.eu Domain
The European Union Domain
Register your .eu domain from just £10.99/yr. Free DNS management, email forwarding, and 10GB mailbox included with every domain.
This domain has registration restrictions
Only EU, Icelandic, Liechtenstein and Norwegian citizens, residents of those countries, and organisations established there may hold a .eu domain. Being based in the UK is not enough. Read the full eligibility rules.
What is a .eu domain?
The .eu domain extension represents the European Union and is available to EU citizens and organisations. It signals a European identity and is particularly valuable for businesses operating across multiple EU member states.
Who should register .eu?
EU-based businesses and organisations with a pan-European presence.
Why choose .eu?
- Pan-European identity
- Trusted EU institution backing
- Strong signal for EU customers
- Available across all EU states
Who runs .eu, and since when
Registry data from the .eu 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)
- Registry operator
- EURid vzw
- The organisation that runs the extension
- In the root zone since
- 2005
- Delegated 28 April 2005
- Who can register
- EU, Icelandic, Liechtenstein and Norwegian citizens, residents and organisations only
- Checked against the registry's own policy
- Our price
- £10.99 a year
- Ex VAT. Renews at the same price
Why a UK business usually cannot register a .eu
The .eu domain is the European Union's own extension, run by EURid under contract to the European Commission and delegated in 2005. It behaves like a ccTLD but represents a political union rather than a country, and that difference is the whole story of this page: eligibility is written into EU regulation, so it is not something a registrar can waive, negotiate or work around.
For a UK reader in 2026, the honest position is that .eu is probably closed to you. Since the transition period ended on 31 December 2020, a UK-established company, a UK citizen not resident in the Union, and a UK resident who is not a Union citizen have all been outside the criteria. EURid suspended more than 81,000 domains whose registrants carried a GB or GI country code on 1 January 2021, and moved the ones still not compliant to WITHDRAWN status on 1 July 2021, which takes a domain out of the zone file so no website and no email resolves.
Who it is still open to
The criteria widened on 2 August 2021, and the widening is the useful part. Citizenship now qualifies on its own, regardless of where you live. An Irish citizen living in Manchester, or a French citizen living in Sydney, is eligible. So is anyone resident in an EU Member State, Iceland, Liechtenstein or Norway, and any organisation established in one of those. If your business has a subsidiary or a real establishment inside the Union, that entity can hold the domain.
What we would say to a UK customer asking for one: check your own position against the rules below before you order, and if you are relying on a group company inside the EU, register it in that company's name rather than yours. A .eu held by an entity that does not qualify is not a domain with a risk attached, it is a domain that stops working, and 2021 is the proof.
Who is allowed to register .eu?
Only EU, Icelandic, Liechtenstein and Norwegian citizens, residents of those countries, and organisations established there may hold a .eu domain. Being based in the UK is not enough.
- Citizens qualify anywhere
- Since 2 August 2021, a citizen of an EU Member State, Iceland, Liechtenstein or Norway may register a .eu wherever in the world they live. Citizenship alone is enough, which is the route most UK-based holders now use.
- Residents qualify
- An individual residing in an EU Member State, Iceland, Liechtenstein or Norway may register one regardless of their nationality.
- Organisations must be established there
- A company, charity or other organisation qualifies if it is established in an EU Member State, Iceland, Liechtenstein or Norway. A UK company with EU customers does not qualify; a subsidiary actually established in the Union does, and the domain should be registered in that entity name.
- UK registrants after Brexit
- UK-established organisations, UK citizens not resident in the Union, and UK residents who are not Union citizens stopped being eligible when the transition period ended on 31 December 2020. EURid blocked new registrations and transfers to them from 1 January 2021.
- If you stop qualifying
- EURid suspended over 81,000 domains held by registrants with a GB or GI country code on 1 January 2021, and moved the ones still not compliant to WITHDRAWN status on 1 July 2021. A withdrawn domain is out of the zone file, so no website and no email works. Treat the eligibility rules as ongoing conditions rather than a one-off check at the point of sale.
Rules taken from the EURid update on Brexit-related 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 .eu the right choice for you?
We would rather sell you the right extension once than the wrong one twice.
.eu works well if
- You are an EU, Icelandic, Liechtenstein or Norwegian citizen and you want one address that works across the whole single market rather than a different ccTLD per country.
- Your organisation is established inside the Union and you trade across several member states, so no single national extension fits.
- You already run country sites on .de, .fr and .it, and you want a neutral hub to sit above them.
- You want a European identity that is not tied to one government or one language.
Look elsewhere if
- You are a UK business with no EU establishment and no qualifying citizenship. You are not eligible, and a registration made anyway can be suspended and then withdrawn.
- You sell only to UK customers. A .co.uk carries a UK signal in Google that .eu cannot, and costs less.
- You want the reassurance of an extension nobody can take away on a policy change. Eligibility here is set by EU regulation and has already changed twice.
- You need it in a hurry and cannot evidence which criterion you meet.
UK business with no EU establishment? Register the .co.uk instead, and add a .eu later through an EU entity if you open one. See .co.uk pricing.
.eu vs .com: which should you register?
These two are not really rivals, because only one of them asks who you are. A .com is open to anybody on earth and carries no geographic meaning; a .eu is restricted by regulation and says something specific about where you are established.
Pick .eu when European identity is the point: you trade across member states, you want to look local to a continent rather than a country, and you can evidence eligibility. Pick .com when you want the safest possible default, when your audience is global, or when you would rather not have your domain depend on a political relationship staying where it is.
If both matter, most organisations register the .com as the permanent address and run the .eu as a redirect or a regional site. That way an eligibility change costs you a redirect rather than your primary domain.
| .eu | .com | |
|---|---|---|
| Who may register | EU, Icelandic, Liechtenstein, Norwegian citizens, residents and organisations | Anyone worldwide |
| Eligibility checked | At registration and for the life of the domain | Never |
| UK registrants | Not eligible since 31 December 2020 | Eligible |
| Geographic signal | European Union | None |
| In the root zone since | 2005 | 1985 |
.eu domain questions, answered
What people ask us before registering a .eu domain.
Can't find what you're looking for?
Ask us directlyNot on its own. A UK-established company is outside the eligibility criteria, which cover organisations established in an EU Member State, Iceland, Liechtenstein or Norway. There are two legitimate routes: register in the name of a group company that is actually established in the Union, or register as an individual if you hold citizenship of one of those countries, which qualifies you wherever you live.
They were suspended and then withdrawn. EURid suspended more than 81,000 domains whose registrants carried a GB or GI country code on 1 January 2021, held them in that state until 30 June 2021 to give holders time to move to a qualifying registrant, and moved the rest to WITHDRAWN status on 1 July 2021. A withdrawn domain is out of the zone file, so the website and the email stop. Roughly 8,000 had already been reinstated by February 2021 by updating the registration data.
Yes. Since 2 August 2021 citizenship of an EU Member State qualifies you regardless of where you live, so an Irish citizen resident in the UK is eligible. This is the most common route for UK-based holders, and it is worth registering in the individual name of the qualifying person rather than a UK company that does not qualify.
It is the wrong signal for UK-only search. Google reads .eu as a regional extension for the European Union, so it does nothing for visibility in Google UK results the way a .co.uk does. If your customers are British, the .co.uk is the better buy and it costs less. A .eu earns its place when you are trading across several member states and no single national extension fits.
EURid, a not-for-profit organisation appointed by the European Commission, has run .eu since it was delegated in 2005. Because the extension exists under EU regulation rather than a commercial registry agreement, eligibility rules are set politically and have changed twice already: once when the UK left, and again in August 2021 when citizenship became a qualifying criterion on its own.
EURid does not publish a natural person registrant name in the public WHOIS by default, so an individual holder is not exposed the way they would be on many extensions. That is not the same as the free Nominet privacy you get on a .uk domain, and organisation details are handled differently from individual ones. If privacy is the deciding factor for you, ask us before you order and we will confirm what is published for your case.
Included with Your .eu 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 Geographic Domains Extensions
Register your .eu domain today
Secure your .eu domain from just £10.99/yr. Free DNS management, email forwarding, and 10GB mailbox included.
