.hope
Is .hope a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
.hope is not contested. One applicant has said publicly that it applied to run it, and nobody else has, as of 15 August 2026. It is Link Freedom Group.
A warm, feel-good address for charities, causes and wellness brands, but most serious groups will still pick .org or .com first.
nonprofits, cause campaigns, faith and community groups, wellness and coaching brands, and hospitals or foundations wanting an emotional, mission-forward address
In LFG's published list of 300+ strings submitted before the ICANN window closed on 2026-08-12. Their catalog tagline: “Hope is always welcome.”
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.
Same bet: a single abstract virtue noun with no defined registrant class, monetized on inspirational/uplift sentiment and courting religious, cause and campaign registrants who want the feeling rather than a category label.
Same bet: an emotive abstract noun sold open to anyone, where value depends entirely on the word's affective pull rather than on any industry, profession or membership it denotes.
Same class of string (short positive-emotion noun with universal appeal and no natural owner), but it skews gift/consumer-cheer rather than hope's cause-and-perseverance register, so the buyer set overlaps only partly.
What a .hope domain is
.hope is not a TLD yet. It is a string on our record of the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, filed under Culture. One applicant has said publicly that it applied for .hope.
Is the .hope domain extension real yet?
.hope 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 .hope domain?
You can’t yet. ICANN publishes every applied-for string on Reveal Day, 7 October 2026 at 18:00 UTC. A .hope name can only be registered after that, once the string is delegated and its registry opens. Last round's closest parallel to .hope was .faith, delegated on .
Is .hope a real TLD?
Not yet. .hope is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because an applicant said publicly that it applied for .hope in the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round. Every claim on this page links to its source.
- Link Freedom Group · first recordedLink Freedom Group
“.hope · Lifestyle · “Hope is always welcome.””Link Freedom Group
“LFG voluntarily published its full list of submissions ahead of ICANN’s official Reveal Day.”PR Newswire (Link Freedom Group)
“Top level domain registry Link Freedom Group (LFG) has disclosed more than 300 strings submitted as part of the ICANN new top level domain name program.”Domain Name Wire (Andrew Allemann)
- Band chosen: 30-49, usable but limited. .hope is a universally positive English word with plausible end-use for nonprofits, cause campaigns, faith communities, and wellness brands, and its Lifestyle positioning by the applicant matches that read. It is not in the 50-69 band because the buyer group it best fits (charities and causes) has a deeply entrenched incumbent habit around .org, so primary-identity adoption would need explaining and there is no evidence of sustained organic demand for this string; by analogy (flagged as analogy), emotional-word TLDs such as .love and .faith have tended to see modest, price-sensitive registration behavior rather than category-standard status, and .life-style strings have leaned on volume promotions rather than brand strength. It is not in the 10-29 band because the word's breadth gives it more than event-driven or joke value: campaign microsites (giving drives, patient-support pages, disaster response) are a recurring, renewable use case over the next 5 years, and short left-of-dot phrases read naturally (find.hope, give.hope). Aftermarket value is likely thin and concentrated in a handful of generic left-of-dot words. Applicant facts, stated neutrally: the string is announced by Link Freedom Group, which filed more than 300 strings in the ICANN 2026 round and published its full list ahead of Reveal Day; a portfolio of that size implies registry attention and marketing per string is spread across many launches, which tempers adoption likelihood but does not change the string's intrinsic fit. Main market uncertainty: whether the nonprofit and cause sector, the best-fit buyer, will treat any new gTLD as acceptable for donor-facing trust, or whether donation-fraud caution keeps them anchored to legacy extensions.