Registry backends

Which technical registry service provider actually serves each new gTLD's DNS. ICANN publishes no TLD-to-backend mapping, so this is inferred from three signals: the root-zone nameserver hostnames, the RDAP endpoint from IANA's bootstrap file, and — for TLDs running vanity hostnames — the reverse DNS of those nameservers' addresses.

These are the companies running the infrastructure, not the ones selling the domains. Most registry operators outsource their backend and so appear nowhere on this page — Radix's ten TLDs all run on Tucows' platform, for instance. For the operators themselves, see registry operators.

1,089 TLDs attributed across 26 platforms. 24 remain unattributed — brand TLDs whose vanity nameservers and RDAP endpoints reveal nothing about who operates them. They are counted here rather than quietly dropped. How the inference works.

Backend concentration

Source: ICANN monthly registry reports

A handful of platforms serve the DNS for most of the new-gTLD namespace. Share of all new-gTLD domains by technical backend, from ICANN's monthly registry reports. Each TLD is attributed to the platform serving it today — nothing records who ran a TLD's DNS in 2016 — so this is volume on today's platforms over time, not who served it at the time.

Month ‹ › Apr 2014 latest
Identity Digital — 487.07k (78.64%)Teleinfo — 45,502 (7.35%)Tucows — 41,324 (6.67%)GoDaddy Registry — 22,856 (3.69%)CentralNic (Team Internet) — 14,908 (2.41%)Google Registry — 3,472 (0.56%)Knipp / TANGO Registry — 2,875 (0.46%)Nominet — 702 (0.11%)fury.ca — 369 (0.06%)GMO Registry — 262 (0.04%)Other — 63 (0.01%)
619.40kreported Apr 2014
Share of new-gTLD domains by backend
Identity Digital161 TLDs487.07k78.64%
Teleinfo3 TLDs45,5027.35%
Tucows5 TLDs41,3246.67%
GoDaddy Registry21 TLDs22,8563.69%
CentralNic (Team Internet)11 TLDs14,9082.41%
Google Registry2 TLDs3,4720.56%
Knipp / TANGO Registry7 TLDs2,8750.46%
Nominet3 TLDs7020.11%
fury.ca1 TLDs3690.06%
GMO Registry4 TLDs2620.04%
Other6 more backends630.01%

By domains served

Source: Daily zone files and ICANN monthly registry reports

Bar length is domains; the TLD count is shown alongside because the two rank very differently.

Tucows 53 TLDs
11.63M
7.43M
KNET 22 TLDs
6.52M
5.35M
GMO Registry 46 TLDs
4.40M
2.67M
fury.ca 5 TLDs
388.22k
Nominet 78 TLDs
141.74k
140.83k
AFNIC 11 TLDs
117.95k
Teleinfo 10 TLDs
68,601
61,583
RyCE 4 TLDs
43,195
CNNIC 9 TLDs
35,365

All backends

#BackendTLDsDomainsSource
1 CentralNic (Team Internet) 87 18,072,486 curated
2 Tucows 53 11,630,408 curated
3 Identity Digital 450 7,430,998 curated
4 KNET 22 6,522,351 curated
5 GoDaddy Registry 206 5,347,854 curated
6 GMO Registry 46 4,398,762 curated
7 Google Registry 46 2,666,186 curated
8 fury.ca inferred 5 388,221 rdap_host shared by 5 TLDs
9 Nominet 78 141,741 curated
10 Knipp / TANGO Registry 27 140,825 curated
11 AFNIC 11 117,948 curated
12 Teleinfo 10 68,601 curated
13 dnsnode.net inferred 2 61,583 ns_suffix shared by 16 TLDs
14 RyCE 4 43,195 curated
15 CNNIC 9 35,365 curated
16 FlexiReg 2 28,301 curated
17 anycastdns.cz inferred 1 16,871 ns_suffix shared by 25 TLDs
18 dns.net.za inferred 3 7,296 ns_suffix shared by 7 TLDs
19 Verisign 14 6,617 curated
20 ripn.net inferred 2 2,247 ns_suffix shared by 25 TLDs
21 NIC.br 5 903 curated
22 pch.net inferred 1 76 ns_suffix shared by 17 TLDs
23 aka-ns.net inferred 2 4 ns_suffix shared by 12 TLDs
24 ns.il inferred 1 – ns_suffix shared by 6 TLDs
25 ntc.org.pk inferred 1 – ns_suffix shared by 3 TLDs
26 monic.mo inferred 1 – ns_suffix shared by 5 TLDs

Data currency. Domain counts on this page are from zone files dated and refresh daily. Registrar figures are from ICANN's monthly registry reports for June 2026, which ICANN publishes about three months in arrears; zone files contain no registrar information, so no fresher source exists. Full detail on methodology and live pipeline status.