.net TLD audit hub
The original network-infrastructure TLD; now a generic alternative to .com for tech and ISP brands.
Delegated alongside .com in 1985, .net was originally restricted to network providers — ISPs, routing operators and infrastructure outfits — but the use restriction was lifted decades ago and it now functions as an unrestricted generic. Verisign runs the registry, so root infrastructure, DNSSEC and resolution performance match .com exactly. Roughly 13 million active registrations remain, with churn skewed slightly higher than .com because brands routinely consolidate onto a single primary TLD as they scale. You will still see .net used heavily by long-running infrastructure projects (sourceforge.net, slashdot.org's neighbours, behance.net for example), forum communities, and brands that secured the .net before .com became available or affordable. From an audit perspective .net is functionally identical to .com — the only persistent difference is that some legacy classifiers and trust scorers (anti-fraud, ad networks, marketplace verification) still mildly favour .com. We treat scoring on .net identically to .com in our reports.