.software Domain
The Domain That Speaks Your Language
Register your .software domain from just £34.99/yr. Free DNS management, email forwarding, and 10GB mailbox included with every domain.
What is a .software domain?
The .software domain is built for companies and individuals who develop, distribute, or support software products. It provides clarity that generic extensions simply cannot match.
Who should register .software?
Software companies, SaaS providers, developer tool creators, and independent software developers.
Why choose .software?
- Crystal-clear industry signal
- Covers all software types
- Professional developer branding
- Descriptive and trustworthy
Who runs .software, and since when
Registry data from the .software 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
- Dog Beach, LLC
- The organisation that runs the extension
- In the root zone since
- 2014
- Delegated 22 May 2014
- Who can register
- Open to anyone worldwide, with no proof of a software business required
- Checked against the registry's own policy
- Our price
- £34.99 a year
- Ex VAT. Renews at the same price
How .software reads next to .app, .dev and .com
Every decent one-word product name in .com went years ago, and the fallback most companies reach for is a compound: getthething.com, thethingapp.com, trythething.com. .software offers a different fix. The category moves into the suffix, which leaves the brand as a single clean word on the left of the dot.
It went into the root zone in May 2014, in the first wave of new extensions, and sits in the Identity Digital portfolio, held by Dog Beach, LLC. Registration is open. Nobody checks that you write code, and there is no accreditation to hold.
The trade-off is the one every descriptive extension carries. It labels you accurately today, and it argues with you the day the business changes. A company that starts out licensing a product and ends up selling a managed service finds its address describing the old model. Against that, .app and .dev are narrower again: .app leans towards the finished thing a customer installs, .dev towards the people building it. .software is the broadest of the three and the least fashionable, and in practice that means better availability.
Two Identity Digital policies are worth knowing before you order. Some strings are held back as premium names at prices well above the standard rate, and the registry can change that list when it likes. Separately, a trademark holder can block a string across the entire Identity Digital portfolio through the Domains Protected Marks List, so a name can be unavailable even though nobody has registered it. If a search comes back oddly empty on a word you would expect to be free, that is usually why. The registry can also suspend or cancel a registration where the registrant fails to keep the registration details accurate and up to date.
Is .software the right choice for you?
We would rather sell you the right extension once than the wrong one twice.
.software works well if
- You sell software as the product itself, and you want the address to say that before anyone reads a word of the page.
- Your brand name is a real English word that is long gone in .com, and moving the category into the suffix gets it back for you.
- You are naming a specific product inside a larger company, so the address can be descriptive without committing the whole business to it.
- Your buyers are technical enough that a newer extension raises no eyebrows, which is a lower bar in this sector than in most.
Look elsewhere if
- Your customers are UK businesses who find you through local search. A .co.uk carries a UK signal that .software does not, and costs roughly a third as much a year.
- You expect the business to broaden into services, hardware or consultancy. A descriptive extension ages badly when the description stops being true.
- You take orders over the phone or on a stand. Nine letters after the dot is a lot to dictate, and most people will try .com first anyway.
Naming the company rather than the product? The .com or the .co.uk will be the address people guess at, so start there and add this one alongside. See .com pricing.
.software vs .com: which should you register?
These two are answering different questions. A .com asks nothing of the name and tells the reader nothing about you. A .software puts the category on the record and takes some of the load off the word in front.
Pick .com when the company is the brand, when you expect to sell to non-technical buyers, or when you want the default that needs no explanation. Pick .software when the good short name is only available here, when the address is for one product rather than the whole business, or when the descriptive suffix is doing real work.
A note on cost that gets skipped in most comparisons: a .com renews for well under half what this extension does, and that difference recurs annually for the life of the company. Over ten years it is not a rounding error.
| .software | .com | |
|---|---|---|
| Type | Generic, descriptive | Generic, neutral |
| In the root since | 2014 | 1985 |
| Registry | Dog Beach, LLC | VeriSign |
| Says what you do | Yes, and permanently | No |
| Annual cost | Around double a .com | Low |
.software domain questions, answered
What people ask us before registering a .software domain.
Can't find what you're looking for?
Ask us directlyNo. There is no eligibility check of any kind. Identity Digital operates .software as an open extension, so there is no verification of your trade, no accreditation to hold and no document to supply at registration. The only meaningful obligations are the ones that apply across the portfolio: keep your registration details accurate, and do not use the domain for anything the acceptable use policy prohibits.
It is broader, not better. .app suits the packaged thing a customer installs and opens, .dev suits developer-facing tooling and the people who build with it, and .software covers the lot. Because it is the least fashionable of the three, availability tends to be better and the shorter names last longer. All three cost more than a .com, and none of them will help you rank in the UK the way a .co.uk does.
Yes, under the same acceptable use policy that covers every Identity Digital extension. The registry reserves the right to deny, suspend, cancel or lock a registration to protect its systems, to comply with law or a court order, to resolve a dispute, or where a registrant fails to keep their registration information accurate and up to date. That last one is the only clause most legitimate businesses ever need to think about, and keeping your contact details current handles it.
Included with Your .software 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 Technology Domains Extensions
Register your .software domain today
Secure your .software domain from just £34.99/yr. Free DNS management, email forwarding, and 10GB mailbox included.
