New Domain Extensions
New domain extensions are the hundreds of endings, such as .online, .store, .shop, .tech and .design, that ICANN opened to applicants in 2012 and that began launching in 2013. Before that programme, adding a top-level domain was rare and slow. Nearly two thousand applications arrived, covering brands, dictionary words, cities and scripts such as Arabic and Chinese.
Each successful applicant became a registry operator with a contract that sets rules for pricing, abuse handling and data. Some run a single extension; others manage large portfolios. Radix runs .online, .store, .tech and .site, Identity Digital operates many word-based endings such as .guru and .academy, Google Registry runs .app and .dev, and XYZ.com runs .xyz and .college.
Not every application became public. Many companies took a brand extension for their own use only, some contested words were settled at auction, and a few endings later closed.
The process continues. ICANN has prepared a further application round expected to open in 2026, so more new domain extensions will arrive in the years ahead. For a buyer in Pakistan that means the choice will keep growing, and the best names on any new ending tend to go quickly after launch. If a future extension suits your trade, our team can let you know when it opens for registration.
New gTLD Registration
New gTLD registration follows the same quick checkout as a .com once an extension reaches general availability, but every ending passes through stages first. The opening stage is sunrise, a window reserved for trademark owners who have recorded their marks in the Trademark Clearinghouse. A Pakistani company with a registered trademark can use it to secure its brand before the public.
Some extensions follow sunrise with an early-access or landrush period, when names cost more for a few days and the price falls daily. General availability comes last, and from then names are first come, first served at standard rates. The old Pre-Reg label on our earlier site referred to endings still waiting for that stage.
Registries also hold back reserved names and sell others at premium prices, and that premium often continues at every renewal. Our search results flag premium names before you add them to the cart.
A small group of new gTLDs is restricted. The .bank and .insurance endings require proof that you are a licensed financial institution, and .pharmacy is limited to verified pharmacies. Extensions like .app and .dev are open to anyone but sit on browsers' HTTPS preload list, so the site must have a valid SSL certificate before it will load. Keep that in mind when planning new gTLD registration for a project that is not yet hosted.
Industry Domain Names
Industry domain names put your trade after the dot, so the full address reads like a short sentence: the brand first and the business type second. For a Pakistani company whose short name is already taken in .com, this is often the cleanest way to keep a brief, memorable web address.
Retailers and online sellers can choose from .store, .shop, .boutique, .clothing, .shoes and .deals. An electronics reseller in Hafeez Centre might prefer .store, while a home-based clothing label could use .boutique. Our .shop page compares the two leading shopping endings.
Education providers have .academy, .school, .college, .institute and .training. These suit coaching centres and online courses that cannot use .edu.pk because they are not registered institutions.
Health and wellness businesses can use .clinic, .dental, .care and .fitness. Food businesses have .food, .kitchen, .coffee, .catering and .menu, which fit restaurants and cloud kitchens taking orders over WhatsApp. Property and energy firms can pick .properties, .estate, .builders, .construction and .solar, a natural match for Pakistan's rooftop solar trade.
When picking industry domain names, choose the word your customers would use to describe you, not the one you use internally. A physiotherapist is better on .clinic than on .health if patients already call the practice a clinic, and a caterer known for wedding events may find .catering clearer than .food.
Creative Domain Extensions
Creative domain extensions give designers, photographers, musicians and agencies an address that doubles as a portfolio label. Endings such as .design, .studio, .photography, .art, .media and .productions tell a visitor what kind of work to expect before the page has even loaded.
Freelancers benefit most. A graphic designer in Islamabad who lost the .com of her own name can often register it on .design for Rs 1,300 in the first year and use it as a clean link on Behance, Instagram and client proposals. A wedding photographer can pair a studio name with .photography, while a small video team might prefer .productions or .media.
Agencies have a broader choice in .agency, .marketing, .digital and .studio. These work well for client-facing sites and for campaign microsites that need a memorable link in a social media post or on a printed flyer.
Creative domain extensions also suit personal branding. Writers, coaches and speakers sometimes use .me, .blog or .site to separate a personal profile from a company website.
One caution applies: some of these names renew at a much higher rate than the launch offer, with .design renewing at Rs 5,000. Before you print business cards, check the renewal column in our table and decide whether the name is worth keeping for at least five years.
Cheap New Domains
Cheap new domains are easy to find because new registries compete hard for attention, and the quickest way to win customers is a low first-year price. That is why .xyz, .online and .life appear on our list at Rs 999. These offers are genuine, but they usually apply only to the first year.
Renewal tells a different story. At today's prices, .online renews at Rs 4,300, .store at Rs 5,800 and .shop at Rs 4,500. The .college extension starts at Rs 2,900 and renews at Rs 9,900. Others are steadier: .guru costs Rs 3,900 every year, and .xyz renews at a modest Rs 1,999.
Before choosing, work out the five-year cost: the first-year price plus four renewals. A name that seems a bargain today can become the largest item in a small website budget. For a long-term brand, a steady-priced ending or a .pk may cost less overall.
Cheap new domains are still useful for short projects: event pages, product launches, test sites and campaign links that may not need renewing. In those cases the low entry price is exactly what you want.
If you plan to keep a name, register several years at once while the launch price applies, where the registry allows it, and add the renewal date to your company calendar so the invoice is no surprise.
