.dev Domain
Built for Developers, by Google
Register your .dev domain from just £17.99/yr. Free DNS management, email forwarding, and 10GB mailbox included with every domain.
This domain has registration restrictions
Anyone may register a .dev, but browsers refuse plain HTTP across the whole extension, so a .dev site needs a valid HTTPS certificate before it will load at all. Read the full eligibility rules.
What is a .dev domain?
The .dev domain is a secure namespace dedicated to developers and technology. Managed by Google, every .dev domain requires HTTPS by default, making it inherently more secure. It's the natural home for developer portfolios, tools, and documentation.
Who should register .dev?
Software developers, development agencies, and technical documentation sites.
Why choose .dev?
- HTTPS required by default (added security)
- Managed by Google Registry
- Clear developer identity
- Growing adoption in the tech community
Who runs .dev, and since when
Registry data from the .dev 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
- Charleston Road Registry Inc.
- The organisation that runs the extension
- In the root zone since
- 2014
- Delegated 20 November 2014
- Who can register
- Open to anyone, but a .dev site needs a working HTTPS certificate before it will load
- Checked against the registry's own policy
- Our price
- £17.99 a year
- Ex VAT. Renews at the same price
Why a .dev domain will not load without HTTPS
The .dev domain has a longer history than its launch date suggests. Google's registry arm, Charleston Road Registry, signed the agreement with ICANN on 16 October 2014 and the extension went into the root zone that November, then stayed shut to the public for more than four years. Sunrise opened on 16 January 2019, an early access period followed on 19 February, and general availability arrived on 28 February 2019.
In that gap developers had already adopted .dev informally as a hostname for sites running on their own machines. The habit ended when the whole namespace was added to the HSTS preload list, and the replacement is worth knowing about: the IETF reserved .test for exactly this job in RFC 6761, published in February 2013. Nobody can sell you a .test, and nobody can force HTTPS onto it.
Encrypted by default, and what that costs you
The preload list is a set of names that browsers treat as HTTPS-only without ever being told so by the site itself, and all of .dev sits on it. In the preload project's own words, "requests to these domains will only be made over HTTPS; any HTTP requests will be upgraded to HTTPS and fail to connect if HTTPS is unavailable". Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Edge all read the same list.
Every practical consequence follows from that one rule. You cannot put up a plain HTTP holding page while the hosting is sorted out. A certificate that lapses does not produce a warning screen a visitor can click past, it produces a site that will not open. You cannot switch the behaviour off either, because it lives in the browser rather than on your server, and taking a name off the preload list is possible but takes months to reach people through browser updates. Google Registry treats it as serious enough to require registrars to disclose the requirement clearly and conspicuously before purchase, separately from their general terms and not tucked behind a link.
None of this is a burden on hosting that issues certificates for you. Every 365i plan includes a free Let's Encrypt wildcard certificate, issued and renewed automatically on a 90 day cycle, as long as the domain points at our nameservers. One more thing worth knowing: the rule is a browser behaviour only, so a .dev used purely for email is untouched by it. MX records, mailboxes and forwarding all work exactly as they would on any other extension.
Like our recent launches for .app and .page, this new domain will be secure by default because it requires HTTPS to connect to all .dev websites.
What that means if you are buying one
Secure by default is the selling point and the catch in the same breath. There is no plain HTTP fallback on a .dev, so the certificate is not a job you get to later. It is the difference between a site that opens and a site that does not. Sort the hosting and the certificate before you point the DNS at anything.
Who is allowed to register .dev?
Anyone may register a .dev, but browsers refuse plain HTTP across the whole extension, so a .dev site needs a valid HTTPS certificate before it will load at all.
- HTTPS is not optional
- The whole .dev namespace is on the HSTS preload list, so browsers upgrade any HTTP request to HTTPS and fail to connect when HTTPS is not available. Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Edge all use the same list, so there is no browser where a plain HTTP .dev site works.
- What your registrar must tell you
- Google Registry requires registrars to alert prospective registrants to the HTTPS requirement clearly and conspicuously during the registration flow, before purchase. That notice has to be separate from the general terms of service and must not be hidden behind a link. If nobody mentioned it when you bought, that is the rule they skipped.
- Two-letter .dev names
- Anyone registering a two-character letter and letter label represents that they will take steps to avoid implying an affiliation with a government or a country-code manager where none exists. Names on the IOC, Red Cross and IGO reserved list may only be registered on behalf of the organisation concerned.
- If you skip the certificate
- Nothing loads. Visitors get a connection failure rather than a security warning they can dismiss, and search engines cannot fetch the page either. This is not something we or any other host can waive for you, because the rule is compiled into the browser rather than served by your website.
Rules taken from the Google Registry .dev registration policy. Registry policy can change, so check before you buy if the answer matters to you.
Not sure whether you qualify? Ask us before you order and we will check the registry rules with you. We would rather answer the question than take an order the registry will refuse.
Is .dev the right choice for you?
We would rather sell you the right extension once than the wrong one twice.
.dev works well if
- You are publishing developer-facing work: documentation, an SDK, a command line tool, an engineering blog, or a portfolio a technical hiring manager will read.
- You want HTTPS enforced as a matter of policy across the whole extension rather than as a setting somebody on your team has to remember to keep switched on.
- The short name you wanted has gone on .com and .io, and your audience will read .dev as a deliberate choice instead of a consolation prize.
- You run demo and sandbox sites for a technical audience and want an address that admits what they are.
Look elsewhere if
- Your customers are not technical. To most people "dev" means unfinished, so a brochure site on a .dev reads as a work in progress that somebody forgot to finish.
- You cannot guarantee a valid certificate at all times. On a .dev an expired certificate is an unreachable website, not a warning page a determined visitor can get past.
- You need a holding page live over plain HTTP today while the real hosting is arranged. That is not possible on this extension at all.
- You sell to UK consumers who search locally. Google reads a country-code extension as a strong signal of who a site is for, and .dev gives it nothing to work with.
Building a customer-facing product site for a non-technical audience? A .com needs no explaining and carries no certificate condition. See .com pricing.
.dev vs .com: which should you register?
The choice here is rarely about price, because these two sit close enough together that the annual bill will not decide it. It is about who is reading the address. A .com asks nothing of the reader and signals nothing in particular. A .dev tells a developer they are in the right place and tells everybody else that the site might be a test.
Where .com still wins: it is the default people type, it works over plain HTTP if you ever need it to, and it never has to be explained to a customer, a supplier or an accountant. Where .dev wins: availability of short names, an unambiguous signal to a technical audience, and encryption you cannot accidentally turn off.
Plenty of technology companies run both, with the .com as the front door and the .dev holding the documentation and the developer portal. That is a sound pattern, and it lets each address do the job it is good at rather than asking one to do both.
| .dev | .com | |
|---|---|---|
| Registry | Charleston Road Registry, part of Google | Verisign |
| In the root zone since | 2014, open to the public from 2019 | 1985 |
| HTTPS | Required, enforced by the browser | Optional, your decision |
| Reads as | Developer, technical, sometimes unfinished | Any business, no signal |
| Short names left | A reasonable number | Very few without hyphens |
| Geographic signal | None | None |
.dev domain questions, answered
What people ask us before registering a .dev domain.
Can't find what you're looking for?
Ask us directlyYes, and without one the site does not work at all. Browsers will not make a plain HTTP request to any .dev address, so there is no version of the page a visitor can reach before the certificate is in place. On 365i hosting this is handled for you: every plan includes a free Let's Encrypt wildcard certificate that is issued and renewed automatically on a 90 day cycle, as long as the domain is using our nameservers.
Because the whole extension is on the HSTS preload list, which browsers ship with. Any HTTP request to a .dev is upgraded to HTTPS before it leaves the browser, and if HTTPS is not answering, the connection simply fails. This is not a setting on your server and no host can override it. Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Edge all use the same list, so switching browser will not produce a different result.
Yes. The HTTPS requirement is browser behaviour, and it has nothing to do with mail. MX records, mailboxes, forwarding, SPF, DKIM and DMARC all behave on a .dev exactly as they would on a .com. If you never publish a website on it you will never encounter the certificate rule. Every domain we register includes email forwarding and one 10GB mailbox, so a mail-only .dev needs nothing extra bought alongside it.
There is no rule limiting who may register one. Google Registry runs .dev under a standard, non-sponsored agreement with ICANN, so a bakery could buy one tomorrow. The practical objection is not eligibility but reading: outside technology, "dev" means development, and a non-technical customer landing on a .dev address often assumes they have found a staging copy of the real site. That costs you trust you never see leaving.
Use .test. The IETF reserved it as a special-use domain name in RFC 6761 in February 2013, specifically so that developers have names that will never be sold, never resolve on the public internet, and never be claimed by anyone. That makes it a safer choice for a machine-local hostname than any real extension, and unlike .dev nobody can add it to a preload list and change the rules under you.
No. Google treats it as a generic extension, so it carries no country signal in either direction and no ranking penalty. The real risk is behavioural rather than algorithmic: in a results page full of .com and .co.uk listings, a .dev address makes some people hesitate before clicking, and for a UK business chasing local customers a .co.uk gives Google a geographic signal that .dev cannot.
Included with Your .dev 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 .dev domain today
Secure your .dev domain from just £17.99/yr. Free DNS management, email forwarding, and 10GB mailbox included.
