Worth watching · In redemption
5 chars·.news·In redemptionVerified· 3h ago·likely available ~May 23, 2026
Original owner can still restore. Not safely catchable until ~May 23, 2026.
genuinely brandable; short; natural cadence
Moderate scoring — fine as a portfolio filler if the aftermarket covers cost, not a chase on its own.
Synthesized from the DQS, aftermarket estimate, registration cost, lifecycle stage, and trademark check on this page. Not financial advice — your portfolio strategy overrides.
Rough aftermarket estimate
$31 — $82
DQS 54 · .news · 5ch · brandable
Directional only — a gut-check range, not an appraisal. Uses DQS + TLD + length; doesn’t know about comps, trademarks, or brand context. Treat as “worth looking at” vs “skip,” not a bid price.
| Length | 5 |
| TLD | .news |
| Keyword category | none |
| Commercial intent | none |
| Wayback snapshots | 0 |
| Brandable combo | yes |
| Spam pattern | no |
| Saturated suffix | none |
merit.news is a keyword-forward name — "merit" carries intrinsic meaning before any branding layer is added. At 5 characters the name sits in the short bucket — not ultra-premium, but comfortably in the zone where brandable startups shop. The phonetics are balanced between vowels and consonants — typical for a pronounceable English-style name. The .news extension leans toward content and publishing use cases rather than SaaS or consumer apps. The Wayback Machine has no archived snapshots of the domain, suggesting it was parked or lightly used in any prior registrations. DQS 54/100 is the mid-band: the domain has real signals behind it but isn't an obvious standout. Mid-band names reward buyers who understand a specific niche. Because the name is still in redemption (day 6 of 30), its future is largely controlled by whether the prior registrant pays the restore fee. Bottom line: evaluate this one against a specific use case you have in mind. Mid-band names don't sell themselves — they sell when the buyer is already looking.
Web-presence signal
None observed
No meaningful Wayback record. Backlink research rarely pays off here.
Deep-link into backlink checkers
Real backlink counts come from dedicated crawlers (Ahrefs, Moz, Majestic). Each button opens merit.news pre-loaded in that tool — zero keystrokes to cross-check.
1
drop recorded so far
Apr 18, 2026
first observed
Apr 18, 2026
last observed
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Same TLD, similar length, similar DQS. Useful if you're scoping a portfolio of related shapes.
Social handle availability
A 404 on the profile page means the handle is free to claim. Grabbing matching handles at registration time is cheap insurance against impersonation + easier brand rollout later.
Other domains that dropped at the same registrar on 2026-04-18. Registrars often drop batches of expired portfolios together — worth a scan if you like this shape.
Not catchable yet — queue up early
The owner can still restore. Drop-catcher pre-orders lock in priority; retail registration will fail until release.
via RDAP · cached 6h
Redemption period. Original owner can still restore for a fee. Typically catchable ~30-35 days after redemption start — not safe to pay a backorder fee yet if the owner looks active.
client transfer prohibitedredemption period
| Status | Redemption period |
| Registrar | NameCheap, Inc. |
| Created | Mar 7, 2024 |
| Expires | Mar 7, 2026 |
| Last updated | Apr 18, 2026 |
| Nameservers | dns102.registrar-servers.com, dns101.registrar-servers.com |
| DNSSEC | unsigned |
| Registration cost | — |
No Wayback Machine snapshots found for merit.news.