Typically domains are registered for two years at a time. For domains ending in .uk (this includes .co.uk along with the less common .me.uk, .org.uk, .ltd.uk and .plc.uk) you can only register for two years at a time. For other domains you can usually register them for any whole number of years between 1 and 10.
You can now register many different types of domain name. Most businesses would take the .co.uk and .com versions of their name, sometimes .eu version too, and increasingly since 2016, the .uk version (you don’t have to have the “.co” prefix any more).
Searching for an available domain name
The database that keeps track of which domain names have been registered and which are available is called ‘WHOIS’. You can search it for an available domain name for yourself using this page.
Domain name registration costs
| .co.uk or .org.uk | £25.00 |
| .com or .net | £35.00 |
| .org or .eu | £40.00 |
| Website hosting – see details | from £39.00pa |
Domain name registrations are for two years and include registration fees, setup and nameserver service for 2 years
Domain name renewal costs
| .co.uk or .org.uk | £20.00 (for two years) |
| .com or .net | £20.00 (for one year); £30.00 (for two years) |
| .org or .eu | £25.00 (for one year) |
By allowing Digital Red to look after your domain name and hosting you can rest assured that you’ll keep your domains safe and be sure that no services will be suspended by you accidentally forgetting about a domain name’s renewal.
However, if you will need (or have already got) lots of domain names, and if you are confident in doing the registrations and renewals yourself without any help, it would be cheaper for you to maintain them yourself with an account with an automated online service like UKreg or 123reg to maintain your names.
.uk domains
Be careful with .uk domains
- if you had registered something.co.uk before June 2014, you can register something .uk as well. Only the person/entity who registered something.co.uk can register something.uk until June 2019. After June 2019, anyone can register something .uk
- if something .co.uk was registered after June 2014, then there is no automatic right to something.uk and anyone can register it
Nominet has the full rules on the rights to registering .uk domains on their website in this article.
