.science Domain
Where Discovery Meets the Web
Register your .science domain from just £25.99/yr. Free DNS management, email forwarding, and 10GB mailbox included with every domain.
What is a .science domain?
The .science domain provides a credible, recognisable address for the global scientific community. It suits research institutions, educational programmes, and science communicators wanting their web presence to reflect their discipline.
Who should register .science?
Research institutions, universities, science educators, and laboratories.
Why choose .science?
- Academic credibility built in
- Trusted by the research community
- Perfect for publications and data
- Supports science communication
Who runs .science, and since when
Registry data from the .science delegation record held by IANA, which maintains the internet's root zone. Eligibility comes from the registry's own policy, and the prices are ours.
- Extension type
- Generic (gTLD)
- Registry operator
- dot Science Limited
- The organisation that runs the extension
- In the root zone since
- 2014
- Delegated 23 October 2014
- Who can register
- Open to anyone worldwide, with no academic or research credentials required
- Checked against the registry's own policy
- Our price
- £25.99 a year
- Ex VAT. Renews at the same price
Who actually runs .science, and why it matters
Start with the registry, because on this extension it is the most useful fact available. IANA records the sponsoring organisation for .science as dot Science Limited, registered in Gibraltar, with GoDaddy Registry as the technical contact. The registry's own website says the operating and coordinating functions belong to Global Registry Services Limited, trading as GRS Domains, and lists the other fifteen extensions in the same portfolio: .loan, .win, .men, .bid, .stream, .review, .trade, .date, .party, .download, .racing, .accountant, .faith, .webcam and .cricket.
Read that list again, because it explains why a .science address behaves differently from the way the word sounds. Those extensions have spent a decade being sold cheaply in volume, and mail filters, ad platforms and security vendors have formed views about the group as a whole. None of that is the fault of a chemistry teacher who wants a tidy address, and all of it lands on them anyway. In our experience getting mail delivered on an extension from that portfolio takes more work than it should.
The ICANN agreement for .science sets no eligibility rules whatsoever. No requirement to be a scientist, no institution check, and none of the Category 1 consumer-protection commitments that .school and the finance extensions carry. The registry publishes a legal notice covering use of its own website and no registration policy beyond ICANN's baseline.
Where we would use it: a project site, a conference, a citizen-science page, an outreach campaign, something with a defined life. Where we would not: an address you will put on grant applications, in a published paper, or in an email signature that has to clear a corporate spam filter first time.
Is .science the right choice for you?
We would rather sell you the right extension once than the wrong one twice.
.science works well if
- You are building a project, a conference site or a citizen-science page with a defined life, and the address mostly has to work for people you send it to directly.
- The exact name you want is free here and gone everywhere else, and the name matters to you more than the extension does.
- You want the address to say what the site is about before anyone reads a word of it, on a subject where a .com would say nothing at all.
- You already hold the .co.uk or .org and want .science as a short, memorable redirect for talks, posters and slide decks.
Look elsewhere if
- The address will appear on grant applications, funding bids or published papers, where an unfamiliar extension invites a second look you do not need.
- You depend on email arriving first time. This extension sits in a registry portfolio with a long history of cheap bulk registration, and filters treat that group harshly.
- You want a registry that publishes a real registration policy you can read. There is nothing here beyond ICANN's baseline obligations.
Publishing research or raising funds? A .org carries far more weight with the people who will read your address. See .org pricing.
.science vs .org: which should you register?
These two answer the same question in opposite ways. A .org tells the reader what kind of organisation you are. A .science tells them what you are about. For a research group, a learned society or a charity, the first is usually worth more, because the people reading your address in a footnote are often the people who fund you.
.org has been in the root zone since 1985 and applies no eligibility test either, so this is not a question of who is allowed in. It is a question of which word does more work in a citation, a funding portal or a signature block. A .org there is invisible in a good way. A .science invites a glance.
If the site is a campaign, an outreach project or a one-off event, that glance is rather the point, and .science is the better buy. Above that, register the .org as the address of record and keep .science as the short link.
| .science | .org | |
|---|---|---|
| Registry | dot Science Limited, Gibraltar | Public Interest Registry |
| In the root zone since | 2014 | 1985 |
| Eligibility test | None | None |
| Recognised by non-specialists | Low | High |
| Annual cost | Roughly two and a half times a .co.uk | Roughly one and a half times a .co.uk |
.science domain questions, answered
What people ask us before registering a .science domain.
Can't find what you're looking for?
Ask us directlyNo. There is no credential check, no institutional affiliation test and no document to supply. The ICANN registry agreement for .science contains no eligibility criteria at all, and the registry publishes no registration policy of its own beyond a legal notice about its website. A school science club, a science communicator, a laboratory supplier and a hobbyist all buy it on identical terms.
The extension itself is fine technically, but the company it keeps causes real problems. IANA and the registry's own site place .science in the Global Registry Services portfolio alongside .loan, .win, .bid, .download, .party and .date. Those extensions have been sold cheaply in bulk for years, and filters, ad platforms and security tools judge the group rather than the individual site. If email deliverability matters to you, that is a practical argument against, whatever your content is.
It is neutral for ranking and slightly negative for the UK. Google's documentation says that unless ICANN lists a top-level domain as a country code, Google treats any extension resolving through the root zone as generic, so .science carries no geographic signal in either direction. A .co.uk does, and for a UK audience that is worth having. The extension will not hold you back on merit, but it will not help you either.
IANA records the sponsoring organisation as dot Science Limited, a company registered in Gibraltar, with GoDaddy Registry listed as the technical contact. The registry's own site attributes the operating and coordinating functions to Global Registry Services Limited, which trades as GRS Domains and runs sixteen extensions in total. That is worth checking yourself in the IANA root zone database rather than taking any reseller's word for it, including ours.
Included with Your .science Domain
DNS Management
Full DNS zone editor to manage A, CNAME, MX, TXT, and all record types.
Email Forwarding
Set up professional email addresses and forward to any inbox.
Auto-Renewal
Never lose your domain with automatic renewal protection.
Free 10GB Mailbox
One 10GB mailbox (POP3/IMAP) included with every domain, on any TLD.
Other Education Domains Extensions
Register your .science domain today
Secure your .science domain from just £25.99/yr. Free DNS management, email forwarding, and 10GB mailbox included.
