.re Domain
Reunion Island's French Territory Domain
Register your .re domain from just £16.99/yr. Free DNS management, email forwarding, and 10GB mailbox included with every domain.
This domain has registration restrictions
Only natural persons resident in, and legal persons established in, the EU, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway or Switzerland may hold a .re domain. Read the full eligibility rules.
What is a .re domain?
The .re domain is the country code for Reunion (La Reunion), a French overseas department in the Indian Ocean. Managed by AFNIC (the same registry that handles .fr), .re benefits from French registry infrastructure and security standards. It's occasionally used creatively by businesses outside Reunion, as "re" can suggest "regarding" or serve as a prefix hack. Read the eligibility before you order. Afnic admits registrants in the EU plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland, and the United Kingdom has been outside that since 1 January 2021. A UK-based person or company cannot hold a .re. If Afnic asks you to substantiate eligibility and you cannot, the domain is suspended for 7 days, blocked for 30, and then deleted along with the rest of your Afnic portfolio.
Who should register .re?
Reunion-based businesses, French overseas territory operations, and EU, Icelandic, Liechtenstein, Norwegian or Swiss registrants. Not available to UK-based holders.
Why choose .re?
- Managed by AFNIC (France's trusted registry)
- French-standard registry infrastructure
- Short two-letter extension for creative branding
- EU, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland only
Who runs .re, and since when
Registry data from the .re 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
- Association Française pour le Nommage Internet en Coopération (A.F.N.I.C.)
- The organisation that runs the extension
- In the root zone since
- 1997
- Delegated 7 April 1997
- Who can register
- EU, Icelandic, Liechtenstein, Norwegian and Swiss residents and organisations only
- Checked against the registry's own policy
- Our price
- £16.99 a year
- Ex VAT. Renews at the same price
- Transfer in
- £16.99
- Adds a year to whatever is left on the domain
Why a UK registrant cannot hold a .re domain
Afnic has managed .re since it opened to registration in July 2001, under the same naming policy that governs .fr. That matters more than the island does, because Article 5.1 of the policy limits registration and renewal to any natural person residing, and any legal person with its registered office or main establishment, in an EU member state or in Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway or Switzerland. Britain appears on none of those lists.
Afnic does not simply take your word for it. Its qualification procedure runs in two stages: a verification process that changes nothing on its own, and a substantiation process that suspends the holder's portfolio for up to seven days, then blocks it for up to thirty, then deletes it if no evidence arrives. The holder and the administrative contact must also stay reachable on a working telephone number and email address.
For a UK business the honest answer is that .re is out of reach, unless the domain is registered through a subsidiary or an individual resident in one of those countries. If the appeal was a two-letter ending for a word finishing in re, that appeal does not survive contact with the eligibility rule.
Who is allowed to register .re?
Only natural persons resident in, and legal persons established in, the EU, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway or Switzerland may hold a .re domain.
- Who qualifies
- Article 5.1 of the Afnic naming policy allows registration or renewal by any natural person residing, and any legal person with its registered office or main establishment, in an EU member state or in Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway or Switzerland. Switzerland is included even though it sits outside the EEA.
- UK registrants
- The United Kingdom is on neither list, so a UK-resident individual and a UK-registered company are both outside the criteria. The workable route is an entity actually established in a qualifying country, with the domain held in that entity's name.
- You must stay reachable
- The holder and the administrative contact must supply and keep working a telephone number and an email address. Afnic treats reachability as part of the same qualification test as eligibility.
- If you do not qualify
- Afnic can open a substantiation process on its own initiative, after a third-party report, or at the point of registration. It suspends the portfolio for up to seven days, blocks it for up to thirty, then deletes it if no evidence of compliance arrives. Sending that evidence at any point closes the procedure.
Rules taken from Afnic on .re. 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 .re the right choice for you?
We would rather sell you the right extension once than the wrong one twice.
.re works well if
- You live or trade in Reunion and want the address that tells the island you are part of it, rather than selling into it.
- You are established in the EU, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway or Switzerland and want a French domain that is not the crowded .fr.
- You want Afnic's operating standards behind the name. The .re zone carries the same DNSSEC and security work as .fr.
Look elsewhere if
- You are a UK resident or a UK company with nothing inside the EU. You do not meet Article 5.1, and Afnic can delete the name after a thirty-day block.
- You wanted it purely as a word ending. The eligibility test applies whatever you plan to use the name for.
- Your customers are in mainland France. A .fr claims France; .re claims one overseas department, and French readers notice the difference.
Not eligible, or selling to Britain? A .co.uk applies no residency test and costs less. See .co.uk pricing.
.re vs .fr: which should you register?
Same registry, same naming policy, same eligibility rule, same DNSSEC. If you qualify for one you qualify for the other, so this comparison is about meaning rather than about rules.
A .fr claims France as a whole and is the address a French customer expects by default. A .re claims Reunion, a French overseas department in the Indian Ocean with its own economy and its own internet community, and to a French reader that is a specific claim rather than a vague one. Choose .re when the island connection is real. Choose .fr when it is not, and accept that the good short names went long ago. Both are cheap enough that plenty of Reunion businesses simply hold the pair.
.re domain questions, answered
What people ask us before registering a .re domain.
Can't find what you're looking for?
Ask us directlyNo, not in its own name. Afnic limits .re to natural persons residing in, and legal persons with a registered office or main establishment in, an EU member state, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway or Switzerland. A UK company qualifies under none of those. The two legitimate routes are to hold the domain through a group entity actually established in a qualifying country, or to have an individual resident there hold it personally. Registering anyway risks suspension followed by deletion.
It opens a substantiation process. Afnic asks your registrar for evidence and suspends your portfolio for up to seven days. If nothing adequate arrives, it blocks the portfolio for up to thirty days. If nothing arrives in that window either, it deletes the portfolio, meaning every Afnic domain you hold rather than only the one in question. Sending evidence at any stage closes the procedure, which is why the contact details on the record have to be ones you actually read.
It works well as one for names ending in re, and Afnic accepts accented characters that widen the options further. The catch is eligibility, which applies however clever the name is: a UK-based owner cannot hold it. If you are established in the EU, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway or Switzerland, a .re hack is a good buy at a modest annual price. If you are not, the same idea on a .co.uk or a generic ending will actually stay yours.
Included with Your .re 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 .re domain today
Secure your .re domain from just £16.99/yr. Free DNS management, email forwarding, and 10GB mailbox included.
