Buy .ug Domain Name

No. The rules set no condition on the holder's nationality, residence or ties to a Ugandan entity, and neither a local contact nor documents are requested. A measurement on 15 August 2026 confirms it: holders in the zone include organisations registered in the United States, Ireland, South Africa, Germany, India, Kenya and Finland, and some records simply state «Outside Uganda» in the country field. The one thing the registry insists on is accurate data: wrong or stale contact details are grounds for suspension, cancellation or transfer.

Three characters. One- and two-character .ug names are held back by the registry, and that was established by measurement: on 15 August 2026 the registry's own availability service returned a.ug, ab.ug, qz.ug, zq.ug and jx.ug all as unavailable, while the three-character qzx.ug came back free. The same names return «domain not found» in WHOIS, so they are not registered — they are simply closed to sale. Labels may use letters, digits and hyphens; a hyphen cannot start the label and non-ASCII characters are rejected.

The base term is one year, and multi-year registration is possible. The rulebook defines the term as «a specified period as indicated by the chosen pricing» and publishes no ceiling; the registrar interface likewise carries a free-form period field. Measurement shows what that means in practice: names in the Ugandan zones carry expiry dates five years, and in some cases a full ten years, past their last renewal. The concrete benefit of a longer term is a thinner renewal calendar, because only a single one-month window runs after expiry.

The name enters a grace period on its expiry date. During that period you can still renew at the standard rate, and the period lasts one month. If it passes without renewal, the name is released for re-registration, so anyone can take it. The rulebook defines no separate redemption stage and no penalty recovery fee for .ug; the whole calendar is that one window. The registry sends renewal reminders to the address on record, which makes keeping that mailbox working the most practical safeguard. Registration and renewal fees are also excluded from refunds.

A transfer runs on two-sided consent. The rulebook states it plainly: both the losing and the gaining party must approve the change for it to succeed. The mechanics are simple — the gaining registrar starts the process from its own registry account, and the losing registrar confirms it through a link sent to the address registered with the registry. The registry also keeps the registrar lock enabled to block unauthorised moves, and nothing completes until that lock is lifted. Start the process from the domain transfer page.

Yes. The .ug zone carries a DS record in the root, so it is a signed zone, and the rulebook separately states that the registry uses DNSSEC. The registrant level was measured too: on 15 August 2026 both dnsforum.ug and registry.co.ug appeared with live DS records, showing that the registry system accepts DS data for individual names. None of the sampled third-party names carried DS, however — the capability exists but is not widely used. To switch DNSSEC on, your DS record has to reach the registry through your provider.