.stack
Is .stack a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
.stack is contested: 4 applications for it are on ICANN’s Reveal Day list, as of 7 October 2026. They are Identity Digital, GoDaddy Registry, Radix and Oinkadot. Link Freedom Group named .stack as a backup string for its .gear application. ICANN deactivated it, because another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup.
Who is applying, and what they run today
Three of the four already run TLDs, 32.44M names between them. Oinkadot runs none.
Will names sell?
A natural home for developer tools and tech brands, but likely a niche pick that needs explaining rather than an obvious default.
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. .stack’s closest 2012 strings hold .cloud 552K, .dev 713K and .app 1.48M.
The nearest 2012 strings, and how many names each holds today
The closest 2012 string, .cloud, held 551,867 names, June 2026. .dev held 712,600; .app held 1,478,674. Chosen by AI from every string in the 2012 round, without being told what happened to any of them.
Same bet: an ordinary English noun that developer/infrastructure culture turned into architecture jargon, sold as a primary identity to software and infra companies who have to accept the jargon reading over the literal one.
Same buyer and same job — a developer-tribe word bet on becoming the default namespace for dev tools and engineering-led companies, winning or losing entirely on whether builders adopt it as their home.
Also a short, generic software-world noun betting that product-makers will put their main identity on the category word itself, though it addresses the shipped artifact rather than the builder's toolchain, so the buyer skews consumer-facing.
Where they meet elsewhere
Identity Digital and Link Freedom Group face each other in 68 contests this round, .stack included.
- Identity Digital × Link Freedom Group
- Identity Digital × GoDaddy Registry
- Identity Digital × Radix
- Link Freedom Group × GoDaddy Registry
- Link Freedom Group × Radix
developer-tool and infrastructure startups, platform and devops products, and tech brands that already use 'stack' in their naming or positioning
What a .stack domain is
.stack is not a TLD yet. It is a string on our record of the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, in our AI & tech category. 4 applications for it are on ICANN’s Reveal Day list.
Is the .stack domain extension real yet?
.stack 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 .stack domain?
You can’t yet. A .stack 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 .stack was .cloud, delegated on 26 June 2015.
Is .stack a real TLD?
Not yet. .stack is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because .stack is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list of applied-for strings. Every entry on this page links to its source.
- Link Freedom Group · now deactivated backupICANN
- Link Freedom Group · now abandonedICANN
- 2 applicants · first recordedICANN
- 2 applicants · now confirmedICANN
- Radix · first recordedRadix
- Oinkadot · first recordedDomain Name Wire (Andrew Allemann)
- Link Freedom Group · first recordedLink Freedom Group
The source’s 4 linesHide the lines
NA2631T-T25347 · Registry Services, LLC · primary · contention set 2026-221 OI2692T-T27363 · Oinkadot Inc · primary · contention set 2026-221 RC2677T-T55011 · Rein Check, LLC · primary · contention set 2026-221 RTIS2674T-T41439 · Radix Technologies Inc SEZC · primary · contention set 2026-221
The source’s 5 linesHide the lines
LFGL2683T-T38790 · Link Freedom Group Ltd · replacement string of .gear · Deactivated NA2631T-T25347 · Registry Services, LLC · primary · contention set 2026-221 OI2692T-T27363 · Oinkadot Inc · primary · contention set 2026-221 RC2677T-T55011 · Rein Check, LLC · primary · contention set 2026-221 RTIS2674T-T41439 · Radix Technologies Inc SEZC · primary · contention set 2026-221
“Radix has applied for these TLDs; we do not own or operate them today.”Radix
“A new partnership has applied for 25 top level domain names in this year's ICANN TLD expansion round.”Domain Name Wire (Andrew Allemann)
“.stack · AI & Tech · “Everything works better together.””Link Freedom Group
- Band: strong niche TLD (50-69). 'Stack' is a load-bearing word in software culture (tech stack, full-stack, stack traces) and appears constantly in developer-facing brand names, so the string has genuine semantic pull for its best-fit buyer and reads as a plausible primary identity for a devtools or infrastructure product. It is not in the 70-89 category-standard band because, by analogy, developer-oriented TLDs that reached primary-identity default status did so with heavy platform backing and years of ecosystem seeding, and even then only one or two strings per category win that position; .stack would be entering a space where developer identity defaults already exist, so its adoption needs explaining for the next 5 years. It is above the 30-49 usable-but-limited band because the buyer group is well-defined, well-funded, and naming-obsessed, and the word functions as a noun-suffix in real product names, which supports genuine end-use rather than purely volume or price-driven registration; this is an inference from analogy to other short dictionary-word tech TLDs, not from registration data, which is unknown for this string. The applicant, Link Freedom Group, filed more than 300 strings in the ICANN 2026 round (the largest applicant of the round, per its voluntarily published list, press-corroborated by Domain Name Wire, 2026-08-13), and lists this string under 'AI & Tech' with the tagline 'Everything works better together.'; a large-portfolio applicant's per-string marketing depth is unknown, which tempers expectations of category-standard seeding. Main market uncertainty: whether developer brands treat .stack as a credible primary identity or keep it as a redirect/vanity layer under an established TLD, which is the difference between the top and bottom of this band. Swing fact: evidence of funded devtools companies adopting a comparable dictionary-word tech TLD as their primary public identity at meaningful rates.