Buy .co.uk Domain Name

No. The rules declare .co.uk an «Open SLD» and place no restriction on the applicant's status; the general clause adds that the registry does not limit who may register, which names they may hold or how many. No UK company, address or representative is required. A company requirement exists only in the closed zones: .ltd.uk and .plc.uk require a company registered at Companies House.

No. The zone's charter says names are «intended» for commercial purposes and that the third-level name should reflect those purposes, but the same rules remove any enforcement: the registry states it will take no action in respect of registrations that do not comply with the charters. Commercial use is therefore a non-binding statement of intent. Publishing a personal project or blog on a .co.uk name breaks no rule.

The calendar is published day by day. For the first 30 days the name works fully and can be renewed. From day 30 to day 90 the name no longer resolves — your site and email will not open — but renewal is still possible. From day 90 to day 95 renewal closes. On day 95 the name is released at the UTC time announced in the registry's public daily drop list. Random dropping was abolished in 2022.

Yes. The contract requires the holder to give a correct name, postal address, phone and email, and to respond quickly to any verification request; if the registry believes the details are significantly inaccurate, unreliable or false, the name may be cancelled or placed in a special status. The result appears in the WHOIS output: in a record we inspected on 13 August 2026 it showed the date on which the registry matched the registrant data against a third-party source.

Not by default. The registry's field definitions say it plainly: the registrant's name and address are not disclosed by default; to publish them you must open the relevant fields with the registrant's permission. The contract adds that personal data appears in WHOIS only where consent has been given. The registry also runs a formal proxy service framework for registrars. You can inspect a live record from the whois search screen.

Not by the UDRP but by the registry's own Dispute Resolution Service. A complainant must prove two things together, on the balance of probabilities: that they have rights in a similar name or mark, and that the name is an abusive registration in the respondent's hands. Free mediation run by the registry comes before any expert stage, and if the parties settle the case closes there. If the respondent files no response, mediation does not happen and the complainant may request a summary decision.

The upper limit for the third-level label is 63 characters, and measurement confirms it: a 63-letter .co.uk name registered on 8 December 2021 is still active. The lower limit is one character; single-letter names are registered in this zone. Permitted characters are the letters a-z, the digits 0-9 and hyphens, and a name may not begin or end with a hyphen. Internationalised names are not supported — the rules state plainly that names beginning «xn--» may not be registered.