HOSTtest Domain Report Q3/2026

The monitored domain market showed significant growth

The domain market monitored by HOSTtest grew significantly in Q3 2026. The eleven analysed domain extensions together account for approximately 232.75 million registrations. Compared with Q2, this represents an increase of about 3.91 million domains, or 1.71 percent.

Growth is spread across almost the entire market examined: ten of the eleven domain extensions increased compared with the previous quarter. Only the European extension .eu recorded a slight decline and was thus largely flat.

However, the absolute increase is heavily concentrated in the global market leader .com. Around 3.22 million of the total 3.91 million additional registrations were for .com alone. Thus the extension accounted for around 83 percent of the total net increase. Proportionally, the .fr domain showed the strongest growth.

The central development of the quarter can therefore be summarised clearly: the observed domain market is growing broadly, but the absolute increase continues to be dominated by .com.

.com remains by far the largest domain extension

With more than 167.3 million registered domains, .com remains by far the largest extension in the analysis. Its total is thus larger than that of the other ten analysed domain extensions combined.

Notable is not only the enormous size but also the continued strong growth. Compared with the second quarter, around 3.22 million .com domains were added. That corresponds to an increase of 1.97 percent. Around 83 percent of the total net increase within the analysis was thus attributable to .com alone.

The sustained high demand can be explained primarily by the extension's international recognition. The .com domain is not assigned to any specific country, is established worldwide and is particularly suitable for international projects. For companies, brands and global online offerings it therefore often remains the first choice.

More than 18 million domains: .de reaches a new milestone

The German domain extension .de exceeded the 18 million registered domain mark for the first time in Q3 2026. The total rose from 17,895,000 domains in the second quarter to 18,050,000 domains.

This added 155,000 new .de domains within one quarter. That corresponds to growth of 0.87 per cent and is the second-largest absolute increase among the eleven domain extensions examined. Only .com gained more registrations over the same period.

There has also been a positive trend since the start of the year. Compared with the first quarter of 2026, the stock has grown by around 351,000 domains. .de thereby cements its position as the largest country-code domain extension in the HOSTtest analysis.

France shows the strongest percentage growth

With around 4.52 million registered domains, .fr is significantly smaller than .de, .uk or .nl. In the third quarter of 2026, however, the French extension shows the strongest relative development in the HOSTtest analysis.

Compared with the second quarter, the stock grew by 2.26 per cent. This places .fr ahead of .com at 1.97 per cent and .nl and .uk at around 1.29 per cent each. .ch and .es also developed positively with increases of 1.23 and 1.19 per cent respectively.

In absolute terms, .fr gained around 100,000 registered domains. The comparison therefore clearly shows the difference between absolute and percentage growth: .com gained by far the most registrations, with more than 3.2 million domains. Measured against their respective starting bases, however, .fr grows faster.

DACH comparison: all three extensions grow

The three country extensions for Germany, Austria and Switzerland also developed positively in the third quarter of 2026. Together, .de, .at and .ch account for around 22.21 million registered domains.

Compared with the second quarter, this represents an increase of 202,788 domains in total, or 0.92 per cent. As expected, .de makes the largest absolute contribution with 155,000 additional registrations. The number of .ch domains rises by 31,924, while .at adds a further 15,864 domains.

In percentage terms, however, a different picture emerges. With growth of 1.23 per cent, Switzerland develops the most strongly. Austria follows with 1.05 per cent, while Germany increases by 0.87 per cent.

The comparison once again illustrates the difference between absolute and relative development: Germany gains the most registrations due to its considerably larger number of registered domains, while Switzerland achieves the strongest growth relative to its starting point.

.eu stagnates, .nl gains momentum

The European domain extension .eu was the only TLD examined to record a slight decline in Q3 2026. The total fell from 3,733,365 to 3,731,711 registered domains.

This corresponds to a decrease of only 1,654 domains, or 0.04 per cent. Given the small change, no clear downward trend can yet be inferred. Rather, the number of .eu domains is currently moving largely sideways.

More striking is the development of the Dutch extension .nl. Between the first and second quarters, only 699 domains were added. From Q2 to Q3, however, the total rose by 78,493 domains.

This meant .nl achieved growth of 1.29 per cent in the current quarter and gained significant momentum. Whether this represents a short-term fluctuation or the start of a longer-term growth trend will be shown by the coming quarters.

Methodology and notes on data collection

The HOSTtest Domain Report looks at registration numbers for eleven selected domain extensions:

.de, .at, .ch, .eu, .com, .net, .uk, .fr, .nl, .it and .es

The figures are collected in the first month of the new quarter.

The data come from the respective registries or registry websites, for example DENIC, Verisign, Nominet, AFNIC, EURid and SWITCH.

The figures refer to registered domains. They do not indicate how many domains are actually actively used or linked to a publicly accessible website.

Due to differing publication dates, definitions and collection methods of the registries, the values can only be compared to a limited extent. Minor discrepancies or subsequent corrections are possible.