.hub
Is .hub a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
.hub is contested: 4 applicants have said publicly that they applied to run it, as of 9 September 2026. They are ShortDot, Radix, Hub Culture and Link Freedom Group.
A friendly generic ending for community and portal sites; appealing to many, but few serious projects would make it their main address.
startups, online communities, and portal-style products that brand themselves as a gathering place; developer tools and marketplaces already using 'hub' in their name who want a shorter dotted form.
In LFG's published list of 300+ strings submitted before the ICANN window closed on 2026-08-12. Their catalog tagline: “The gathering spot for what matters.”
Unstoppable Domains announced (2026-08-25) that an ICANN 2026-round application has been filed for .hub with Hub Culture. Unstoppable is the registry service provider, not the applicant.
One of 46 ICANN 2026-round applications Radix announced on its own applications page. Radix states it intends to build and operate each TLD it wins.
One of the 80 strings ShortDot published for the ICANN 2026 round. ShortDot states it has submitted 40 applications, but publishes the 80 strings without revealing which 40 are applications and which 40 are designated replacements. The submission claim is therefore applicant-level, not string-level: nothing in the source says ShortDot applied for THIS string. Catalogued, not announced.
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.
Near-synonym doing the identical job: an abstract place-noun with no inherent industry, sold to anyone claiming their site is the gathering point for a topic or community, so it lives or dies on generic-container demand rather than any vertical.
Same bet on a vague, flexible container word that coworking outfits, communities and projects put primary identity on because it signals 'a place where people convene' without committing to a category.
Also a generic spatial noun marketed as an all-purpose alternative to .com, but it reads more as filler real estate than as a claim of centrality, so its buyer overlaps only partly with the connective community-anchor pitch.
What a .hub domain is
.hub is not a TLD yet. It is a string on our record of the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, filed under AI & tech. 4 applicants have said publicly that they applied for .hub.
Is the .hub domain extension real yet?
.hub 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 .hub domain?
You can’t yet. ICANN publishes every applied-for string on Reveal Day, 7 October 2026 at 18:00 UTC. A .hub name can only be registered after that, once the string is delegated and its registry opens. Last round's closest parallel to .hub was .center, delegated on .
Is .hub a real TLD?
Not yet. .hub is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because an applicant said publicly that it applied for .hub in the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round. Every claim on this page links to its source.
- ShortDot · now announced
- ShortDot · first recordedShortDot (Ireland) Limited
- Radix · first recordedRadix
- Hub Culture · first recordedUnstoppable Domains
- Link Freedom Group · first recordedLink Freedom Group
“ShortDot (Ireland) Limited has submitted 40 applications to ICANN's 2026 New gTLD Program. The 80 strings shown include applied-for and designated replacement strings across ShortDot's 40 ICANN applications, presented without revealing their status or pairing.”ShortDot (Ireland) Limited
“Radix has applied for these TLDs; we do not own or operate them today.”Radix
“.HUB — Built with Hub Culture, the group behind Ven (an early digital currency) and the world's first tokenized building, who wanted a domain that acts as a trusted "connection point" for collectives, professionals, and communities.”Unstoppable Domains
“.hub · AI & Tech · “The gathering spot for what matters.””Link Freedom Group
“The company just disclosed its 40 applications and 40 replacement strings.”Domain Name Wire
“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. 'Hub' is a genuinely popular naming component in tech and commerce, which gives the string broad surface appeal, and the word reads naturally after a dot (data.hub, design.hub). But the dominant habit is to use 'hub' inside the second-level name on an established TLD rather than as the extension itself, so the TLD adds convenience more than credibility. It is not in the 50-69 band because sustained primary-identity use is speculative: by analogy (flagged as analogy) with other broad generic-noun extensions such as .club, .space, .site and .zone, initial registration interest tends to be price-driven and defensive, with thin aftermarkets and weak renewal of speculative names; none of those became a default identity inside a category, and .hub has no single category it clearly owns. It is not in the 10-29 band because the word is broadly commercial rather than vanity or joke material: community platforms, coworking brands, logistics and integration products all plausibly want it, and some real primary-identity use is likely over the next 5 years. Registration volumes, pricing, and comparable-TLD statistics are unknown, so this is reasoned qualitatively. The applicant, Link Freedom Group, filed more than 300 strings in the ICANN 2026 round and lists this string under 'AI & Tech' with the tagline 'The gathering spot for what matters.'; a large-portfolio applicant suggests broad distribution ambitions, which informs adoption likelihood neutrally. Main market uncertainty: whether the strong GitHub-style habit of putting 'hub' in the name transfers to the dotted form at all, or whether buyers keep treating 'hub' as a suffix on .com and use .hub only for redirects and defensive holds.