Register a .dev domain
The .dev ending is made for people and teams who build software. Like .app, it only works over HTTPS.
About .dev
.dev is a generic top-level domain that became available to the public in early 2019. Before that, many programmers used made-up .dev hostnames for local development; once the zone went live and was added to the browsers' HSTS preload list, those local setups stopped working over plain HTTP and the community largely moved to reserved names such as .test and .localhost.
Today the zone is home to developer portfolios, personal technical blogs, documentation for libraries and frameworks, internal tooling and the engineering pages of companies. A few large projects publish their guides on .dev, which helped the ending become familiar quickly.
Good .dev names are short and personal: your own name or handle, the name of a library, or a project codename. Since the audience is technical, abbreviations and lowercase handles that would look odd on a consumer site are perfectly acceptable here.
Good for
Developer portfolios
A yourname.dev address works as a CV link, a project showcase and a personal email for job applications.
Documentation and open-source projects
Libraries and frameworks can keep their guides, API references and changelogs under the project name.
Technical blogs
Write-ups about code, infrastructure and tooling sit naturally on an ending that readers associate with engineering.
Registering a .dev domain
- Open to anyone, with no proof of being a developer required.
- The full .dev zone is preloaded for HSTS in browsers, so every .dev website needs a working SSL certificate and is opened only via HTTPS.
- Do not use .dev hostnames for local development — they resolve as real public names; use .test or .localhost instead.
With every domain at Rivervo
- DNS management in the Rivervo panel
- WHOIS privacy free where the zone allows it
- Point it at Rivervo hosting or any other server
- Renewal reminders before it expires