.maker

Is .maker 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
34/ 100
Usable but limited

A friendly identity for DIY creators and indie builders, but most serious projects will still pick a mainstream ending.

assessed by claude-fable-5 · Aug 19, 2026
AI score 34 of 100. .com scores 96, .ai scores 84.
who it’s for

indie hardware hackers, craftspeople, makerspaces, and creator-economy solo brands who want an identity-flavored personal or studio address

CulturetechCommerce
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.

.authorstrong parallel
delegated 2015 · live

Same bet: an uncredentialed, self-declared creative vocation-noun that an individual adopts as their primary personal identity, so the registry lives or dies on whether enough people say "I am one" and pay to prove it.

uncontested · scored 30* in 2012 · run by Amazon EU S.à r.l.

.actorstrong parallel
delegated 2014 · live

Same bet: a singular person-noun for a self-identified craft with no licensing body, sold one identity at a time to individuals and their small studios/agents rather than to companies buying a category.

uncontested · scored 40* in 2012 · run by United TLD Holdco Ltd.

.engineermoderate
delegated 2014 · live

Also a person-noun vocation aimed at practitioners putting their own name on it, but it leans on a formal professional identity with employer-anchored careers, where .maker's population is hobbyist-to-microbusiness and much less institutionally defined.

uncontested · scored 45* in 2012 · run by United TLD Holdco Ltd.

* 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 .maker?Appraise a name on this TLD →

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