.ca Domain
Canada's Trusted Country Domain
Register your .ca domain from just £17.99/yr. Free DNS management, email forwarding, and 10GB mailbox included with every domain.
This domain has registration restrictions
Only individuals and organisations with a recognised connection to Canada may hold a .ca, and CIRA verifies that connection after registration as well as at the point of sale. Read the full eligibility rules.
What is a .ca domain?
The .ca domain is Canada's official country code, managed by the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA). Canada is the UK's closest Commonwealth trading partner, and .ca carries strong trust with Canadian consumers. Registration requires a Canadian presence, which keeps the namespace clean and credible. For UK businesses exporting to Canada or operating Canadian branches, .ca is the domain Canadian shoppers expect to see.
Who should register .ca?
Canadian businesses, UK companies with Canadian operations, and brands targeting Canadian consumers.
Why choose .ca?
- Canada's official country code
- Strong consumer trust across Canada
- Requires Canadian presence (credible namespace)
- Commonwealth ties benefit UK businesses
Who runs .ca, and since when
Registry data from the .ca 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
- Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) Autorité Canadienne pour les enregistrements Internet (ACEI)
- The organisation that runs the extension
- In the root zone since
- 1987
- Delegated 14 May 1987
- Who can register
- Canadian citizens, residents and organisations, or the owner of a Canadian trade mark
- Checked against the registry's own policy
- Our price
- £17.99 a year
- Ex VAT. Renews at the same price
Canadian presence rules, and how CIRA enforces them
Plenty of country extensions carry an eligibility rule on paper. The .ca domain is one of the few where the registry acts on it. CIRA runs a process called Registrant Information Validation: it picks registrations at its own discretion, locks the domain while the review runs so nothing can be transferred or edited, and asks the holder to prove the Canadian Presence category they chose when they ordered. If the proof never arrives, the name is cancelled and released to the public on a first come, first served basis.
The rule itself is wider than "you have to be Canadian". CIRA's policy sets out eighteen categories. A company incorporated federally or in any province qualifies, and so do permanent residents, trusts and partnerships clearing a two-thirds test, unincorporated clubs where at least 80 per cent of both members and officers are ordinarily resident in Canada, trade unions, registered political parties, schools, hospitals, libraries, museums, Indian bands, Aboriginal peoples and government. For a UK business the useful category is the last one on the list: someone who fits none of the others may still register, provided they own a trade mark registered under the Trade-marks Act (Canada) and the domain includes the exact word component of that mark.
The 183-day rule people miss
"Ordinarily resident in Canada" has a number attached to it. CIRA defines it as living in Canada for more than 183 days in the twelve months before the application, and in every twelve-month period after that, for as long as the registration lasts. It is a condition you keep meeting rather than a box you tick once. The same logic catches a corporation later struck from the register and a Canadian trade mark allowed to lapse: the route you qualified by has to still exist on the day CIRA asks.
Two practical notes. You choose your Canadian Presence category at the point of order, so pick the one you actually fit rather than the nearest-looking option, because that is what you will be asked to evidence. And .ca handles individual privacy at the registry rather than as a paid extra: CIRA does not display an individual registrant's contact details in the public .CA WHOIS, though organisations are shown. Neither point is a reason to buy a .ca on its own, but both are worth settling before you print the address on a van or a quotation.
Who is allowed to register .ca?
Only individuals and organisations with a recognised connection to Canada may hold a .ca, and CIRA verifies that connection after registration as well as at the point of sale.
- Who qualifies
- CIRA lists eighteen Canadian Presence categories: citizens of the age of majority, permanent residents ordinarily resident in Canada, Canadian corporations, trusts, partnerships, associations, trade unions, registered political parties, schools, hospitals, libraries, museums, Indian bands, Aboriginal peoples and government. You select one on the order, and that selection is what CIRA later asks you to prove.
- The trade mark route
- Someone who meets none of the other categories may still register if they own a trade mark registered under the Trade-marks Act (Canada). The domain must then consist of or include the exact word component of that mark, so it does not open the whole namespace to you, and a trade mark registered outside Canada does not count.
- Ordinarily resident means 183 days
- For the residence-based categories, CIRA defines ordinarily resident as more than 183 days in Canada in the twelve months before you apply, and in each twelve-month period afterwards. A posting that ends, or a move back to the UK, ends the qualification with it.
- What you may be asked for
- Under Registrant Information Validation, CIRA can ask for a Canadian passport or birth certificate, a permanent resident card, a Canadian trade mark registration in the registrant's own name, or a corporate profile report from the federal or relevant provincial registry. It destroys its copy of any identification once the check is finished.
- If you do not qualify
- A first notice is followed ten business days later by a second giving five more business days, then a suspension of up to 30 days during which the website and email both stop working. If nothing has been supplied by the end of it, CIRA cancels the domain and the name goes back on sale. Where a domain is suspected of phishing, the suspension comes after one day instead.
Rules taken from CIRA's Canadian Presence Requirements for Registrants. 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 .ca the right choice for you?
We would rather sell you the right extension once than the wrong one twice.
.ca works well if
- You are incorporated in Canada, federally or provincially, and you sell to Canadian consumers who expect the extension their own banks and retailers use.
- You are a UK exporter with a Canadian subsidiary. Register in the subsidiary's name and the eligibility question answers itself on the order form.
- You own a Canadian trade mark and want the matching name locked down before somebody with a weaker claim takes it.
- You want a country signal in Google Canada. Since Google withdrew the Search Console country targeting setting, the extension is one of the few levers left.
Look elsewhere if
- You have no Canadian entity, residence or trade mark. There is no route in, and a registration made anyway gets cancelled rather than quietly ignored.
- Your Canadian presence is temporary. The 183-day test is measured again every twelve months, so a two-year secondment takes the domain with it when it ends.
- You sell mainly to UK customers. A .ca aims Google at the wrong country and costs nearly twice what a .co.uk does, every year.
- You are registering as a company and want the address kept quiet. CIRA hides individual holders from the public WHOIS but publishes organisations.
No Canadian entity, residence or trade mark? A .com will serve Canadian visitors perfectly well and asks you no eligibility questions. See .com pricing.
.ca vs .com: which should you register?
For a UK business looking at Canada this is the real decision, and it is not the one the marketing frames it as. A .com is open to you today with no paperwork. A .ca is open to you only if you can name a Canadian Presence category and stand behind it later.
Where .com wins: nobody is ever refused one, it works for every market at once, it costs less per year, and it never has to be defended. Where .ca wins: Google reads it as a signal for Canada, and it tells a Canadian shopper the business is one of theirs before they read a word of the page.
What you should not do is register a .ca through a Canadian friend or a nominee. The registrant on the record is the one CIRA validates, and a domain in somebody else's name is a domain you do not control.
| .ca | .com | |
|---|---|---|
| Who may register | Canadian presence, in one of 18 categories | Anyone worldwide |
| Eligibility checked | After registration, at CIRA's discretion | Never |
| Geographic signal | Canada | None |
| In the root zone since | 1987 | 1985 |
| Individual holder data | Not shown in the public WHOIS | Depends on the registrar |
| Annual cost | Higher | Lower |
.ca domain questions, answered
What people ask us before registering a .ca domain.
Can't find what you're looking for?
Ask us directlyOnly through a qualifying route, and a UK registered company is not one on its own. Two work in practice: registering in the name of a Canadian subsidiary or other corporation incorporated federally or in a province, or registering on the strength of a trade mark registered under the Trade-marks Act (Canada), in which case the domain must include the exact word component of that mark. Either way the Canadian entity or the mark owner goes on the record as registrant.
They are CIRA's eighteen categories describing an acceptable connection to Canada, in force for every registration made since 8 November 2000. Citizens, permanent residents, Canadian corporations, trusts, partnerships, clubs, unions, political parties, schools, hospitals, libraries, museums, Indian bands, Aboriginal peoples, government bodies and Canadian trade mark owners all appear on the list. You pick the one that applies when you order, and CIRA can ask you to evidence it afterwards.
Your domain is locked immediately, so it cannot be transferred and its contact details cannot be edited while the review runs. CIRA sends a first notice asking for documents, a second ten business days later giving five more business days, then a suspension notice. During the suspension, up to 30 days, the website and email stop working, though you can still send the documents. If nothing arrives, the domain is cancelled and the name goes back on sale.
It gives Google a country signal that a .com does not carry. Google treats an ordinary country-code extension as a strong indication that a site is meant for that country, and .ca is one of those rather than one of the extensions Google reads as generic. That matters more than it used to, because Google has withdrawn the Search Console setting that let you nominate a target country by hand.
For individuals, yes, and it happens at the registry rather than as something you buy. CIRA does not display the contact details of an individual registrant in the public .CA WHOIS, so there is no add-on to purchase. Organisations are different: a company, charity or association holding a .ca has its details shown, and no privacy product can suppress what a registry publishes itself.
The registration stops being compliant the moment the qualifying entity ceases to exist, even though nothing breaks straight away. Canadian Presence is an ongoing condition rather than a one-off test, so a dissolved corporation, a lapsed trade mark or a registrant who has stopped being ordinarily resident all leave the domain exposed to validation. Move it to a registrant who still qualifies before the entity is wound up, not afterwards.
Included with Your .ca 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 .ca domain today
Secure your .ca domain from just £17.99/yr. Free DNS management, email forwarding, and 10GB mailbox included.
