Simple, Transparent .studio Pricing
New
First-year registration price
- ✔ Free WHOIS privacy
- ✔ Free DNS management
- ✔ Instant activation
Renewal
Standard annual renewal rate
- ✔ Auto-renew available
- ✔ Renewal reminder emails
- ✔ No hidden fees
Transfer
Move an existing .studio domain to us
- ✔ Adds 1 year on transfer
- ✔ Free transfer assistance
- ✔ No downtime
What Is A .studio Domain, And Who Is It For?
.studio is a descriptive generic top-level domain from ICANN's expanded namespace program, built for creative and production work — the extension itself reads like a category label rather than a generic address, which is unusually rare among domain names. It's open to anyone, with no license or portfolio review required, so a freelance designer and an established production house register it under identical rules.
The best fit is squarely creative: graphic and web design studios, photography and videography businesses, architecture and interior-design practices, animation and motion-graphics shops, and independent artists building a client-facing portfolio site. A freelance illustrator moving off a marketplace profile, or a small branding agency outgrowing a personal-name domain, both find a natural home here — the extension does part of the positioning work before a visitor even reaches the homepage.
On perception, it's worth staying honest: .com is still the extension most visitors default to typing from memory, and that recognition doesn't disappear overnight. .studio hasn't reached that universal level yet, but within creative and client-facing industries it's a familiar, well-understood pattern, and it's indexed and ranked in search results identically to any other gTLD — there's no built-in visibility penalty for choosing it.
The practical takeaway: if your work is visibly creative and your ideal .com is taken, cluttered with hyphens, or already owned by someone else, .studio is a stronger choice than a compromised .com. If your brand needs to read as a broad, general-purpose business first and a creative one second, .com remains the safer long-term anchor.
It's a natural fit for design, photography, architecture, and production studios that want their domain to echo their actual business name — "studio" is a real, common word in those industries, so the extension reads as descriptive rather than as a marketing gimmick.
- ✔ Minimum length: 2 characters
- ✔ Category: Creative
- ✔ WHOIS privacy: Included, free
- ✔ Typical renewal: $29.99/yr
What You Get With A .studio Registration
.studio follows standard open registration rules with no creative-industry proof required. Every .studio domain includes free WHOIS privacy, full DNS control, and activates within minutes of checkout.
.studio Domain Questions
Yes. Every .studio domain registered through DomainHost includes free WHOIS privacy protection by default, masking your personal contact details from the public WHOIS database at no extra charge.
Most .studio domains go live within minutes of completing checkout. Full DNS propagation across every server worldwide can occasionally take a few hours, but your domain is typically usable almost immediately.
Yes. You can transfer a .studio domain to or away from DomainHost at any time, subject to the standard 60-day post-registration transfer lock. Transfers to us cost $14.99 and add a year to your registration.
Yes. It's a common, well-recognized pattern among designers, photographers, and small agencies, and it lets you keep your exact brand name instead of settling for a hyphenated .com alternative.