.start
Is .start a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
.start is contested: 2 applications for it are on ICANN’s Reveal Day list, as of 7 October 2026. They are XServer and Link Freedom Group.
Who is applying, and what they run today
None of the two runs a TLD today.
Will names sell?
An upbeat action word good for launch pages and new ventures, but most serious projects will likely park it beside a .com, not live on it.
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. .start’s closest 2012 strings hold .new 2K, .now 27K and .build 12K.
The nearest 2012 strings, and how many names each holds today
The closest 2012 string, .new, held 2,233 names, June 2026. .now held 27,481; .build held 11,620. Chosen by AI from every string in the 2012 round, without being told what happened to any of them.
Same bet as .start: a monosyllabic, category-free English word meaning "a beginning" whose whole value is completing a verb phrase to the right of the dot (thing.new / thing.start), so the buyer is anyone with an action or an onboarding moment rather than any industry.
Also an abstract, non-noun English word sold as pure call-to-action rather than a category, betting that a mood/imperative can carry primary identity — though it points at immediacy rather than at beginnings, so it attracts media and offers more than founders.
A generic English verb offered as an open action namespace for people making something, the nearest verb-shaped analogue to .start, but it drags a construction-trade vertical behind it that .start does not have, which narrows who would put their name on it.
founders and early-stage ventures, product-launch and campaign pages, and coaching or self-improvement brands who want an action-word address that signals a beginning
What a .start domain is
.start is not a TLD yet. It is a string on our record of the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, in our Brand category. 2 applications for it are on ICANN’s Reveal Day list.
Is the .start domain extension real yet?
.start 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 .start domain?
You can’t yet. A .start 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 .start was .new, delegated on 30 August 2014.
Is .start a real TLD?
Not yet. .start is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because .start is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list of applied-for strings. Every entry on this page links to its source.
- XServer · first recordedICANN
- Link Freedom Group · now confirmedICANN
- Link Freedom Group · first recordedLink Freedom Group
“LFGL2683T-T24335 · Link Freedom Group Ltd · primary · contention set 2026-222 XI2694T-T96618 · XRegistry Incorporated · primary · contention set 2026-222”ICANN
“.start · Lifestyle · “Get started, make it happen.””Link Freedom Group
- Band chosen: usable but limited (30-49). The string is a broad, positive English verb with obvious launch/beginning semantics and some hack appeal (kick.start, head.start, jump.start), so registrations at volume are plausible over the next 5 years. By analogy (flagged as analogy), broad action-word and lifestyle gTLDs such as .live, .life, .today and .new have tended to see price-driven volume and campaign or redirect use rather than widespread primary-identity adoption, and their aftermarkets have stayed thin outside a handful of premium keywords. It is not in the band above (strong niche, 50-69) because no single category shows evidence of sustained demand where .start would be the expected identity; startups as a group already have entrenched habits around .com, .io, .ai and .co, and .start would need explaining as a primary address. It is not in the band below (10-29) because the word is universally understood, non-joke, and semantically useful for a real class of pages (launches, onboarding, new-year and self-improvement campaigns), so demand should be broader and steadier than event-driven vanity strings. The applicant, Link Freedom Group, filed more than 300 strings in the ICANN 2026 round and lists this string under a Lifestyle category with the tagline 'Get started, make it happen.'; a large-portfolio applicant is a neutral fact here, informing only the expectation that go-to-market attention per string may be spread across many TLDs. Main market uncertainty: whether .start gets adopted as a genuine identity by the startup/launch ecosystem (or by a major platform for launch pages) versus settling into a campaign-and-redirect namespace, which is the difference between the top of this band and the band above. Pricing strategy and renewal behavior are unknown.