.php
Is .php a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
Nobody has applied for .php in its own right, as of 7 October 2026. Automattic named .php as the replacement string of its .vibe application.
A developer-only name tied to one programming language; fine for a PHP project's side domain, rarely a serious main address.
PHP developers, framework and library maintainers, PHP hosting and tooling vendors, and training sites that want a language-flagged address
No applications recorded for this TLD yet.
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.
The same bet almost exactly: a programming language's own name as a namespace, where the buyers are that language's practitioners and projects and the whole thing only works if a developer ecosystem adopts its own technical identity, with a trademark steward controlling who may stand on it.
Same buyer and same job — a working developer's primary identity for code, docs, and tooling — but the string is the generic category word for the whole profession rather than one ecosystem's proper name, so it wins on breadth where .php wins on belonging.
Shares the odd shape of being a file-extension string whose value rests entirely on an installed base of practitioners recognizing a toolchain, but it is a single vendor's proprietary format rather than an open community's own name, so the owner and the incentive to open it up differ.
What a .php domain is
.php is not a TLD yet. It is a string on our record of the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, filed under AI & tech. Nobody has applied for .php in its own right. It is named on ICANN’s list as part of an application for another string.
Is the .php domain extension real yet?
.php is not yet a domain extension you can register: nothing resolves under it, and no registrar sells names in it. Nobody has applied for it on the public record; the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round is the process that would decide whether it becomes one.
When can you buy a .php domain?
You can’t yet. ICANN publishes every applied-for string on Reveal Day, 7 October 2026 at 18:00 UTC. A .php name can only be registered after that, once the string is delegated and its registry opens. Last round's closest parallel to .php was .java, delegated on 3 March 2015.
Is .php a real TLD?
Not yet. .php is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because ICANN’s list names .php as part of an application for another string. Every entry on this page links to its source.
- Automattic · first recordedICANN
“KKWT2621T-T46596 · Knock Knock WHOIS There, LLC · replacement string of .vibe”ICANN
“KKWT2621T-T78272 · Knock Knock WHOIS There, LLC · replacement string of .craft · Deactivated LFGL2683T-T15033 · Link Freedom Group Ltd · primary · contention set 2026-81 RTIS2674T-T99384 · Radix Technologies Inc SEZC · replacement string of .mind · Deactivated VC2665T-T98880 · Vanity Check, LLC · primary · contention set 2026-81”ICANN
- Band chosen: 10-29 (vanity/narrow). The string names a single programming language, so its whole market is the PHP developer community and the vendors who sell to it: frameworks, libraries, hosting, agencies, tutorials and conference sites. That community is large and long-lived, which keeps the string out of the 1-9 band: there is a realistic pool of buyers who would register a .php address for a package, a tool or a learning site, and a handful of ecosystem brands could plausibly use one as a primary identity. It stays below the 30-49 band for two reasons. First, by analogy (flagged as analogy) with developer-flavoured generic TLDs such as .dev, .codes and .software, even the strongest of them became a secondary identity for most projects rather than the main address, and .php is narrower still, confined to one language rather than developers generally. Second, the string doubles as a file extension that millions of URLs already end in (index.php and similar); an address like app.php reads as a file path, which weakens the brand signal, invites confusion in links and in some filtering systems, and makes it an unusual choice for a serious company's main identity. Aftermarket demand is therefore expected to be thin: a few generic words (hosting, jobs, docs, learn) may trade, but little beyond that. Applicant facts, stated neutrally from the record: Automattic (legal name Knock Knock WHOIS There, LLC) holds the single application, as a standard application and as a replacement string for its primary string .vibe; the contention count on the record is 0. A replacement-string application suggests the applicant's main interest lies elsewhere, which does not change the string's market but means adoption would depend on how the TLD is positioned at launch rather than on any pre-existing demand surge. Main market uncertainty: whether PHP-ecosystem brands (frameworks, package registries, hosting providers) adopt .php as a visible identity, which would pull it toward the 30-49 band, or whether registrations stay as defensive and vanity redirects, which would hold it near the bottom of the chosen band. Registration volume figures for analogous TLDs: unknown; reasoning above is by analogy.