.port
Is .port a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
.port is contested: 2 applications for it are on ICANN’s Reveal Day list, as of 7 October 2026. They are Identity Digital and Link Freedom Group. Starlight (Namecheap) named .port as a backup string for two of its applications: .ship and .gate. ICANN deactivated those backups, because another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup.
Who is applying, and what they run today
One of the three already run TLDs, 14.80M names between them. One runs one of .port's closest 2012 strings: Identity Digital .hospital. Journey To The West and Link Freedom Group run none.
Will names sell?
A common word with several loose meanings (shipping, software, portfolios) but no group that clearly needs it as its main web address.
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. .port’s closest 2012 strings hold .hospital 2K and .storage 651.
The nearest 2012 strings, and how many names each holds today
The closest 2012 string, .hospital, held 2,156 names, June 2026. .storage held 651. Chosen by AI from every string in the 2012 round, without being told what happened to any of them.
Same bet shape: a plain generic English noun naming a piece of physical infrastructure whose only natural primary-identity holders are the institutions that operate one, so the registry is selling to a small, non-consumer, quasi-institutional base rather than to a mass registration market.
- .hotel
Also an unowned category noun for a facility type where the operators of the facility are expected to move their primary identity onto the string, the difference being scale — hotel has a huge commercial operator base while a port-style string has a few hundred authorities and terminal operators.
A short generic noun straddling a physical logistics facility and a technical/computing sense, so the bet depends on the same polysemy hedge: monetize the industrial operators while the second meaning supplies volume from an unrelated audience.
Where they meet elsewhere
Identity Digital and Link Freedom Group face each other in 68 contests this round, .port included.
- Identity Digital × Link Freedom Group
- Identity Digital × Starlight (Namecheap)
- Link Freedom Group × Starlight (Namecheap)
developer-tool and networking projects playing on the software-port metaphor, plus maritime/logistics operators and port authorities wanting a literal industry label; a smaller fringe of portfolio-site name hacks.
What a .port domain is
.port is not a TLD yet. It is a string on our record of the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, in our AI & tech category. 2 applications for it are on ICANN’s Reveal Day list.
Is the .port domain extension real yet?
.port 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 .port domain?
You can’t yet. A .port 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 .port was .hospital, delegated on 9 December 2016.
Is .port a real TLD?
Not yet. .port is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because .port is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list of applied-for strings. Every entry on this page links to its source.
- 2 applicants · first recordedICANN
- Journey To The West · now abandonedICANN
- Identity Digital · first recordedICANN
- Link Freedom Group · now confirmedICANN
- Journey To The West · first recordedJourney To The West Corporation
- Link Freedom Group · first recordedLink Freedom Group
“LFGL2683T-T22198 · Link Freedom Group Ltd · primary · contention set 2026-187 OD2692T-T47846 · Oyster Dream, LLC · primary · contention set 2026-187”ICANN
The source’s 4 linesHide the lines
EEI2686T-T16303 · Elnath Exploration, Inc. · replacement string of .gate · Deactivated LFGL2683T-T22198 · Link Freedom Group Ltd · primary · contention set 2026-187 OD2692T-T47846 · Oyster Dream, LLC · primary · contention set 2026-187 PEI2685T-T63063 · Procyon Exploration, Inc. · replacement string of .ship · Deactivated
“.port · Trade & Logistics · “Where goods change hands between land and sea.””Journey To The West Corporation
“.port · AI & Tech · “Step in, step out, move forward.””Link Freedom Group
- Band chosen: 30-49 (usable but limited). The string is a short, real dictionary word, which helps memorability, but its meanings pull in different directions: in software a port is a number on a machine, not a brand, so the tech reading gives flavor rather than identity; the maritime reading points at a real but conservative industry (port authorities, terminal operators, freight platforms) that, by analogy with how heavy-industry sectors have treated other industry-word TLDs, tends to keep its primary identity on legacy namespaces and treat new extensions as defensive or campaign registrations. It is not in the 50-69 band because no single vertical shows the kind of sustained, self-explaining primary-identity demand that would make a .port address read as a category default; every serious use would need explaining. It is not in the 10-29 band because the word is common, spans multiple plausible verticals, supports name hacks (e.g., passport/portfolio-style constructions), and analogous generic-word tech-adjacent TLDs have historically sustained volume registrations on price with occasional genuine end-use, an inference from analogy rather than a verified figure. 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 list ahead of Reveal Day; a portfolio-scale applicant suggests, by analogy with prior portfolio registries, distribution-led adoption (registrar promotion, pricing tiers) rather than a single-community push. Main market uncertainty: whether the maritime/logistics sector treats .port as a usable industry identity at all, or whether demand collapses to low-value tech-flavored registrations; that split is the difference between the top and bottom of this band.