.ht Domain
Haiti's Country Code Domain
Register your .ht domain from just £115.99/yr. Free DNS management, email forwarding, and 10GB mailbox included with every domain.
This domain has registration restrictions
A .ht is open to any applicant with or without a Haitian presence, but the charter designates the bare root for large companies and reserves a long list of terms it can reclaim without compensation. Read the full eligibility rules.
What is a .ht domain?
The .ht domain is Haiti's country code, managed by Consortium FDS/RDDH. Haiti occupies the western third of the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean. The .ht extension sees limited use domestically but is available for international registration. Its two-letter brevity and the "ht" abbreviation (which can read as "height" or "HyperText") give it some creative potential outside its home market.
Who should register .ht?
Haitian businesses, diaspora organisations, NGOs working in Haiti, and creative brands using the "ht" abbreviation.
Why choose .ht?
- Haiti's official country code
- Short two-letter format
- Available for international registration
- Creative abbreviation potential
Who runs .ht, and since when
Registry data from the .ht 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
- Consortium FDS/RDDH
- The organisation that runs the extension
- In the root zone since
- 1997
- Delegated 6 March 1997
- Who can register
- Open to any applicant, Haitian or not; the root is designated for large companies
- Checked against the registry's own policy
- Our price
- £115.99 a year
- Ex VAT. Renews at the same price
The .ht naming charter and its large company rule
The Consortium FDS/RDDH, a partnership between the Science Faculty of the State University of Haiti and the RDDH foundation, publishes a naming charter for .ht that is more explicit than most registries manage. Article 4 opens the zone to any applicant, Haitian or not, whether or not they have a legal presence in Haiti.
Then Article 12 divides the commercial category into ten labels and describes the bare .ht root, the one you are buying on this page, as being for large companies wishing to register directly in the .ht root. com.ht is listed for profit-making companies in general, firm.ht for professional practices and consultancies, shop.ht for online shops.
That designation is not on the charter's own list of restricted zones. Those are edu.ht, gouv.ht, rel.ht, med.ht and coop.ht, each needing a named ministry or council to authorise it, with the name held provisionally until the papers are checked. Everything else is what the charter calls a free zone, confirmed as soon as payment clears, first come first served. So the large company line reads as a stated purpose rather than a gate. It is still the registry's own description of who the root is for, and it is not something a reseller will mention.
Who is allowed to register .ht?
A .ht is open to any applicant with or without a Haitian presence, but the charter designates the bare root for large companies and reserves a long list of terms it can reclaim without compensation.
- Open to non-Haitians
- Article 4 of the naming charter opens .ht to any applicant, Haitian or not, whether or not they have a legal presence in Haiti. Use of the name falls under Haitian law first, then LACTLD and ICANN rules and procedures.
- The root is described as being for large firms
- Article 12 lists the bare .ht extension as being for large companies wishing to register directly in the .ht root, with com.ht listed for profit-making companies in general. The root is not on the charter's list of zones requiring documents, so this reads as a stated purpose rather than a verified test.
- Five zones need a ministry letter
- edu.ht needs authorisation from the education ministry, gouv.ht an official government document, rel.ht the religious affairs ministry, med.ht the health ministry and coop.ht the national cooperatives council. Names in those zones are reserved provisionally and confirmed only after the papers are examined.
- A long list of unregistrable terms
- Names cannot use terms tied to public order and morals, to the working of the internet, or to historic and cultural heritage, nor the names of international organisations or of countries and territories listed in ISO 3166-1. The same applies to Haiti itself, Haitian towns, communes and territorial collectivities, professions, public and private companies and regulated titles.
- Forbidden terms can be reclaimed without compensation
- Article 21 lets the Consortium pre-empt or take back any domain built on a forbidden fundamental term with no compensation, allowing a period to migrate and technical help if asked. Charter changes take effect immediately, so the version that binds you is the one published when your registrar acts.
Rules taken from the .ht naming charter. 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 .ht the right choice for you?
We would rather sell you the right extension once than the wrong one twice.
.ht works well if
- You are an established company with real Haitian operations, which is who the charter says the bare .ht root is meant for.
- You work with the Haitian diaspora or run programmes in Haiti, so a country address is accurate rather than borrowed.
- You want ht for the letters, you have read the list of unregistrable terms, and the annual cost is not what decides it.
Look elsewhere if
- Cost. A .ht runs to more than ten times a .co.uk on our list, every year, with no free transfer to escape to.
- You are a sole trader or a small business. The charter designates the bare root for large firms, which is at best an awkward position to be in.
- You want it as a short brandable address. Google reads .ht as Haiti, and a charter that can reclaim names on a term rule is not where brand equity belongs.
Want the letters without the country signal or the price? Take the same word on a .com, or a .co.uk if your customers are British. See .co.uk pricing.
.ht vs .com: which should you register?
A .com asks nothing of you, costs a fraction of a .ht, carries no geographic signal and cannot be reclaimed because your chosen word turned out to be on a heritage list. Those are four separate advantages and they all point the same way for a business whose connection to Haiti is either nonexistent or aspirational.
Pick .com for anything where the address is the front door and the audience is international. Pick .ht when Haiti is central and specific to what you do, and preferably register the matching .com alongside it and point one at the other. That is sensible practice with any country code you have no national claim to, and here it costs a small fraction of the .ht itself.
.ht domain questions, answered
What people ask us before registering a .ht domain.
Can't find what you're looking for?
Ask us directlyThe charter says the bare .ht root is for large companies wishing to register directly in the root, but it does not list the root among the zones that require documents before a name is confirmed. Those are edu.ht, gouv.ht, rel.ht, med.ht and coop.ht, each needing a ministry or council authorisation. So the large company line is a stated purpose rather than a verified test. If it is a concern for you, com.ht is listed for profit-making companies in general and sits under the same registry.
No. Article 4 of the naming charter is explicit that attribution of a .ht name is open to any applicant, Haitian or not, with or without a legal presence in Haiti. What does follow you is the law: use of the name comes under Haitian legislation first, then the rules and procedures of LACTLD and ICANN. The charter also applies immediately when it changes, and the binding version is whichever is published when your registrar submits the request.
It can, under Article 21. Any name built on what the charter calls a forbidden fundamental term may be pre-empted or reclaimed by the Consortium without compensation, with a period allowed to migrate and technical assistance if you ask for it. That list is wider than most people expect: public order and morals, terms tied to the working of the internet, historic and cultural heritage, international organisations, country and territory names from ISO 3166-1, Haitian towns and communes, professions and regulated titles.
Included with Your .ht 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 .ht domain today
Secure your .ht domain from just £115.99/yr. Free DNS management, email forwarding, and 10GB mailbox included.
