What Was the .active Domain? A Terminated Brand TLD
The .active domain was a brand TLD for The Active Network that ICANN terminated in 2019. Learn its history, why it was removed, and what to register instead.
- tld
The .active domain was a brand top-level domain created for The Active Network, Inc., a company known for event, activity, and registration management software. It no longer exists: ICANN removed .active from the DNS root zone in 2019, so the extension no longer resolves and cannot be registered.
If you searched for the ".active domain," this page explains what it was, why it disappeared, and what the story of a terminated dot-brand means for anyone choosing a domain today.
.active at a glance
| Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| TLD type | Brand new gTLD (closed / "dot-brand") |
| Registry operator | The Active Network, Inc. — agreement now terminated |
| Year delegated | 2014 |
| Year terminated | 2019 (removed from the root zone) |
| Current status | Terminated — not present in the DNS root zone |
| Registration restrictions | Not available — the TLD no longer exists |
What was .active?
.active was a closed brand gTLD: a top-level domain reserved for a single company's exclusive use. The string itself is an ordinary English adjective for movement and energy, which is likely why people still search for it, but that everyday meaning never came with a public registration option. Only The Active Network, Inc., the company that applied for the string, could ever hold names under it.
Like other dot-brands, .active was never open to the public. You can confirm its status on the authoritative IANA root-zone record for .active, which now shows the domain is not present in the root zone.
History of .active
.active was delegated on 19 June 2014 as part of ICANN's New gTLD Program, the 2012 expansion that let companies apply for their own brand as a suffix. The Active Network secured the string to match its own name and its business in event and activity registration software.
The brand never opened the TLD to outside registrants and made little to no public use of the extension. On 15 February 2019, ICANN removed .active from the root zone, under five years after it was first delegated — one of many closed dot-brands whose owners chose not to keep the registry running.
Why was .active discontinued?
A brand TLD only earns its keep if the company builds public-facing use on it, and running one carries ongoing ICANN fees and technical maintenance regardless of how many names exist under it. When an owner decides that cost is not worth it, it can voluntarily terminate its registry agreement; ICANN then removes the TLD from the root zone, and the extension stops resolving worldwide.
.active is one of many closed dot-brands retired this way. Because it was never open to the public, its termination affected no outside registrants — there were none — but it is still a reminder that a delegated TLD is not a permanent fixture of the internet.
Can you register a .active domain?
No. .active no longer exists in the DNS, so there is nothing to register and no registrar can offer it. It was never available to the public even while it was active, because it was a closed brand namespace controlled by The Active Network.
If a .active link ever appears again, it would only be because a company re-applies in a later ICANN round — there is no public path to owning one today.
What .active teaches about choosing a TLD
The rise and removal of .active is a useful reminder for anyone picking a domain:
- Brand TLDs are private. A dot-brand is never something an outside project can build on, no matter how generic or appealing the word behind it looks.
- Not every TLD is permanent. Delegated strings can be handed back and removed, so long-term projects are safest on well-established, widely used extensions.
- Openness matters. For your own venture, an open extension anyone can register and renew is far more dependable than a single-owner string.
What to register instead at Namefi
Since .active is gone, choose a stable, open extension for your own name:
- Search your desired name across open TLDs such as .com, .io, or .xyz.
- Choose the extension that best fits your brand and budget.
- Register and configure DNS.
Namefi is an ICANN-accredited registrar that bridges Web2 and Web3, with transparent pricing, fast DNS, and the option to hold your name as a tokenized domain for provable ownership and easier transfer.
Frequently asked questions
Can I register a .active domain?
No. .active was terminated in 2019 and removed from the DNS root zone, so it no longer exists as a working extension and cannot be registered through any registrar. Even before that, it was a closed brand TLD never open to the public.
What happened to .active?
ICANN removed .active from the root zone on 15 February 2019 after the registry agreement covering it ended. It had been delegated under five years earlier, in June 2014.
Was .active ever open to the public?
No. .active was always a closed brand TLD, meaning only The Active Network could ever register names under it. It was never sold to outside individuals or businesses.
Did anyone ever use a .active domain?
No public site of note. The Active Network made little to no public use of the extension before its registry agreement ended, so nothing was lost when the TLD was removed.
Related resources
- What is a TLD? — how top-level domains work.
- What are tokenized domains? — owning a domain on-chain.
- How a TLD affects domain value — why the extension matters.
- .com TLD guide, .io TLD guide, and .xyz TLD guide — open extensions you can actually register.
- Glossary: new gTLD, ICANN, root zone.
Related keywords
- The Active Network domain
- terminated TLD
- discontinued gTLD
- dot-brand TLD
- is .active available
- what is .active
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- .active TLD
Contributors
Fenwei Bian is a software developer in her thirties who spends her working hours in pull requests and her weekends with her hands in soil or sawdust. Years of open source on GitHub taught her that names are interfaces: a good one is clear, honest about what it does, and kind to whoever has to use it next.
She gardens because it rewards patience and punishes wishful thinking, and she does woodwork because a joint either fits or it doesn't. Both habits show up in how she writes about naming — measure twice, check the source, and don't sand over a rough spot and hope no one notices.
For Namefi she writes about how domain markets actually move, the practical trade-offs of tokenizing and flipping names, and picking a domain you'll still be glad you own in twenty years.
Victor Zhou is a technology founder and standards editor focused on digital identity and trust. He founded Namefi, edits Ethereum Improvement Proposals, and previously led smart-contract architecture work at Google Labs.
His work sits at the intersection of naming, ownership, and the systems people use to establish identity online. That perspective makes him especially interested in the way names move between personal meaning, public recognition, and digital infrastructure.
For Namefi, Victor edits and writes about domains as durable digital identity: how names become ownable onchain assets, how tokenization changes custody and trust, and what naming can learn from the systems people use to establish identity online.