Knowledge base Choosing a UK domain
A domain ending in .uk is included in the price of your service (contact us to choose a domain), and we provide SMTP and IMAP/POP3 mail handling for the domain as you require. If you have not already chosen a UK domain then this may be useful as a guide to what domains are available and what they mean.
Firstly, it is important to realise a domain can only contain letters a-z numbers 0-9 or hyphens, and no part can end or start with a hyphen. Also, domains that are only 2 letters (e.g. aa.co.uk) or one character are not valid (except the few that are currently registered). You should use a sensible name and not one that is someone else's trademark as there are procedures for domains to be challenged.
| .co.uk | This is probably the most well known. It is intended for companies although there is no formal restriction or checking to stop you registering it for personal use. |
| .org.uk | This is intended for non profit organisations. Again, there are no formal restrictions - but using an org.uk would give the message that you are a non profit organisation. Some people will register an org.uk the same as their co.uk to avoid confusion, redirecting web traffic and email for the .org.uk to the .co.uk and not publishing the org.uk domain itself. |
| .me.uk | This is intended for personal use, and is typically yourname.me.uk or yoursurname.me.uk. Remember, if you get your surname then you can create subdomains for no charge, e.g. firstname.surname.me.uk and set up mail, e.g. firstname@surname.me.uk. As such .me.uk is ideal for personal use. Being quite new there are many names available. Businesses should not register .me.uk domains as there are specific rules that make such registrations "abusive" and could mean your domain is challenged. |
| .ltd.uk | This is specifically for UK limited companies (not plc's) and the domain has to exactly match your company name at companies house. Invalid characters such as spaces and brackets can be ignored or have a hyphen instead. However the domain is manually checked before it is registered and the rules strictly applied. |
| .plc.uk | As ltd.uk for plc's. |
| .net.uk | This is only available to ISPs. Unlike .net where it is intended for ISPs but there is no formal checking, .net.uk is specifically for ISPs and applications are checked. You need an AS number or an LIR tag to register (if you don't know what these are then you are not an ISP). You also have to convince nominet that you are genuinely an ISP. |
| .ac.uk | This is for colleges and universities. The rules are a bit complex and we can submit a request if you are a university or a college. Some societies which do training and education qualify. |
| .sch.uk | This is for UK schools only and the name is picked for you by the LEA. We provide .sch.uk domains to schools free anyway. |
| .police.uk | Forget it unless you are a police force |
| .gov.uk | Goverment bodies |
| .mod.uk | You can guess this one I am sure |
| .nhs.uk | And this one |
| .parliament.uk | And this one |
| .nic.uk | Nominet (who manage the .uk name space) |
You can check any UK name availability at http://www.nic.uk/ and if it is free, ask us to register. A name reported as "DETAGGED" is not available, it must be not found.