.fail Domain Registrationfrom £60.78/yr
Why Choose a .fail Domain?
The .fail extension launched in 2014 as part of Donuts' (now Identity Digital) portfolio of descriptive new gTLDs. It's an unrestricted, openly-registrable domain that's found a niche with comedy projects, accountability blogs, satirical sites, and post-mortem write-ups about failed startups or products. Because the word carries an obvious negative connotation, it's most often used deliberately for humour, criticism, or honest self-reflection rather than mainstream branding.
Ideal for:
- Startup post-mortem blogs and case study libraries
- Satirical news sites and parody projects
- Engineering teams documenting outages and incident reviews
- Comedy podcasts and YouTube channels
- Personal sites for sharing lessons from failed ventures
Things to know:
- Unrestricted — anyone, anywhere can register a .fail domain.
- Operated by Identity Digital (formerly Donuts), one of the largest new gTLD registry operators.
- Some short, dictionary-word, or high-traffic .fail names are classified as premium and carry higher registration and renewal fees set by the registry.
- Because the TLD is sometimes used for criticism of named brands, be aware that registering a name targeting a specific company can attract UDRP complaints if it infringes a trademark.
Creative .fail Domain Ideas
- Startup.fail — a library of company post-mortems and founder interviews
- Build.fail — DIY projects gone wrong, with photos and lessons learned
- Deploy.fail — a DevOps blog about production outages and recovery
- Diet.fail — honest reviews of fad diets that didn't work
- Crypto.fail — tracking collapsed tokens, exchanges, and DeFi projects
- Recipe.fail — a cooking blog of disasters and how to avoid them
Frequently asked questions about .fail
Anyone in the world can register a .fail domain. There are no residency, business, or eligibility requirements. The registry, Identity Digital, operates it as a fully open new gTLD, so individuals, companies, charities, and projects can all register names on a first-come, first-served basis.
You can register a .fail domain for between one and ten years in single-year increments. You can renew at any point during the registration term to extend it, up to the ten-year maximum total registration period allowed by the registry.
Yes. To transfer a .fail domain in, unlock it at your current registrar, request the authorisation (EPP) code, and start the transfer through our domain transfer page. The domain must be at least 60 days old and not within 60 days of a previous transfer. A successful transfer adds one year to the registration.
Yes. The registry classifies certain short, common, or high-demand .fail names as premium domains, which carry higher registration and renewal prices set directly by Identity Digital. Our search tool will flag any premium pricing clearly before you commit, so you'll never be surprised at checkout.
After expiry, your domain enters a roughly 30-day grace period where you can renew at the standard price. After that, it moves into a redemption period of around 30 days where recovery is possible but incurs a redemption fee. Once that ends, the domain is deleted and released back to the public pool for anyone to register.