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 ‹ › Jun 2014 latest
Identity Digital — 733.79k (62.04%)CentralNic (Team Internet) — 240.15k (20.3%)GoDaddy Registry — 112.94k (9.55%)Teleinfo — 52,564 (4.44%)KNET — 16,062 (1.36%)Tucows — 9,554 (0.81%)fury.ca — 6,161 (0.52%)Knipp / TANGO Registry — 4,081 (0.35%)Google Registry — 3,584 (0.3%)GMO Registry — 2,615 (0.22%)Other — 1,241 (0.1%)
1.18Mreported Jun 2014
Share of new-gTLD domains by backend
Identity Digital190 TLDs733.79k62.04%
CentralNic (Team Internet)20 TLDs240.15k20.3%
GoDaddy Registry29 TLDs112.94k9.55%
Teleinfo4 TLDs52,5644.44%
KNET9 TLDs16,0621.36%
Tucows8 TLDs9,5540.81%
fury.ca1 TLDs6,1610.52%
Knipp / TANGO Registry9 TLDs4,0810.35%
Google Registry4 TLDs3,5840.3%
GMO Registry8 TLDs2,6150.22%
Other8 more backends1,2410.1%

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
11.62M
7.42M
KNET 22 TLDs
6.52M
5.34M
GMO Registry 46 TLDs
4.40M
2.66M
fury.ca 5 TLDs
387.96k
Nominet 78 TLDs
141.69k
140.84k
AFNIC 11 TLDs
117.97k
Teleinfo 10 TLDs
68,608
61,551
RyCE 4 TLDs
43,193
CNNIC 9 TLDs
35,375

All backends

#BackendTLDsDomainsSource
1 CentralNic (Team Internet) 87 18,046,144 curated
2 Tucows 53 11,617,417 curated
3 Identity Digital 450 7,422,879 curated
4 KNET 22 6,518,449 curated
5 GoDaddy Registry 206 5,343,131 curated
6 GMO Registry 46 4,400,524 curated
7 Google Registry 46 2,659,098 curated
8 fury.ca inferred 5 387,955 rdap_host shared by 5 TLDs
9 Nominet 78 141,687 curated
10 Knipp / TANGO Registry 27 140,838 curated
11 AFNIC 11 117,971 curated
12 Teleinfo 10 68,608 curated
13 dnsnode.net inferred 2 61,551 ns_suffix shared by 16 TLDs
14 RyCE 4 43,193 curated
15 CNNIC 9 35,375 curated
16 FlexiReg 2 28,301 curated
17 anycastdns.cz inferred 1 16,863 ns_suffix shared by 25 TLDs
18 dns.net.za inferred 3 7,298 ns_suffix shared by 7 TLDs
19 Verisign 14 6,608 curated
20 ripn.net inferred 2 2,216 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.