.agency: Identity Digital's Service-Firm Label—~120k in Zone, Five Verified Roofs, Six Brochure Names Dead
Binky Moon/Identity Digital since 2018, ~120k zone names (bgp.he.net Jul 2026) vs passive-DNS ~192k, Porkbun $3.60→$25.23 renew after Oct 2025 wholesale hikes. Verified: oliver.agency, brandon.agency, gale.agency, bakery.agency, raindrop.agency. Delete barkley/olivine Mad Libs, invented NameBio tiers, and AIO entity-classification boilerplate.
NewName Editorial
Editorial Team
Open www.oliver.agency. HTTP 200—OLIVER (The Brandtech Group), the in-house marketing model used by eight of the world's top ten advertisers. Open barkley.agency. Mid-2026 DNS checks return no resolving site—yet the old guide listed barkley.agency, olivine.agency, ryucreative.agency, sparkshoppe.agency, beutler.agency, and soapbox.agency as notable adoption without opening a browser. Same suffix, opposite evidence quality. The thin daily-TLD stub this guide replaces never made that distinction. It pasted unverified NameBio sales (Digital.agency at $25,000, Creative.agency at $10,000–$20,000), priced renewals at a lazy "$20–$40" without citing Identity Digital's October 2025 wholesale increase, and recycled AIO boilerplate about AI models "correctly categorizing" service providers from the TLD alone. Unaudited, delete-on-sight.
The story worth telling is not ".agency is a professional trust signal." It is Identity Digital's descriptive grammar for service firms—~120k names in the live zone file, five mid-market shops that actually built on the suffix in 2026, and why marquee pitch decks still default to .com even when the word agency is literally available.
Registry stack: Steel Falls launch, Binky Moon today
Contracted operator (2026): Binky Moon, LLC c/o Identity Digital Inc. (Bellevue, Washington) per IANA .agency record. RDAP: https://rdap.identitydigital.services/rdap/. Registration services: identity.digital.
| Date | Event |
|------|-------|
| 9 Jan 2014 | IANA delegation to Steel Falls, LLC (delegation report) |
| 30 Jan 2014 | .agency enters the DNS root |
| 2014–2015 | General availability; Donuts portfolio launch cohort |
| 23 Mar 2018 | Registry operations transfer to Binky Moon, LLC with 195 sibling strings (IANA transfer report) |
| 2020–2022 | Donuts acquires Afilias; rebrand to Identity Digital (PR Newswire, Jun 2022) |
| 6 Oct 2025 | Identity Digital wholesale price increase on 200+ portfolio TLDs including .agency (NamePros summary) |
Restrictions: None. Any individual or company can register—no proof of agency status, no 4A membership, no WPP badge. That openness is the product and the positioning problem: the suffix describes an industry anyone can claim.
Portfolio neighbors: Identity Digital also runs .studio, .digital, .marketing, .media, and .design is not in this portfolio (GoDaddy Registry)—do not conflate operator stacks when comparing creative URLs.
Zone size: ~120k in file, ~192k in passive DNS—small but real
| Metric | Source / date | Figure |
|--------|---------------|--------|
| Names in .agency zone file | bgp.he.net, 27 Jul 2026 | 120,462 |
| Unicast A records | bgp.he.net, 27 Jul 2026 | 108,655 |
| Passive DNS label count | tb0hdan/domains STATS | 191,617 |
| Registry-tracker panel | HostDir, 2026 | 180,768 registered (#102 globally, ~0.04% of tracked census) |
Trackers disagree by methodology—zone file vs cumulative registration vs passive DNS—but all place .agency in the low six figures: larger than novelty strings, an order of magnitude smaller than .digital or .studio. The gap between ~120k registered and ~109k resolving A records is parked inventory, campaign microsites, and defensive holds—not proof every name is a working agency site.
Pricing: $3 promos, Oct 2025 wholesale hike—model renewals
Identity Digital TLDs use variable standard and premium tiers at checkout (Com Laude registry terms). Mid-2026 retail shelves:
| Registrar (snapshot) | 1st year | Renewal | Notes | |---------------------|----------|---------|-------| | Porkbun | ~$3.60 promo | ~$25.23 | porkbun.com/tld/agency, Jul 2026 | | Dynadot | ~$3.50 promo | ~$25.90 | domainoffer.net analysis, Jul 2026 | | GoDaddy | ~$4.99 promo | ~$47.99 | Same aggregator; markup both sides of stack | | Namecheap (pre/post Oct 2025) | — | $32.48 → $41.98 | Identity Digital increase pass-through (NamePros thread) |
Delete the old guide's "$10–$25 register / $20–$40 renew" band and "$500–$50,000 aftermarket tiers" without comps. The economic trap matches sibling Identity Digital strings: cheap year one, $25–$42 sustainable renewal, premium dictionary words (marketing.agency, creative.agency) flagged at EPP checkout. ICANN's $0.20/domain-year fee is normally embedded in retail. For cross-TLD economics, see How Much Do Domains Cost?.
Aftermarket: one verified five-figure comp—skip the fiction
Public .agency sales are thin. Cite only what NameBio/NamePros actually logged:
crypto.agency— $24,004, reported 21 June 2025 (NamePros daily sales).agency.com— $575,000 in 2008 (historical keyword sale)—.com, not.agency; useful only as a keyword ceiling reference.
Trash the old stub's Digital.agency $25,000, Creative.agency $10k–$20k, Media.agency $15,000, and Design.agency $8k–$12k lines—no audited DNJournal receipts cited. Mid-2026 checks show creative.agency is a Spaceship for-sale lander, not a creative shop; digital.agency redirects to a /lander parking stub. Investor forums cluster generic one-word .agency comps in the $500–$5,000 band (dotappraisals agency TLD note)—liquidity is niche, not .com-class.
Verified roofs—and the brochure names to delete
Skip registrar Mad Libs. These mid-2026 checks return live agency-grade surfaces:
www.oliver.agency — OLIVER / The Brandtech Group. In-house marketing operator across 50+ markets; page title: "Transform your brand with AI Inside marketing." HTTP 200. One of the highest-credibility .agency adoptions globally.
brandon.agency — Brandon, integrated advertising agency (AOR wins: Primal Pet Foods, Avelo Airlines in 2026 press). HTTP 200 on Cloudflare.
www.gale.agency — GALE | Business Agency. Business-strategy and creative shop (NBA, Domino's, Nike client roster on About page). HTTP 200.
www.bakery.agency — Bakery Agency, independent creative shop (Nike × Lil Yachty, Shiner, TreeHut rebrand). HTTP 200; Adweek Small Agency of the Year coverage.
raindrop.agency — Raindrop Agency, performance brand shop (Grüns DTC case study, national retail expansion). HTTP 200.
Counterexamples—do not miscite as adoption:
barkley.agency, olivine.agency, ryucreative.agency, sparkshoppe.agency, beutler.agency, soapbox.agency — No DNS resolution in mid-2026 checks despite old-guide bullet listings. (Barkley US operates on barkleyus.com, not .agency.)
creative.agency — HTTP 200 for-sale lander ("creative.agency for sale | Spaceship.com")—spec inventory, not Wieden+Kennedy.
digital.agency — Parking redirect to /lander—not a digital agency flagship.
travel.agency — Thin contact lander with travel.agency header—not Expedia; dictionary hold page.
marketing.agency — No resolving site in mid-2026 checks.
If you cannot open a living pitch deck or portfolio today, you do not have a notable—you have a brochure pattern.
Creative and marketing positioning: label vs. credential
In English pitch culture, .agency does two jobs at once:
- Semantic shortcut —
yourname.agencyparses instantly in RFP footers, email signatures, and conference badges. Useful for boutique shops, specialist recruiters, and regional real-estate brokers where spelling out "agency" saves a sentence. - Second-choice signal — Procurement and CMOs trained on
agency.comgravity may read.agencyas "they couldn't get the.com." dotappraisals' 2026 agency-TLD ranking places.agencythird behind.comand.studiofor integrated shops—"workable but unloved."
Who actually builds on .agency in 2026: mid-market integrated advertising and brand agencies (Brandon, GALE, Bakery, Raindrop) and global in-house operators (OLIVER)—not holding-company megabrands. WPP, Publicis, and Omnicom properties still canonicalize on .com subdomains or .group structures.
Chinese 广告/营销 context: Domestic 4A and 本土营销公司 default to .cn, .com, or holding-company domains (example.com.cn, group.com). A .agency URL can help 出海 pitch decks and English-language case-study sites where foreign buyers expect the word agency in the hostname—but it does not replace 巨量引擎 / 腾讯广告 platform identity or 小红书 / 微信公众号 discovery. Treat .agency as export-facing brand grammar, not domestic traffic infrastructure. For cross-border naming, pair with verified yourbrand.com on contracts and invoicing.
When .agency beats siblings: choose it over .studio when "agency" matches how clients describe you (media buying, PR retainer, recruitment)—not when you are a design-only portfolio. Choose it over .digital when service-firm grammar beats tech-stack grammar. .marketing is narrower and shares the same Identity Digital renewal economics.
SEO and AI search: descriptive TLD, not a ranking or citation cheat code
Google treats .agency as a standard gTLD—no geo signal, no ccTLD handling. John Mueller's standing guidance: keywords in the TLD are not a ranking signal. A descriptive suffix may improve human CTR when the SERP audience searches "creative agency near me" and the URL mirrors intent—it does not replace content, case studies, or links.
For AI Overviews, ChatGPT Search, and Perplexity: models cite pages with authority, citations, and freshness—not suffix semantics. oliver.agency surfaces because OLIVER is a documented in-house operator, not because .agency whispers "service provider" to model weights. Delete the old guide's line about AI engines "correctly categorizing" your site from the TLD alone—no primary source, no TLD privilege. Structured data (ProfessionalService, Organization, case-study CreativeWork) helps machines read page content, not the right-hand label.
See Does Your Domain Name Affect SEO?.
One routing question—not a who-should matrix
Skip twin columns. Ask:
Does putting agency in the URL shorten explanation to buyers who already know what you sell—or advertise that you lost the .com before the first slide?
Choose .agency when you are a marketing, advertising, PR, recruitment, or specialist service firm willing to publish real work on the domain, when yourbrand.com is taken or unaffordable but yourbrand.agency reads cleanly spoken aloud, when you need export-facing English grammar beside a .cn or .com you already invoice from, or when you want defensive registration next to an operating .com.
Skip .agency when enterprise procurement demands conservative TLDs, when cold-email deliverability is core GTM (keep SMTP on .com), when yourbrand.studio or yourbrand.com already owns the grammar, when you will park dictionary words (travel.agency pattern) expecting liquidity, or when you expect AI search engines to cite you because of the suffix—they will not.
Alternatives worth comparing:
.com— Default trust, email, and pitch-deck gravity..studio— Creative-shop grammar; larger Identity Digital zone..digital— Tech-forward service positioning..design— GoDaddy Registry; design-system ceiling (ant.design), not Identity Digital..media— Content and broadcast adjacency..io— Tech-agency fashion; different abuse economics.
FAQ
Who operates .agency in 2026?
Binky Moon, LLC (Identity Digital Inc.)—since the March 2018 portfolio transfer from the original Steel Falls, LLC delegation.
How many .agency domains exist?
~120,462 in the zone file with ~108,655 unicast A records (bgp.he.net, Jul 2026). Passive DNS census: ~191,617 labels (tb0hdan). Not a volume TLD—low six figures.
Can anyone register .agency?
Yes. No agency license required—despite the descriptive string.
What does .agency cost?
Promo first years around $3–$5 at discount registrars; sustainable renewals $25–$42+ after Identity Digital's October 2025 wholesale increases. Premium dictionary names cost more at checkout—query EPP before brand lock-in.
Is .agency good for SEO?
No special algorithm bonus. Possible CTR lift when the suffix mirrors service intent; no penalty either.
What are verified .agency examples?
oliver.agency, brandon.agency, gale.agency, bakery.agency, raindrop.agency — live agency sites mid-2026. Old-list barkley.agency / olivine.agency — not verified.
Any real .agency aftermarket sales?
crypto.agency at $24,004 (Jun 2025, NameBio/NamePros). Most other old-guide figures lack cited receipts.
Stress-testing whether yourshop.agency reads as credibility or consolation prize? Our domain search checks .agency availability, premium tiers, and matching .com in one pass—or read Psychology of Domain Names before you rent Identity Digital's service-firm label.
