.co.im Domain
Commercial Domain for the Isle of Man
Register your .co.im domain from just £17.99/yr. Free DNS management, email forwarding, and 10GB mailbox included, plus free Nominet WHOIS privacy for UK individuals.
This domain has registration restrictions
Anyone anywhere may register a .co.im, but the name itself is checked against Isle of Man word lists that are not published, and it can be refused or withdrawn. Read the full eligibility rules.
What is a .co.im domain?
The .co.im extension is the commercial equivalent of .co.uk for the Isle of Man. Anyone can register one: the registry states that it will not vet an application to restrict who may apply, and names go first come, first served. What it buys is a Manx signal rather than an entitlement. The Isle of Man has a thriving financial services sector, and .co.im is widely used by banks, insurance companies, and corporate service providers based there.
Who should register .co.im?
Isle of Man businesses, Manx financial services firms, online gaming companies, and corporate service providers.
Why choose .co.im?
- The commercial namespace under .im
- Trusted by Island-based businesses
- Strong in financial services and e-gaming
- Clear commercial and geographic signal
Who runs .co.im, and since when
Registry data from the .co.im 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
- Country-code (ccTLD)
- Registered under the .im zone
- Registry operator
- Isle of Man Government
- The organisation that runs the extension
- .im delegated
- 1996
- The date belongs to the .im zone, not to .co.im itself
- Who can register
- Open to anyone worldwide, but the name must clear Isle of Man word lists
- Checked against the registry's own policy
- Our price
- £17.99 a year
- Ex VAT. Renews at the same price
- Transfer in
- £17.99
- Adds a year to whatever is left on the domain
Why the plain .im costs less than .co.im
The Isle of Man is a self-governing Crown Dependency, inside the British Isles and constitutionally separate from the United Kingdom. Its government obtained permission to use the .im extension in 1996 and holds ultimate responsibility for it, while the registry is run day to day by Domicilium (IOM) Limited, an internet provider based on the Island.
For the first decade, third-level names were the whole namespace. You registered yourname.co.im, or org.im, or ac.im, because a plain yourname.im was not on sale. That changed in 2006, when existing third-level holders were given a window to claim the matching second-level name before it opened to everyone else. Both levels remain available today, and the registry's own name checker still uses a .co.im address as its worked example.
Which leaves a pricing oddity worth knowing. A .co.im is £17.99 a year here and a plain .im is £13.99, so the longer and older form is the dearer one. If the short name is free, there is not much case for the long one beyond continuity with an address you have been printing for years. Continuity is a perfectly good reason. It is just worth naming it as the reason.
Who is allowed to register .co.im?
Anyone anywhere may register a .co.im, but the name itself is checked against Isle of Man word lists that are not published, and it can be refused or withdrawn.
- Who may register
- Anyone. The registry's rules state that it will not vet an application to restrict who may apply, which names they may hold, or how many they may hold. There is no Manx residency, company or trading requirement, and names are allocated first come, first served.
- The black list
- Every application is checked against a black list and a reserved list before approval. A name judged profane or otherwise undesirable is refused, and the rules allow one to be withdrawn and added to the black list after it has already been registered.
- Regulated words go to referral
- A name containing words connected to regulated activities on the Isle of Man is referred to the Isle of Man Government Designated Official, who considers it within two working days. Referral is not refusal, but expect to be asked for supporting information before it clears.
- The lists are not published
- The registry states that the lists of undesirable words and words for referral are maintained in consultation with the Isle of Man Government, are not in the public domain, and are subject to change without notice. There is no way to check a name against them in advance.
- If a name is refused or withdrawn
- The Isle of Man Government may withdraw a name deemed undesirable within two working days of the application, and any fee taken is refunded within thirty days. A live domain can also be suspended or withdrawn later in the national interest, or if it is used improperly or in a way considered detrimental to the good name of the Island. You may appeal within ten days of a rejection notice, and the Designated Official's decision on that appeal is final.
Rules taken from the .im registry Rules of Registration and Use of Domain Names. 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 .co.im the right choice for you?
We would rather sell you the right extension once than the wrong one twice.
.co.im works well if
- You trade on the Isle of Man and want customers and search engines to see that at once, which a .co.uk cannot say for you.
- You have used a .co.im for years and your printed material, email addresses and inbound links all point at it already.
- The plain .im for your name has gone, and the .co.im version is free and reads naturally to a Manx audience.
Look elsewhere if
- The .im is available. It is shorter, better known off the Island and £4 a year cheaper here, so the longer form has to earn that difference.
- Your customers are on the mainland. Google treats .im as a country code for the Isle of Man, not for the UK, so the geographic signal points at the Island.
- You are expecting free WHOIS privacy. That is a Nominet arrangement on .uk extensions only, and on .im privacy is a paid add-on like any other non-UK extension.
Selling to mainland Britain rather than to the Island? A .co.uk carries the UK signal and costs £8 a year less. See .co.uk pricing.
.co.im vs .im: which should you register?
The two behave identically in every technical respect and sit under the same registry, the same rules and the same unpublished word lists. What separates them is length, habit and £4 a year: .im is £13.99 here, .co.im is £17.99.
Off the Island, .im has become a domain hack for "I am" and for instant messaging, so a memorable .im has often gone already. On the Island, .co.im is still the address people expect a local business to have, and the registry uses it in its own examples. Take the .im if it is free. Take the .co.im if the .im has gone, or if fifteen years of printed material already says .co.im.
.co.im domain questions, answered
What people ask us before registering a .co.im domain.
Can't find what you're looking for?
Ask us directlyNo. The registry rules say plainly that applications are not vetted to restrict who may apply, which names they may hold, or how many, and that names are allocated first come, first served. There is no Manx residency test, no company requirement and no documents to supply. The registry does check the name itself rather than the applicant, against a black list and a referral list drawn up with the Isle of Man Government, so an unusual or regulated-sounding word can be held up even when you qualify perfectly.
It is the wrong signal for mainland Britain. Google publishes a list of country-code extensions it treats as generic, including .io, .me and .tv, and .im is not on it. So Google reads .im as a country code tied to the Isle of Man, and a .co.im tells it your audience is the Island rather than the UK. For a Manx business that is precisely what you want. For a firm in Manchester selling to the mainland, a .co.uk carries the country signal that actually matters and costs £8 a year less.
Yes, and this is the one real trap on this extension. Names are checked against a black list and a referral list that the registry maintains with the Isle of Man Government and deliberately does not publish, so you cannot test a name in advance. Words connected to regulated activities on the Island go to the Designated Official, who decides within two working days. A name can also be withdrawn after registration, with fees refunded within thirty days. You may appeal within ten days, and that decision is final.
Included with Your .co.im 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 UK Domains Extensions
Register your .co.im domain today
Secure your .co.im domain from just £17.99/yr. Free DNS management, email forwarding, and 10GB mailbox included.
