.bar Domain
Raise the Bar for Your Venue
Register your .bar domain from just £62.99/yr. Free DNS management, email forwarding, and 10GB mailbox included with every domain.
This domain has registration restrictions
Anyone anywhere may hold a .bar domain. The restrictions here are on the name itself rather than on the person registering it. Read the full eligibility rules.
What is a .bar domain?
The .bar domain speaks directly to cocktail lounges, wine bars, sports bars, and nightlife venues. It's short, punchy, and immediately signals what visitors can expect, a great night out with drinks in hand.
Who should register .bar?
Bars, cocktail bars, wine bars, sports bars, and nightlife venues.
Why choose .bar?
- Short and instantly understood
- Perfect for nightlife branding
- Works with any bar name
- Stands out in local searches
Who runs .bar, and since when
Registry data from the .bar delegation record held by IANA, which maintains the internet's root zone. Eligibility comes from the registry's own policy, and the prices are ours.
- Extension type
- Generic (gTLD)
- Registry operator
- Punto 2012 Sociedad Anonima Promotora de Inversion de Capital Variable
- The organisation that runs the extension
- In the root zone since
- 2014
- Delegated 13 February 2014
- Who can register
- Open to any person or legal entity worldwide; names must be 3 to 63 characters
- Checked against the registry's own policy
- Our price
- £62.99 a year
- Ex VAT. Renews at the same price
What the .bar registry allows inside a domain name
Of everything in this batch, .bar is the only extension not run from the United States. Punto 2012 S.A.P.I. de C.V. is a Mexican company, it operates .rest alongside .bar, and the technical contact recorded at IANA is Tucows in Toronto. The extension was delegated in February 2014, which puts it in the first handful of the new endings to go live.
The registry's own policy document calls it an open, unrestricted top-level domain: any person or legal entity anywhere in the world may register one. What it does restrict is the name. A .bar label has to be at least three characters and no more than sixty three, so the two letter address a short venue name might want cannot be bought at any price. Internationalised names are supported through the Latin character tables the registry publishes, mixed scripts are not permitted, and dotless names are ruled out. The registry also keeps a broad right to deny, cancel, lock or transfer a registration at its sole discretion.
The word itself carries four meanings with nothing in common: a place that serves drinks, the legal profession, a unit of pressure and a thing that blocks your way. Context usually sorts it out, and some of the better names lean into the ambiguity rather than fighting it. The registry points at space.bar from its own site.
Price is the thing to weigh honestly. The registry states plainly that .bar and .rest cost more than a .com because of the sectors they serve, and that shows up in what any registrar charges. For one venue in one town, ask whether the address will be typed often enough to justify the annual difference against a .co.uk.
Who is allowed to register .bar?
Anyone anywhere may hold a .bar domain. The restrictions here are on the name itself rather than on the person registering it.
- Open to any registrant
- The registry policy states that .bar is an open, unrestricted top-level domain and that any person or legal entity anywhere in the world may register one, subject to the policies. There is no licensing check, no premises requirement and no trade body membership.
- Three characters minimum
- A .bar label must be at least three characters and no more than sixty three. One and two character names cannot be registered at all, which rules out initials for a lot of venues before they start. Check the length of the name you want before you plan a sign around it.
- One script per name
- Internationalised domain names are supported under the Latin tables the registry publishes, but mixed scripts are not permitted and dotless names are not allowed. A name that blends alphabets will be refused rather than corrected.
- The registry can take it back
- Punto 2012 reserves the right to deny, cancel or transfer any registration, or place it on lock or hold, at its sole discretion and without notice, including to comply with a court order or a law enforcement request, and for non payment of fees. A venue running its bookings email on the domain loses that too.
Rules taken from the .bar Registration and Launch Policies. Registry policy can change, so check before you buy if the answer matters to you.
Not sure whether you qualify? Ask us before you order and we will check the registry rules with you. We would rather answer the question than take an order the registry will refuse.
Is .bar the right choice for you?
We would rather sell you the right extension once than the wrong one twice.
.bar works well if
- Your venue name plus the word bar reads as the actual name people already use, so the domain matches what customers say out loud.
- You run a group of venues and want one memorable address for the bar arm that sits apart from the restaurant or hotel side.
- The address is going on signage, glassware and a printed cocktail menu, where a short unusual ending is an asset rather than a risk.
- You are launching a concept name where the ambiguity in the word is deliberate, the way space.bar is.
Look elsewhere if
- Your bookings come from local search and Google Business Profile. A .co.uk carries a UK signal that .bar cannot, and costs far less every year.
- The name you want is one or two characters. The three character minimum stops it, and no registrar can waive a registry rule.
- Read it to somebody over a noisy room and "dot bar" is easy to mishear as "dot com" or nothing at all. Test it in the venue before you print it.
One venue trading to a local crowd? A .co.uk will do more for search and cost a fraction of the annual renewal. See .co.uk pricing.
.bar vs .com: which should you register?
A bar that wanted the matching .com almost certainly cannot have it. Venue names lean on common words, and common word .com registrations went before most bars in this country opened. So the practical comparison is a clean .bar against a padded .com with a town or a "the" wedged into it.
.com is the safer default, which matters for a business whose customers span every age group and level of technical confidence. Somebody will type .com after your name whatever you print, and if you do not own it they land nowhere. .bar is the better name, when the name really is better: an exact match reads well on a sign, on a beermat and in an Instagram bio, and it does not need a hyphen to exist.
Where a venue can afford it, hold both and redirect the .com at the .bar. That way the sign carries the good name and the customer who guesses wrong still arrives.
| .bar | .com | |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum name length | Three characters | One character |
| Registry | Punto 2012, Mexico | Verisign, United States |
| Exact match odds | Good for venue names | Poor for common words |
| Typed by mistake | People will try .com | The default guess |
| Annual cost | High | Low |
.bar domain questions, answered
What people ask us before registering a .bar domain.
Can't find what you're looking for?
Ask us directlyNo. The registry requires a .bar name to be at least three characters and no more than sixty three, and that rule sits at registry level so no registrar can make an exception. It catches out venues trading under initials more often than anything else on the policy. If the name you want is two characters, the usual workaround is to add a short word that people already use when they say the name aloud.
Not by design. The extension is open and unrestricted, so barristers, bar associations and legal networks can and do use it alongside drinks venues, and the registry has no mechanism to prefer one meaning over another. In practice the drinks reading dominates because that is where the marketing went. If your business is legal and the ambiguity worries you, that ambiguity is a reason to look elsewhere rather than something the registry will resolve for you.
The registry sets a higher wholesale price and says openly that .bar and .rest cost more than a .com because of the sectors they serve. Some individual names are held back as premium and carry higher prices again, with the registry preferring to place them through partnerships rather than sell them outright. Nothing technical differs from a cheap extension. Check the exact name in our search before budgeting, because the headline price does not apply to every name.
Not by itself. Google treats .bar as a generic extension with no country or locality meaning, so it gives no geographic lift at all. What moves a venue in local results is a complete Google Business Profile, consistent name and address details, real reviews and a fast site. A .co.uk at least carries a UK signal. Buy .bar because the name is right for the room, not because you expect it to fill it.
Included with Your .bar Domain
DNS Management
Full DNS zone editor to manage A, CNAME, MX, TXT, and all record types.
Email Forwarding
Set up professional email addresses and forward to any inbox.
Auto-Renewal
Never lose your domain with automatic renewal protection.
Free 10GB Mailbox
One 10GB mailbox (POP3/IMAP) included with every domain, on any TLD.
Other Food & Drink Domains Extensions
Register your .bar domain today
Secure your .bar domain from just £62.99/yr. Free DNS management, email forwarding, and 10GB mailbox included.
