A Backend Registry is the mandatory technical platform to operate a domain name extension. All registries have one. The backend registry allows accredited registrars to technically sell domain names for each top-level domain (TLD).[1]

Backend Registry Landscape

As of July 2022, nTLDStats listed 37 active backend registries. Below they are listed in order of % share of the industry.[2]

Backend Registries how many new gTLDs? How many domain names? % Share of the industry
1 CentralNic 94 14,326,376 47.52%
2 Identity Digital 272 5,609,671 18.61%
3 GoDaddy Registry 223 3,820,927 12.67%
4 ZDNS 21 2,199,937 7.30%
5 GMO Registry 48 1,553,799 5.15%
6 Google 46 1,076,778 3.57%
7 Tucows Registry Services 27 502,389 1.67%
8 Domain Name Services (Pty) Ltd 4 211,232 0.70%
9 Afilias 133 128,820 0.43%
10 AFNIC 12 120,199 0.40%
11 CORE Association 19 85,430 0.28%
12 Nominet 64 76,437 0.25%
13 TLD-BOX 4 70,807 0.23%
14 Knipp Medien und Kommunikation GmbH 9 64,511 0.21%
15 Computer Network Information Center of Chinese Academy of Sciences 2 55,714 0.18%
16 Beijing Tele-info Network Technology 9 52,664 0.17%
17 RyCE GmbH 4 50,277 0.17%
18 Flexireg 2 27,548 0.09%
19 CoCCA Registry Services (NZ) Limited 6 22,892 0.08%
20 SIDN 2 22,511 0.07%
21 CIRA 3 21,248 0.07%
22 DNS Belgium 2 14,543 0.05%
23 Verisign 118 13,379 0.04%
24 GDN Registry FZ LLC 1 12,018 0.04%
25 NIC Mexico 1 5,693 0.02%
26 Technical Center of Internet 2 1,662 0.01%
27 Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of UAE 5 1,268 0.00%
28 CGI.br 6 983 0.00%
29 Guangzhou YU Wei Information Technology Co. 2 606 0.00%
30 LEMARIT GmbH 3 385 0.00%
31 China Organizational Name Administration Center 2 99 0.00%
32 Qinetics Solutions Sdn Bhd 1 48 0.00%
33 Thai Name Server Co., Ltd. 1 39 0.00%
34 Japan Registry Services Co., Ltd. 3 20 0.00%
35 KISA 3 5 0.00%
36 Hong Kong Internet Registration Corporation Limited 1 3 0.00%
37 TWNIC 1 1 0.00%

References