with value resting on the whole labor-market category adopting it rather than any one brand.
The singular of the same wager — a category word for the jobs/talent space whose buyer is any employer or job-board operator, monetized as a broad open registry rather than a defensible niche.
Literally the recruiting/hiring word itself, an identical action-generic bet on the employment vertical, differing only in serving a single-script market rather than the global one.
Where they meet elsewhere
Link Freedom Group and GoDaddy Registry face each other in 32 contests this round, .hire included.
- Link Freedom Group × GoDaddy Registry
- Link Freedom Group × Intercap
- GoDaddy Registry × Intercap
- GoDaddy Registry × Automattic
- Link Freedom Group × Automattic
recruiting agencies, staffing platforms, gig and rental marketplaces, and HR-tech startups wanting a hiring-verb address for campaigns or product identities
What a .hire domain is
.hire is not a TLD yet. It is a string on our record of the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, in our Commerce category. 3 applications for it are on ICANN’s Reveal Day list.
Is the .hire domain extension real yet?
.hire 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 .hire domain?
You can’t yet. A .hire 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 .hire was .careers, delegated on 17 December 2013.
Is .hire a real TLD?
Not yet. .hire is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because .hire is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list of applied-for strings. Every entry on this page links to its source.
- Link Freedom Group · now deactivated backupICANN
- Albedo · first recordedICANN
- Link Freedom Group · now abandonedICANN
- 3 applicants · first recordedICANN
- Link Freedom Group · first recordedLink Freedom Group
“IRI2679T-T99888 · Intercap Registry Inc. · primary · contention set 2026-108 KKWT2621T-T38677 · Knock Knock WHOIS There, LLC · primary · contention set 2026-108 NA2631T-T13150 · Registry Services, LLC · primary · contention set 2026-108”ICANN
The source’s 5 linesHide the lines
AL2580-T43705 · Albedo Ltd · replacement string of .voice · Deactivated IRI2679T-T99888 · Intercap Registry Inc. · primary · contention set 2026-108 KKWT2621T-T38677 · Knock Knock WHOIS There, LLC · primary · contention set 2026-108 LFGL2683T-T64684 · Link Freedom Group Ltd · replacement string of .outlet · Deactivated NA2631T-T13150 · Registry Services, LLC · primary · contention set 2026-108
“.hire · Commerce · “Hire, rent, get it done.””Link Freedom Group
- Band chosen: 30-49 (usable but limited). The string is a common, action-oriented English verb with an obvious meaning, which puts it above the 10-29 vanity band: real businesses in recruiting, staffing, and equipment/talent rental could plausibly register names like a company or city label under .hire and use them for campaigns or lead-gen. It does not reach the 50-69 strong-niche band because, by analogy (flagged as such), employment-themed TLDs have historically struggled to become primary identities: the closest analog strings aimed at jobs and careers saw registrations but little evidence of serious projects choosing them as their main brand, and the aftermarket for such strings has been thin; exact figures are unknown. The hiring category itself is dominated by entrenched platforms whose brands are already fixed on legacy extensions, so .hire demand skews toward defensive, campaign, and redirect use rather than primary identity. The applicant, Link Freedom Group, filed more than 300 strings in the ICANN 2026 round and published its list ahead of Reveal Day; a large-portfolio applicant suggests broad distribution ambitions, which is neutral for this string's market fit. The dual reading in the catalog tagline ("Hire, rent, get it done.") stretches into rental marketplaces, which slightly widens the buyer pool but also blurs the brand signal. Main market uncertainty: whether verb-style calls-to-action (get-hired, we-hire campaign domains) generate sustained renewals or only launch-window spikes, since campaign domains tend to churn.