Buy .mw Domain Name

Enter the Malawi market with a .MW Domain

Stand out in the Malawi market with a local identity. Secure your brand before your competitors do.

$198.00 $159.00/2 years 20% Off
100K+ active customers in 200+ countries
25 Years Experience Domain & Hosting
1,600+ TLDs ccTLD included
WHAT IS A .MW DOMAIN

.mw Domain: Malawi's Official Country Code Extension

.mw is the country code top-level domain of Malawi and entered the root zone on 3 January 1997. The registry is run from Blantyre by the Malawi Sustainable Development Network Programme, known simply as Malawi SDNP. It began as a UNDP-supported Malawi government programme and is today incorporated as a company limited by guarantee under the Malawi Companies Act. The delegation passed from Tarsus of the USA to SDNP in 2002, and a contract with ICANN was signed the same year, witnessed by the national communications regulator MACRA. The rules in force are the registry's Ver 1.5 registration policy of 4 August 2026.

On eligibility .mw is an open zone: the registry asks for no establishment in Malawi, no local address, no trustee and no supporting document, and priority is settled purely by the date and time an application reaches the registry. The only closed space is gov.mw, reserved for Malawi government organisations. The registration channel, by contrast, is fixed: the registry now runs a multi-registrar 3R model and accepts requests only over the EPP connection of an accredited registrar, so a registrant cannot file a registration, change or renewal directly with the registry. The registry also operates ten sub-zones of its own, among them ac.mw, co.mw and org.mw.

Two details are worth knowing before you order. The first is privacy: the .mw registry publishes the holder's name, street address, telephone number and email address in WHOIS without masking, and offers no privacy service you could buy, so never record an address you would not want published. The second is expiry behaviour: a lapsed name is suspended for thirty days, and because it is pulled from delegation to its name servers during that window, your site and mail stop on the expiry date itself. Check whether the name you want is free on the .mw domain search page.

An expired .mw name stays suspended for thirty days: The registry's rules suspend a lapsed name for thirty days. This is not the soft grace period you know from generic extensions: throughout the window the name is removed from delegation to its name servers, so your website and mail traffic stop on the expiry date itself and only the WHOIS record remains visible. At the end of the thirtieth day the registration is cancelled and deleted, and the name is released for anyone to take. There is no separate redemption period in this zone. The registry sends one final warning to the registrar seven days before expiry, so keeping that address working is the simplest way not to lose the name.
.mw domain extension logo

.MW Domain at a Glance

  • Registry operator Malawi SDNP — Blantyre, Malawi
  • Entered the root zone 3 January 1997
  • Delegation Passed to SDNP under an ICANN contract in 2002
  • Registry model 3R on FRED/EPP — registration only through an accredited registrar
  • Rules in force Domain Registration Policy Ver 1.5 of 4 August 2026
  • Dispute procedure UDRP; exclusive jurisdiction of the High Court of Malawi
  • Document Requirement No documents are required to register a .mw domain
  • Country Malawi
  • Character Length 3 - 63 characters
  • Registration Period 2 - 2 years
  • Name Server Count 2 - 10 servers

Related Domain Extensions

Registering the same name on more than one extension keeps someone else from taking your brand.

.mw Domain Prices — No Surprise Fees

Registration, transfer and renewal fees are listed separately. The renewal price can differ from the first-year price, so you see both up front.

  • Transfer

    $159.00 /year
  • Renewal

    $198.00 /year

Included With Every .mw Domain

  • Free DNS management

    Change A, MX, TXT and CNAME records yourself from the panel — no waiting on anyone when you move a site or mailbox.

  • Domain forwarding

    Point the domain at your existing site, a campaign page or a social profile — at no extra cost.

.mw Domain Specifications and Registration Rules

Registration conditions, supported features and the registry's own timelines in a single table.

.mw Domain Registration

  • Document Requirement No documents are required to register a .mw domain
  • Country Malawi
  • Character Length 3 - 63 characters
  • Registration Period 2 - 2 years
  • Name Server Count 2 - 10 servers

.mw Domain Support

  • IDN Support No
  • Transfer Support No
  • Late Renewal Support No

Frequently Asked Questions About .mw Domains

The questions people actually ask before registering — answered plainly.

  • The registry's policy leaves eligibility open: registering under .mw requires no establishment in Malawi, no local address, no trustee and no supporting document. Registrations from abroad are routine, and the registry's own WHOIS records show names held by companies incorporated well outside Malawi. Priority goes to whoever applies first, settled by the date and time the application reaches the registry, and there is no reservation procedure or waiting list. The single exception is the government space: only Malawi government organisations may register under gov.mw.

  • The registry accepts no applications directly. Since Malawi SDNP moved from the single-registrar 2R model to the multi-registrar 3R model it no longer acts as a registrar itself, and registration, change and renewal requests can only reach it over the EPP connection of an accredited registrar. The registry publishes the list of accredited registrars on its own site, and Atak Domain appears on that list. Registration asks for a name, a full physical address, an email address and telephone number, plus administrative, technical and billing contacts. Start by checking availability on the .mw domain search page.

  • The zone is managed from Blantyre by the Malawi Sustainable Development Network Programme, known as Malawi SDNP. It began as a UNDP-supported Malawi government programme and was later incorporated as a company limited by guarantee under the Malawi Companies Act. The extension entered the root in 1997; the delegation moved from Tarsus of the USA to SDNP in 2002, and a contract with ICANN was signed that same year, witnessed by the national communications regulator MACRA. Technically the registry runs FRED, the software built by the Czech registry CZ.NIC, over the EPP protocol. The applicable law is the law of Malawi.

  • Yes, in full. The registry publishes the holder's name or organisation, street address, city, country, telephone, fax and email address in the WHOIS response without masking, and draws no distinction between individuals and legal entities. There is also no privacy or proxy service available for purchase. The only personal-data clause in the rules restricts bulk collection rather than publication: the registry reserves the right to impose look-up restrictions to prevent data mining. So never record an address you would not want published. You can review your own record on the whois search page.

  • The lapsed name is suspended for thirty days. This is not a soft grace period: throughout the window the registry removes the name from delegation to its name servers, so your website and mail traffic stop on the expiry date itself, and only the WHOIS record stays visible. At the end of the thirtieth day the registration is cancelled and deleted, and the name is released for general registration, meaning anyone may take it. The separate redemption period familiar from generic extensions does not exist in this zone. The registry sends one final warning to the registrar seven days before expiry, so keep that address current.

  • Alongside .mw itself the registry operates ten sub-zones and recommends each for a use: ac.mw for academic institutions, biz.mw for business organisations, co.mw and com.mw for commercial organisations, coop.mw for cooperative associations, edu.mw for higher academic institutions, gov.mw for the Malawi Government, int.mw for international treaty organisations, net.mw for networking organisations and org.mw for non-profit organisations. Apart from gov.mw these recommendations create no eligibility requirement. The rules also let any person or entity ask the registry to manage registrations at a further level, with the registry assessing the feasibility of the request.

  • The registry adopts ICANN's UDRP directly: the dispute section of the registration policy is a single sentence stating that UDRP rules apply to domain name disputes. No separate local panel, fee schedule or filing window has been published. Beyond that, the applicable law is the law of Malawi and the rules fix the forum exclusively: for any dispute, disagreement or claim the competent court is the High Court of Malawi. The registry also holds a narrow revocation power tied to listed grounds; it must give at least fourteen days' notice and an opportunity to remedy before revoking.

  • The name itself cannot. The rules say so plainly: a domain name may not be modified once registered, so a typo or a change of mind leaves only one route, which is a fresh registration. What can be changed is the record around it. When your administrative, technical or billing contact details change, you are expected to ask your registrar to amend them with the registry within one month. If the name servers change, the update must be made without delay or the name can go offline. Holder name, organisation and address sit in a separate category, because altering them can amount to a transfer.

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