.design Domain
The Domain for Designers
Register your .design domain from just £44.99/yr. Free DNS management, email forwarding, and 10GB mailbox included with every domain.
What is a .design domain?
The .design domain extension speaks directly to the creative industry. It's the natural home for design agencies, freelance designers, and creative portfolios. A .design domain immediately communicates your expertise and creative focus.
Who should register .design?
Design agencies, freelance designers, architects, and creative studios.
Why choose .design?
- Instant creative industry signal
- Perfect for portfolios
- Professional branding
- Stand out from generic extensions
Who runs .design, and since when
Registry data from the .design 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
- Registry Services, LLC
- The organisation that runs the extension
- In the root zone since
- 2014
- Delegated 18 December 2014
- Who can register
- Open to anyone worldwide, with no proof of design work required
- Checked against the registry's own policy
- Our price
- £44.99 a year
- Ex VAT. Renews at the same price
Why .design is not restricted to designers
The most common assumption about this extension is that you have to prove something to get one. You do not. The registry's own published answer is that anyone can register a .design domain globally on a first-come, first-served basis, with no special eligibility requirements. No portfolio, no professional body, no trade registration, nothing to upload. That cuts both ways. The extension carries a clear signal about what you do, and the signal is not underwritten by anybody.
Who runs it has changed once, and the change is on the record. IANA puts .design in the root zone on 18 December 2014, delegated to Top Level Design, LLC, a small operator that also ran .ink and .wiki. On 31 August 2021 IANA recorded its transfer to Registry Services, LLC, whose administrative and technical contacts are GoDaddy Registry. An extension that began with a specialist now sits inside one of the largest domain businesses there is, and the premium tiers and renewal pricing are set by a company that also sells domains retail.
What the flagship .design names actually do
Look at how the well-known holders use theirs, because the pattern is instructive. Adobe runs adobe.design as a real site about its design organisation. Airbnb and Figma both hold the matching .design and point it at their main site instead. For a brand with a strong .com, a .design is a satellite: somewhere to put the design team, the design system, the hiring page. For a studio or a freelancer with no .com to fall back on it is the entire address, which is a much larger commitment to an extension most of your clients will be seeing for the first time.
Then there is the money, and this is where we would push back on the sales copy. On our price list .design is the dearest extension in the creative category by a clear margin, running to roughly four and a half times a .co.uk. Every year. What that buys is positioning, because the technical side is identical: the same DNS, the same DNSSEC, the same mail records, the same everything. If the positioning wins you the sort of work where the address is part of the pitch, it is a fair trade and we would not talk you out of it. If your enquiries come from people typing "graphic designer" and a town name into Google, a .co.uk does more for you and leaves the difference in your pocket.
While no domain extension alone guarantees higher rankings, choosing a meaningful and relevant domain name can be an important part of a successful SEO strategy when combined with high-quality content and sound technical SEO practices.
What that means if you are buying one
Read that for what it is: the company selling the extension declining to claim it will rank you. It matches Google's own published position that keywords in a top-level domain give no advantage or disadvantage. If a reseller promises you a search benefit from moving to .design, they are offering something the registry itself will not put in writing.
Is .design the right choice for you?
We would rather sell you the right extension once than the wrong one twice.
.design works well if
- Your studio name is taken as a .com and the work itself is the pitch, so an address like yourname.design says what you do before a client reads a word.
- The email address matters as much as the site. hello@studio.design sits better on an invoice than a hyphenated .com with "design" wedged into the middle.
- Your clients are agencies, brands and other designers, so an unfamiliar extension costs you nothing in credibility with the people who commission you.
- You already hold a main domain and want a separate home for a portfolio, a design system or a hiring page, which is how the big brands use theirs.
Look elsewhere if
- The price. At roughly four and a half times a .co.uk it is the dearest option on this page, and the bill repeats for as long as you trade under the name.
- Your enquiries come from UK local search. A .co.uk carries a geographic signal Google acts on, and no keyword extension substitutes for it.
- Design is one of several services you sell. An address that names a single discipline is hard to grow out of, and moving domains later costs you links, rankings and email continuity.
- Your clients are small businesses who will type .com out of habit and land nowhere, or read an extension they have never seen as a reason to be careful.
Winning most of your work from UK clients who find you on Google? Start with the .co.uk and add the .design alongside it once the work is coming in. See .co.uk pricing.
.design vs .studio: which should you register?
Creative businesses shortlist these two together and then pick on instinct, which is a shame, because they say measurably different things. A .design names the discipline. A .studio names the shape of the business. One is about what you make and the other is about how you are set up to make it.
If you are one person, .studio slightly oversells and .design tells the truth. If there are four of you doing branding, motion and print, .studio covers the lot while .design quietly commits you to one word in front of every client for as long as you keep the address. There is a price gap too: .studio comes in around ten pounds a year cheaper on our list, which is not decisive on its own but is real money over a decade.
Both are open to anyone and neither will do anything for your rankings. The tiebreak is the noun. Write your name in front of each, say both aloud, and pick the one you would not mind reading back to a client on the phone in five years' time.
| .design | .studio | |
|---|---|---|
| Root zone since | 2014 | 2015 |
| Registry | Registry Services, LLC (GoDaddy Registry) | Dog Beach, LLC (Identity Digital) |
| What it names | The discipline | The shape of the business |
| Suits | A specialist practice | A team, or a place clients visit |
| Annual cost | The dearer of the two | Around ten pounds a year less |
| If your services widen | Names one thing only | Still accurate |
.design domain questions, answered
What people ask us before registering a .design domain.
Can't find what you're looking for?
Ask us directlyNo. The registry states that anyone can register a .design domain globally on a first-come, first-served basis with no special eligibility requirements. There is no portfolio review, no membership of a professional body and no trade registration to evidence. That is worth knowing in both directions: nothing stands in your way, and the extension is a claim you are making rather than a credential somebody has checked.
Check the figure on this page and treat it as an annual commitment. A .design is the dearest extension in the creative category we sell, at roughly four and a half times a .co.uk, and the transfer price matches the registration price rather than being free the way a .uk transfer is. Some names sit in a premium tier and quote higher again, with the premium usually applying to renewals too.
It is neutral, and the registry says as much itself. Its published answer stops short of promising higher rankings, and Google has stated that keywords in a top-level domain give no advantage or disadvantage in search. What a .design can do is make a search result easier to read and quicker to trust, which affects clicks rather than positions. For a UK studio chasing local enquiries, a .co.uk gives you a country signal no keyword extension can replace.
Registry Services, LLC, which operates as GoDaddy Registry. The IANA root zone database records the extension as delegated on 18 December 2014 to Top Level Design, LLC, and its transfer to Registry Services, LLC on 31 August 2021. The administrative and technical contacts listed with IANA are GoDaddy Registry addresses in Tempe, Arizona, which is the authoritative answer rather than whatever a reseller states.
Some do, and how they use them is the useful part. Adobe runs adobe.design as a working site about its design organisation. Airbnb and Figma both hold the matching .design and redirect it to their main site, which is the more common pattern for a company with a strong .com behind it. The lesson for a smaller studio is that the flagship examples are mostly satellites of a primary domain rather than replacements for one, so plan for your .design to be doing more work than theirs.
Rarely, and not for search reasons. A domain move costs you time while Google reprocesses the change, risks losing links that never get updated, and breaks every email address you have ever printed. Google's own guidance treats a domain move like any other site move and warns that it takes time to work through. If you want the .design, the low-risk version is to register it, point it at the existing site, use it on new marketing, and only consider switching the main address once you can see it pulling its weight.
Included with Your .design 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 Creative Domains Extensions
Register your .design domain today
Secure your .design domain from just £44.99/yr. Free DNS management, email forwarding, and 10GB mailbox included.
