.io Domain
The Developer's Domain of Choice
Register your .io domain from just £60.99/yr. Free DNS management, email forwarding, and 10GB mailbox included with every domain.
What is a .io domain?
The .io extension has become the de facto standard for technology startups, developer tools, and SaaS products. Short, memorable, and instantly recognisable in the tech community, .io signals innovation and technical expertise.
Who should register .io?
Tech startups, SaaS products, developer tools, and API platforms.
Why choose .io?
- Industry standard for tech startups
- Short and memorable
- Signals technical credibility
- Strong recognition in developer communities
Who runs .io, and since when
Registry data from the .io 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
- Internet Computer Bureau Limited
- The organisation that runs the extension
- In the root zone since
- 1997
- Delegated 16 September 1997
- Who can register
- Open to anyone worldwide, with no local presence requirement
- Checked against the registry's own policy
- Our price
- £60.99 a year
- Ex VAT. Renews at the same price
How .io became the default for technology brands
The .io domain was delegated in September 1997 as the country-code extension for the British Indian Ocean Territory, a scattering of atolls in the middle of the Indian Ocean with no permanent civilian population. Almost nobody registers a .io because of the territory. They register it because in computing, IO means input and output, and that coincidence turned an obscure ccTLD into the address bar shorthand for a technical product.
Two things then compounded. Short names were still available long after the equivalent .com had gone, and the extension picked up an association with developer tools, APIs, open-source projects and infrastructure companies. That association is real and it still works: a .io address reads as technical to the audience that matters, in a way that .biz or .info never managed. It is also why .io tends to cost several times what a .co.uk does. You are paying for the connotation, not the registry.
The Chagos question, and what it actually means
Any honest .io page in 2026 has to address this. In October 2024 the UK and Mauritius announced that sovereignty over the Chagos Archipelago would pass to Mauritius, and a treaty followed in 2025. Because country-code extensions exist to serve a country or territory, that raised a reasonable question about whether .io continues at all.
The short answer is that nothing has happened to the extension, and nothing can happen quickly. The IO code is assigned by ISO 3166-1, a standard used for passports, currencies and customs as well as domain names, and ICANN follows that standard rather than setting its own view on sovereignty. Even in the worst case, where IO were removed from ISO 3166-1 altogether, ICANN has a published retirement policy that opens a five-year window to phase a domain out, extendable in some circumstances. Compare that with the .su domain, which lost its country in 1991 and is still resolving.
What we would say to a customer weighing it up: .io is fine for a product, a tool or a project. We would think harder about it as the single permanent address for a business you expect to hand to your children, and in that case we would register the matching .co.uk or .com alongside it and redirect. That is sensible practice for any ccTLD you do not have a national claim to, and it costs a few pounds a year.
It is not a foregone conclusion that a change in sovereignty will result in a change to the .io domain, but if that result comes to pass, ICANN policy provides a great deal of time for the community to adapt to any changes.
What that means if you are buying one
Read that as a timescale rather than a promise. The person who runs the root zone is saying the process is slow and public, not that the outcome is settled. For a product launch or a developer tool that is ample warning. For a business address you intend to keep for twenty years, register the .co.uk or .com alongside it and point one at the other.
Is .io the right choice for you?
We would rather sell you the right extension once than the wrong one twice.
.io works well if
- You are naming a developer tool, an API, a SaaS product or an open-source project, and you want the extension itself to signal that.
- The .com you wanted has gone and you would rather have a short, clean .io than a hyphenated or padded .com.
- Your audience is technical and international, so a UK-specific extension would not help you.
- You are launching quickly and need a name that is still available at a sensible length.
Look elsewhere if
- You sell to UK consumers who search locally. A .co.uk carries a geographic signal in Google that .io does not.
- Price matters more than positioning. A .io costs several times a .co.uk every year, for ever.
- You need the address to be obviously permanent, for example on printed material with a long life, or for a regulated entity.
- Your customers are non-technical and will mis-hear it over the phone. Reading out ".io" without spelling it is harder than it sounds.
Selling mainly to UK customers? A .co.uk will do more for local search and cost far less. See .co.uk pricing.
.io vs .com: which should you register?
This is the comparison most .io buyers are actually making, and it usually comes down to availability. A two-word .com in an established category has been taken since the 2000s, so the honest choice is normally between a short .io and a longer, less memorable .com.
Where .com still wins: it is what people type by default, it carries no ties to any country or territory, and it is the safer answer if your audience is not technical. Where .io wins: availability, brevity, and the fact that a technical audience reads it as a signal rather than a compromise.
If the budget stretches to both, register both and redirect one. That removes the whole question, and it is what most funded startups do anyway.
| .io | .com | |
|---|---|---|
| Type | Country-code, used generically | Generic, no country ties |
| In the root zone since | 1997 | 1985 |
| Typical audience | Technical and international | Everyone |
| Short names left | Some, in most categories | Very few without hyphens |
| Annual cost | Premium | Low |
| Long-term certainty | Tied to an ISO country code | Not tied to any territory |
.io domain questions, answered
What people ask us before registering a .io domain.
Can't find what you're looking for?
Ask us directlyNo. The IO code remains in the ISO 3166-1 standard and no retirement process has started. The sovereignty change over the Chagos Archipelago could eventually prompt the ISO committee to review the code, and if it were withdrawn, ICANN policy opens a phase-out window of at least five years. Nothing about that is imminent, and .io registrations and renewals are proceeding normally.
Internet Computer Bureau Limited is the manager recorded in the IANA root zone database, and has been since the extension was delegated on 16 September 1997. IANA is the body that maintains the root zone, so its delegation record is the authoritative answer rather than whatever a reseller states.
No. There is no local presence requirement, no residency test and no documentation to supply. Anyone anywhere can register one, which is a large part of why the extension spread outside its territory in the first place.
It is neutral rather than bad. Google treats .io as a generic extension rather than a geographic one, so it carries no country signal in either direction. The practical consequence is that a .io will not get the local boost in Google UK results that a .co.uk gets, so if most of your customers search from the UK, that is a real point against it.
The registry charges more, and demand from the technology sector sustains it. You are paying for the association the extension carries rather than for anything technical, because the DNS resolution, the DNSSEC support and the record types are identical to any other extension. Check the price on this page against a .co.uk before you commit, and remember it recurs every year.
Yes. You will need the authorisation code from your current registrar and the domain must be unlocked and more than 60 days old. A .io transfer usually completes within a few days rather than the near-instant IPS tag change a .uk domain gets. Your existing registration period carries over and the transfer adds a year to it.
Included with Your .io 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 Technology Domains Extensions
Register your .io domain today
Secure your .io domain from just £60.99/yr. Free DNS management, email forwarding, and 10GB mailbox included.
