Anyone can register a .nl domain name on a first-come, first-served basis.

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, end or third or fourth characters of the domain name). You cannot register domain names with special characters such as & and #.

SIDN is the registry for .nl domain names.

The minimum and maximum registration length for .nl domain names is one year.

You can renew .nl domain names when they are within six months of the expiration date, but you must renew them before their expiration dates. The renewal date depends on whether you set the domain name to auto-renew or manually renew. We attempt auto-renewal on the first day of the month prior to the domain name's expiration date.

If the renewal attempt fails, we re-attempt renewal on the 10th of the month and again on the 20th of the month. If we cannot auto-renew the domain name and you do not manually renew it by the 20th of the month prior to the expiration date, you can attempt to recover it, and there might be a fee to do so. See Recovering Expired Domain Names for more information.

For example: Your .nl domain name expires on October 10. If your domain name does not renew automatically, you can renew it manually by September 20. For automatic renewals, we attempt to renew the domain name on September 1, September 10, and September 20.

Both transfers in and transfers out are supported for .nl domain names. For more information on transfers in, please see Preparing to Transfer Domain Names to Us.

To transfer your .nl domain name to a different registrar, contact our support team to request an authorization code.

Yes. Domains By Proxy® Private Registration, Protected Registration, and Deluxe Registration are available for .nl domain names. For more information, see Adding Private Registration to Your Domain Names and Adding Deluxe or Protected Registration to Your Domain Names.

No. We do not currently support the backorder of .nl domain names.

Yes, but there are limitations. When you move the domain name, the registrant's first name, last name, and company name cannot change. See Moving a Domain Name Out of Your Account for information on initiating the process.

To update the following registrant contact fields for your .nl domain names, contact our support department:

• First name
• Last name
• Organization (company name)

You can update all other domain name contact information in the Domain Manager. See Updating Your Domain Name Contact Information for information.

Yes. All .nl domain names must have two authoritative nameservers. Before you register or update the domain name, you must list only those nameservers in its zone file.

If you want to register a .nl domain name with us and use our nameservers, we handle this process for you.

If you want to use your own nameservers, you must set them up before you register or update the domain name. You must also ensure that they are resolving properly before you assign them to the domain name in our system.

TIP: You can use the DNS validation tool on SIDN's website to ensure that your nameservers are resolving properly.

For example, if you want to register coolexample.com.nl and use the nameservers ns1.coolexample.nl and ns2.coolexample.nl, then you must list those nameservers in the domain name's zone file.

NOTE: You will also be required to add in IP addresses when you add custom nameservers to the domain.

After you set up your nameservers and register or update your domain name, use the instructions in Setting Nameservers for Your Domain Names to set the nameservers in our system.