alpha.gov.bb is the domain on which the Government of Barbados publishes its digital services today. If your team is building a service, this is where it will live – regardless of what phase the service itself is in.
You can see what is on it at alpha.gov.bb/services.
Why “alpha”?
The name reflects the platform, not the services on it. alpha.gov.bb is a new government platform, still being built out. Calling it “alpha” is a signal that GovTech is publishing openly and honestly about its own maturity, rather than pretending the platform is finished.
This is different from the phase a service is in. A service on alpha.gov.bb can be in discovery, alpha, beta or live. The “alpha” in the domain is about the platform’s status, not the service’s.
Every phase of service lives here
Services published through the platform sit at alpha.gov.bb whether they are:
- In alpha, being tested with a small number of real users
- In beta, running with limited or public traffic and being improved
- Live, fully public and being maintained
Your service does not move domain when it moves phase. The subdomain you agree at the start – for example, your-service.alpha.gov.bb – is the one it will use when it goes live.
It will eventually become gov.bb
gov.bb is the older Government of Barbados web presence. Over time, alpha.gov.bb is intended to become the primary home for government digital services and, eventually, simply gov.bb. Until then, the two coexist:
- alpha.gov.bb – the new platform, where new and migrated services live
- gov.bb – the older domain, still hosting content and services that have not yet been redesigned or migrated
If you are building a new service, you build for alpha.gov.bb. If you are digitising something that currently lives on the older gov.bb, you rebuild it on alpha.gov.bb.
Where to get help
- Contact GovTech at info@govtech.bb to agree a subdomain for your service.
- Browse alpha.gov.bb/services to see what is already on the platform.