.ie Domain
Ireland's Trusted Country Domain
Register your .ie domain from just £16.99/yr. Free DNS management, email forwarding, and 10GB mailbox included with every domain.
This domain has registration restrictions
Every .ie applicant must prove a real connection to the island of Ireland and prove their identity. Individuals who neither live on the island nor hold citizenship there cannot register one at all. Read the full eligibility rules.
What is a .ie domain?
The .ie domain is Ireland's country code, managed by IE Domain Registry (IEDR). Ireland is home to the European headquarters of Apple, Google, Meta, and dozens of other tech giants. Irish consumers have a strong preference for .ie over .com, and it carries real weight in Google Ireland search results. Registration requires a connection to Ireland, whether through residency, business registration, or a trademark. This keeps the namespace clean and highly trusted.
Who should register .ie?
Irish businesses, UK companies with Irish operations, tech firms with Dublin offices, and brands targeting Irish consumers.
Why choose .ie?
- Ireland's official country code managed by IEDR
- Strong consumer preference over .com in Ireland
- Requires Irish connection (highly trusted namespace)
- European tech hub with major corporate presence
Who runs .ie, and since when
Registry data from the .ie 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
- IE Domain Registry CLG
- The organisation that runs the extension
- In the root zone since
- 1988
- Delegated 27 January 1988
- Who can register
- A provable connection to the island of Ireland, plus proof of identity
- Checked against the registry's own policy
- Our price
- £16.99 a year
- Ex VAT. Renews at the same price
How to prove a connection to Ireland for .ie
Every new .ie application carries a document. That one fact explains most of what makes Ireland's extension different: why the namespace is cleaner than almost any other, why a registration is not instant, and why some readers of this page cannot have one at all.
Until 2018 an applicant had to prove two separate things, a connection to the island of Ireland and a claim to the particular name being asked for. On 21 March 2018 the registry dropped the second. Names go first come, first served now, and you no longer have to explain why you want the one you want. The connection test stayed exactly where it was.
How you prove it depends on who you are. An Irish company can use its CRO or RBN number, an Irish VAT number, a tax clearance certificate from the Revenue Commissioners, or an Irish, EU or WIPO trade mark enforceable in Ireland. An individual can use an Irish passport, an Irish or UK driving licence showing an address on the island, an Irish or Northern Irish bank statement, a college ID from a recognised institution, or a Public Services Card. A charity uses a CHY number or a Northern Ireland Charity Commission number. One document is enough.
Northern Ireland is inside the rule, Great Britain is not
The connection is to the island of Ireland, which puts a Belfast or Derry business on the easy side of this: correspondence from HMRC is an accepted document for a business, and a UK driving licence showing an address on the island works for an individual. A company in Manchester or Cardiff takes the overseas route instead: evidence it sells goods or services to consumers or businesses on the island, such as sales invoices or a signed letter from a solicitor, accountant, bank manager or auditor, plus proof of commercial identity like a certificate of incorporation or a verifiable VAT number.
An individual who neither lives on the island nor holds citizenship there cannot meet the test at all. No paid tier gets round it and no registrar can arrange one, so a sole trader in England with no Irish trading history should plan on a different extension.
Last, plan for timing. Applications are usually processed within about three hours on a working day, and the zone reloads on odd hours, so a .ie goes live in hours rather than minutes. Have your document to hand when you order.
.ie is the preferred online address for Irish citizens and businesses. Though .ie registration has changed, all applicants will still be required to meet .IE's terms and conditions for registration and prove their connection to Ireland. Consumers can remain confident that a .ie online address is trustworthy and authentically Irish.
What that means if you are buying one
The checking is the product. Every holder of a .ie has been verified against a document, which is why a convincing lookalike is harder to set up in this namespace than in almost any other. If you are a British business weighing the extra effort, that verification is the thing you are buying, not an obstacle in front of it.
Who is allowed to register .ie?
Every .ie applicant must prove a real connection to the island of Ireland and prove their identity. Individuals who neither live on the island nor hold citizenship there cannot register one at all.
- Connection to Ireland
- The connection is to the island of Ireland, so the Republic and Northern Ireland both count. Since 21 March 2018 you no longer have to justify your claim to a particular name, but the connection test itself was kept in full.
- One document, chosen by category
- A CRO or RBN number, Irish VAT number or tax clearance certificate for a company; an Irish passport or an Irish or UK driving licence showing an island address for an individual; a CHY or Northern Ireland charity number for a charity.
- Businesses outside the island
- A company in Great Britain or further afield registers as an overseas applicant, showing evidence that it sells goods or services on the island of Ireland, such as sales invoices or a signed letter from a solicitor, accountant, bank manager or auditor, plus proof of commercial identity.
- Individuals outside the island
- An individual who is not resident on the island of Ireland and does not hold citizenship there cannot meet the registration requirements, and so cannot register a .ie. That one is absolute rather than a paperwork problem.
- If your documents do not arrive
- The application does not complete. The registry emails you saying what it needs, and an application left waiting will eventually expire. Nothing is lost but the name, which stays available to anyone who can evidence a connection first.
Rules taken from the .IE document requirements. 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 .ie the right choice for you?
We would rather sell you the right extension once than the wrong one twice.
.ie works well if
- You are based in Northern Ireland. You qualify on documents you already hold, and .ie reads as local on both sides of the border.
- You are a British business already shipping to Irish customers and can evidence it with invoices, so the overseas route is form-filling rather than a barrier.
- You want Irish shoppers to see an Irish address. Google reads .ie as a signal a site is meant for Ireland; a .com gives none.
- You are protecting a brand in a namespace where every holder has been checked against a document, which makes a lookalike much harder.
Look elsewhere if
- You want the domain live in the next ten minutes. Every new application goes through a document check first, in working hours.
- You have no trading connection to Ireland yet. An individual outside the island cannot register at all, and a company has nothing to evidence.
- Your market is Britain. A .co.uk costs less each year, transfers free, and points Google at the country your customers are actually in.
- You want one address covering Ireland and the UK together. A .ie aims at Ireland, so British searchers get more from the .co.uk.
Only the occasional Irish order so far? Keep the .co.uk as your main address and add the .ie when Ireland becomes a market worth evidencing. See .co.uk pricing.
.ie vs .co.uk: which should you register?
Two neighbouring extensions with opposite philosophies. Nominet lets anyone in the world register a .co.uk with nothing to prove, and that openness is why the namespace is enormous. Ireland checks a document on every single application, and that friction is why its namespace is small and unusually clean.
The practical differences follow. A .co.uk is live in minutes and moves between registrars near instantly on an IPS tag change, which we do with the Nominet tag STACK. A .ie is processed within a few hours on a working day and moves on an authorisation code. A .co.uk also carries free WHOIS privacy for a UK individual under Nominet's consent rules; .ie does not publish an individual holder's details either, but that follows from GDPR practice rather than a service you switch on.
Businesses selling into both markets hold both. One domain cannot speak to Google UK and Google Ireland at once.
| .ie | .co.uk | |
|---|---|---|
| Who may register | Anyone with a provable connection to the island of Ireland | Anyone worldwide, unchecked |
| Document required | Yes, on every new application | No |
| Time to go live | Usually a few hours on a working day | Minutes |
| Geographic signal | Ireland | United Kingdom |
| Northern Ireland businesses | Eligible | Eligible |
| Transfer to us | Auth code, hours to days | IPS tag change, near instant |
.ie domain questions, answered
What people ask us before registering a .ie domain.
Can't find what you're looking for?
Ask us directlyYes, through the overseas applicant route, provided it can evidence that it sells goods or services to consumers or businesses on the island of Ireland. Sales invoices work, as does a signed letter from a solicitor, accountant, bank manager or auditor, alongside proof of commercial identity. A Northern Ireland business has an easier path, because HMRC correspondence is itself accepted.
Not if you are registering as a business with trade into Ireland, but yes if you are registering as an individual. The registry is explicit that an individual who is not resident on the island of Ireland and does not hold citizenship there cannot meet the requirements. Northern Ireland counts as the island throughout.
One, matched to your category. An Irish company uses a CRO or RBN number, an Irish VAT number or a tax clearance certificate. An individual uses an Irish passport, an Irish or UK driving licence showing an island address, an Irish or Northern Irish bank statement, a recognised college ID, or a Public Services Card.
Applications are usually processed within about three hours, Monday to Friday, and approved names go live when the zone next reloads on the odd hours. A .ie ordered mid-morning midweek with its document attached is often live the same day. An application missing its document simply waits, so send the paperwork with the order.
Any available name, since 21 March 2018. Before that you had to justify your claim to the specific name as well as your connection to Ireland, which blocked a lot of ordinary registrations. The registry dropped the name-claim test and moved to first come, first served. Existing trade mark rights are still enforceable against you.
Only if Ireland is a market you are serving rather than one you hope to serve. A .ie costs more each year, takes longer to register, needs a document, and does nothing in British search results. Against that, it is the address Irish customers expect. Shipping to Dublin weekly, it pays for itself. One Irish order last year, it does not.
Included with Your .ie 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 .ie domain today
Secure your .ie domain from just £16.99/yr. Free DNS management, email forwarding, and 10GB mailbox included.
