.be Domain
Belgium's Country Code Domain
Register your .be domain from just £12.99/yr. Free DNS management, email forwarding, and 10GB mailbox included with every domain.
This domain has registration restrictions
DNS Belgium applies no residency or nationality test, but it verifies registrant details before a new domain goes live and will leave it inactive until the check is passed. Read the full eligibility rules.
What is a .be domain?
The .be domain is Belgium's official country code, managed by DNS Belgium. Belgium sits at the crossroads of Dutch, French, and German-speaking Europe, making .be a natural fit for multilingual businesses. Registration is open to anyone worldwide, with no residency requirements. For UK businesses, Belgium's proximity and its status as the seat of EU institutions make .be a practical domain for European operations.
Who should register .be?
Belgian businesses, EU-facing organisations, UK companies with Belgian operations, and multilingual European brands.
Why choose .be?
- Belgium's official country code
- Open to worldwide registration
- Multilingual market (Dutch, French, German)
- Seat of EU institutions for added credibility
Who runs .be, and since when
Registry data from the .be 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
- DNS Belgium vzw/asbl
- The organisation that runs the extension
- In the root zone since
- 1988
- Delegated 5 August 1988
- Who can register
- Open to anyone worldwide, though DNS Belgium may verify identity before activation
- Checked against the registry's own policy
- Our price
- £12.99 a year
- Ex VAT. Renews at the same price
What a .be domain signals to Google and Belgium
Every YouTube share link is a Belgian domain. youtu.be is a country-code address doing duty as the end of a word, and it is the neatest illustration of the double life .be domains lead: Belgium's national extension since 1988, and a two-letter ending that finishes an English phrase. Word endings are why a good many non-Belgian buyers arrive on this page.
Before you buy one for that reason, know what Google does with it. Google's multi-regional documentation says a country-code extension gives "a strong signal to both users and search engines that your site is explicitly intended for a certain country", and it publishes a short list of country codes it treats as generic instead, the .io and .co and .me end of things. .be is not on that list. So whatever you meant by it, a .be reads to Google as aimed at Belgium, and British content does not argue it out of that quickly. For a business selling into Belgium that is the entire point. For a UK-only business it is a handicap you are paying to carry.
The check that leaves a domain registered but dead
DNS Belgium screens registrant details before a new .be enters the zone file, and most registrations pass unnoticed and go live within half an hour. Where the details look incomplete or wrong, the domain is created and then held inactive until the holder proves who they are, and in the registry's own words it "remains registered but is not yet usable" in the meantime. The rules below set out how that check works and how long it takes. The lesson for a UK buyer is dull and worth following anyway: register with your real name, a complete address and an email account you actually read, because that is where the request lands.
Three more things separate .be from a generic extension. It runs in one-year terms only, renewed a year at a time, so you cannot pay for a decade up front and forget it. A deleted .be sits in quarantine for 40 days before anybody else can take it. And a move between registrars is a matter of hours rather than days, using a transfer code that stays valid for seven.
Our steer: a .be is worth having if you sell in Belgium or keep an office or a distributor there. It is also worth it where the word ending does real work for the brand and you have accepted what it costs you in British search. If the customers are all British, the .co.uk is the better buy and it is not close.
This protocol will enable us to take even more targeted action, together with the FPS Economy, against possible abuses where .be domain names are involved.
What that means if you are buying one
The arrangement he means runs from the Belgian economics ministry straight to the registry, which is why a .be hosting a fake webshop can be off the air inside a day. The holder gets two weeks to answer, and the name expires after six months if nobody does. A zone policed that fast holds its reputation, but any notice lands at the contact address on the registration.
Who is allowed to register .be?
DNS Belgium applies no residency or nationality test, but it verifies registrant details before a new domain goes live and will leave it inactive until the check is passed.
- Who qualifies
- Anyone, anywhere. There is no requirement to live in Belgium, hold Belgian nationality or run a Belgian company. That openness is what separates .be from .eu, which excluded UK registrants once the transition period ended.
- The identity check
- DNS Belgium screens holder details on every new registration before the name enters the zone file. Where something looks incomplete or wrong, the domain is created but not activated and the registry emails the holder for proof of identity. Most registrations are never flagged.
- How you prove it
- A holder with an official Belgian address can verify through itsme or eID, a Dutch one through iDIN, and everyone else through Onfido or by uploading identity documents. After a successful online check the domain is active within the hour. Uploaded documents are compared by hand, which DNS Belgium says can take up to five working days.
- If you do not verify
- The domain, in DNS Belgium's own wording, remains registered but is not yet usable. Nobody else can take it, but it is absent from the zone file, so no website loads and no email is delivered until the check is completed.
- Abuse is handled separately
- A protocol agreed with the Belgian FPS Economy in 2018 lets the registry pull a .be used for a fake webshop or phishing within 24 hours of being notified. That applies for the life of the registration, not just at the point of sale.
Rules taken from DNS Belgium on registrant verification. 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 .be the right choice for you?
We would rather sell you the right extension once than the wrong one twice.
.be works well if
- You sell in Belgium. A .be is the address Belgian customers expect, and Google reads it as a site meant for Belgium in a way no generic extension can be made to.
- You run Dutch and French versions of the same site, and one .be with proper language annotations is tidier than buying a .nl and a .fr you do not otherwise need.
- Your brand or product name ends in the letters "be", so the extension completes the word rather than sitting awkwardly after it.
- You have a Belgian office, a distributor or a registered address there, and you want the local site to look local rather than like a translated British page.
Look elsewhere if
- Your customers are all in Britain. Google reads .be as pointed at Belgium, and on a country-code extension that is not a setting you get to change.
- You need the domain working within the hour and could not deal with an identity check if one were triggered on your registration.
- You want to pay for several years up front and stop thinking about it. DNS Belgium works in one-year terms and renews annually, so it stays on the calendar.
- You chose it purely for a word ending, and will spend the next decade telling suppliers and customers that no, the business is not Belgian.
Trading only in Britain? A .co.uk gives you the local search signal that a .be would actively work against. See .co.uk pricing.
.be vs .eu: which should you register?
A UK business weighing up a European address usually ends up looking at these two, and the first thing to settle is that only one of them will let you in. Since the transition period ended on 31 December 2020, a UK-established company cannot hold a .eu unless a qualifying EU entity or an EU, Icelandic, Liechtenstein or Norwegian citizen registers it. A .be asks nothing of you at all.
After that the question is what you want the address to say. A .be says Belgium, precisely and permanently, which is exactly right if you are selling in Brussels, Antwerp or Ghent and exactly wrong if you are not. A .eu says the bloc rather than a country, which suits a business trading across several member states with no natural national home. Google treats them as different signals for that reason, and neither is a substitute for the other.
The practical difference for a British reader is risk. Eligibility for a .eu is an ongoing condition and it has already changed twice, once at Brexit and again in August 2021. A .be has no eligibility condition to lose.
| .be | .eu | |
|---|---|---|
| Who may register | Anyone, anywhere | EU, Icelandic, Liechtenstein and Norwegian citizens, residents and organisations |
| UK registrants | Eligible | Not eligible since 31 December 2020 |
| Signal to Google | Belgium | The European Union |
| In the root zone | Since 1988 | Since 2005 |
| Run by | DNS Belgium, a Belgian non-profit | EURid, appointed by the European Commission |
| Checks on the holder | Identity screened before activation | Eligibility must hold for the life of the domain |
.be domain questions, answered
What people ask us before registering a .be domain.
Can't find what you're looking for?
Ask us directlyYes. DNS Belgium sets no residency, nationality or establishment test, so a British company, a British sole trader or a private individual anywhere in the world can hold a .be. That is the clearest difference between .be and .eu, which a UK-established company cannot hold at all since the transition period ended. The only thing that might slow you down is the registry identity check, which is applied to registrations whose details look incomplete or wrong.
No, and this is the honest answer rather than a hedge. Google describes a country-code extension as a strong signal that a site is intended for a particular country, and .be is not on the list of country codes Google treats as generic. So a .be tells Google your site is for Belgium, which is the opposite of useful if your customers search from Britain. Use a .co.uk for UK visibility and keep the .be for Belgium or for the word ending.
Almost certainly registrant verification. DNS Belgium checks holder details before adding a new domain to the zone file, and where they look incomplete or inaccurate it registers the name but leaves it inactive, then emails the holder asking for proof of identity. The domain is yours and nobody else can take it, but no website or email works until the check clears. Look for the message from the registry, and check the spam folder of the address you registered with.
Hours, not days. You ask your current registrar or DNS Belgium for a transfer code, the code arrives by email at the address held on the registration, and the transfer is carried out as soon as the new registrar submits it with a valid code. The code itself is valid for seven days. A transfer will not go through if the holder has asked for a transfer block on the domain, so check that first if a code is refused.
Not in a single term. DNS Belgium registers a .be for one year and renews it a year at a time, so unlike several generic extensions you cannot buy five or ten years in one go. In practice that means the renewal stays on your calendar every year. Set it to renew automatically and keep a working payment method and a current email address on the account, because a lapsed .be goes into a 40-day quarantine before anyone can take it.
Belgium gives you two routes and neither is the usual UDRP. There is an alternative dispute resolution procedure run by CEPANI, the Belgian Centre for Arbitration and Mediation, and there is a court route under the Unlawful Registration of Domain Names Act of 26 June 2003, now part of the Belgian Code of Economic Law. DNS Belgium suggests trying to agree a transfer with the holder in writing first, which is usually cheaper and faster than either.
Included with Your .be 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 .be domain today
Secure your .be domain from just £12.99/yr. Free DNS management, email forwarding, and 10GB mailbox included.
