About .uk Domain Names
The .uk country-code top-level domain name (ccTLD) is an extension that represents the United Kingdom. The information below applies to the following country-code second-level domain names (ccSLDs) that we offer at this time:
LAUNCHING 6/10: .uk — Intended for everyone
A registrant who purchased any of the domain extensions below before Oct. 29, 2013 has the first rights to reserve and purchase the corresponding .uk domain. The .uk is automatically held for them until 2019, as long as they retain the original domain. Even if a domain search shows the .uk as available, it will reject the registration if someone else owns the .co.uk, .org.uk, etc. Registrant information for the .uk has to match exactly, and is case sensitive. For more information about Right to Reserve, see Right to Reserve rules for .uk domains
- .co.uk — Intended for commercial entities
- .me.uk — Intended for private individuals
- .org.uk — Intended for non-profit organizations
If you've lost your Nominet login credentials, you can retrieve the information here using the email address with which you registered your domain.
Domain names can be up to 63 characters, with a minimum of three characters, and can contain letters (a to z), numbers (0 to 9), and hyphens (except at the beginning or end of the domain name). You cannot register domain names with special characters such as & and #.
| Features | Availability |
|---|---|
| Who can register? | Details below1 |
| Registration length | 1 - 10 years |
| Renewal length | 1 - 10 years |
| Renewal restrictions | Details below2 |
| Transfers to GoWebsite | Supported (details below)3 |
| Transfers away | Supported (details below)4 |
| Private registration | Details below5 |
| Protected registration | Not supported |
| Backorders | Not supported |
| Bulk registration | Supported |
| Account change | Supported (details below)6 |
| Contact updates | Supported (details below)7 |
| IDNs | Not supported |
| Nameserver requirements | Details below8 |
| Expiration/redemption | Please contact customer support |
| Refund policy | Not supported |
| Registry | Nominet |
Details
1 Registration requirements
Anyone can register .uk domain names on a first-come, first-served basis, but an address for service in the United Kingdom will be required for registrants who live overseas. This address must be listed as the admin contact for your domain name. This requirement does not apply for .co.uk and .org.uk domain names.
PO Boxes are not acceptable.
Registration rules for the new .uk domain extensions can be found here.
2 Renewal restrictions
Your .uk domain name renews before its expiration date. We attempt auto-renewal 14 days prior to the domain name's expiration date. If the renewal attempt fails, we re-attempt renewal seven days prior to the domain name's expiration date and again one day after the domain name's expiration date.
If we cannot auto-renew the domain name and you do not manually renew it before the third billing attempt, it becomes unmanageable in your account until it is renewed.
3 Transfers In requirements
The .uk transfer process is unique to the Nominet registry.
To initiate a .uk transfer, you must:
- If available on our website, purchase a .uk transfer for $0.
The .uk transfer does not include a free one-year extension because the transfer is free.
- Contact your current registrar and request an IPS tag change to WILDWEST. Once updated, the transfer completes immediately.
When you complete either of the steps above, we will send an email to the registrant contact's email or to the account holder's email address. You must follow the instructions listed in the email to initiate a .uk transfer.
4 Transfers out requirements
To transfer a .uk domain name to another registrar, contact our support team to request the transfer and provide us with the following:
- A specific request to transfer the domain name. Include the full domain name in the request.
- The IPS Tag name of your new registrar.
Nominet issues a case-sensitive IPS tag to each registrar approved to manage .uk domain names. Transferring a .uk domain name requires an update of the IPS tag information.
- Account validation information (customer account number or user name and your call-in PIN).
5 Private Registration details
Private registration is currently available for the co.uk, org.uk and me.uk extensions of the .uk domain, but the privacy address shown on the account will be a US address.
6 Account change requirements
When you move a domain name, you cannot change the registrant first name, last name, and company name.
7 Contact updates requirements
For registrant contact information, first update it through Nominet. After your new information displays in the Nominet Whois database, contact our support team to update your contact information with us.
During the verification process, the domain name request is assigned a status code of 254 (".UK Data Validation Process"). For more specific instructions regarding the .uk contact verification process, please see Verifying Contact Information for .UK Data Validation Process.
You can update all other contact information through the Domain Manager. See Update contact information for more information.
With .uk domain names, the type of contact update you want to make might include a fee. See Nominet's Transfer page for information on free vs. fee-based changes.
8 Nameservers requirements
| Nameserver features | Details |
|---|---|
| IPv4 | Supported |
| IPv6 | Supported |
| DNSSEC | Supported |
| Minimum # of nameservers | 0 |
| Maximum # of nameservers | 10 |
Only one IPv4 address is allowed per host and also only one IPv6 address. It is however possible to assign an IPv4 and an additional IPv6 address to a single host.
We support DNSSEC for .uk, .co.uk, .me.uk, and .org.uk domain names.
See Managing DNSSEC for Your Domain Name for information on enabling DNSSEC for your .uk, .co.uk, .me.uk, and .org.uk domain names and About Self-Managed DNSSEC for information on the digital signature (DS) fields required for it. You can configure a maximum of ten DS records for your domain names.
You can contact us at ukverify@secureserver.net if you have further questions or concerns about .uk domains.
Nameserver updates can take up to 5 days to complete.