.net Domain
A Trusted Domain for Networks & Services
Register your .net domain from just £15.99/yr. Free DNS management, email forwarding, and 10GB mailbox included with every domain.
What is a .net domain?
Originally created for network infrastructure, .net has evolved into a versatile and respected domain extension. It's a strong alternative when .com isn't available, and is particularly popular with technology companies, internet services, and SaaS providers.
Who should register .net?
Technology companies, internet services, and businesses seeking a credible .com alternative.
Why choose .net?
- Established since 1985
- Popular with tech and internet businesses
- Strong alternative to .com
- Globally recognised and trusted
Who runs .net, and since when
Registry data from the .net 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
- Generic (gTLD)
- Registry operator
- VeriSign Global Registry Services
- The organisation that runs the extension
- In the root zone since
- 1985
- Delegated 1 January 1985
- Who can register
- Open to anyone worldwide, despite the network-operator purpose it was created for
- Checked against the registry's own policy
- Our price
- £15.99 a year
- Ex VAT. Renews at the same price
How .net went from network operators to everyone
When Jon Postel and Joyce Reynolds set out the first top-level domains in RFC 920 in October 1984, .net was not on the list. The proposal named arpa, com, edu, gov, mil and org, plus the two-letter country codes from ISO 3166. IANA's own account of the period records that by the time the domains were actually implemented in January 1985, an extra one called net had been added. So .net is at once among the oldest endings on the internet and an afterthought, added between the plan and the build.
Ten years later Postel wrote down what it was for, in RFC 1591, and the definition is narrower than almost anyone now assumes. Nothing was ever built to enforce it. There has never been an eligibility check on a .net, never a licence to hold or a document to supply, and by the mid-1990s the extension was general purpose in everything but the paperwork. Two groups use it today: infrastructure and technical services, where the heritage reads as apt rather than as a compromise, and the much larger group whose .com was gone.
What the 2023 registry agreement means for your renewals
Verisign's current contract with ICANN for .net took effect on 1 July 2023 and runs to 30 June 2029. Section 7.3 puts a ceiling on the registry service fee: it may not exceed the highest fee charged in the previous calendar year multiplied by 1.10. Ten per cent a year, with at least six months' notice to registrars before any rise, and an obligation to keep offering registrations of up to ten years, so a long registration locks today's price.
A ceiling that compounds is still a ceiling, and it is more than .info or .live have, because the base agreement those run under sets no maximum at all. It is also looser than .com, where the same registry may raise its maximum price by seven per cent, and only in four years out of every six. A .net can therefore climb faster than the .com you were priced out of.
One technical detail with a practical edge: the agreement records .net as a thin registry. Verisign publishes the sponsoring registrar and the domain status, while your contact details sit with the registrar, which changes where a privacy service applies rather than whether you need one. Our steer is unromantic. Look at the .com first, because that is still what people type. If it has gone and your audience is technical or international, .net is a sound choice. If your customers are British and searching locally, the .co.uk does more and costs less.
This domain is intended to hold only the computers of network providers, that is the NIC and NOC computers, the administrative computers, and the network node computers. The customers of the network provider would have domain names of their own (not in the NET TLD).
What that means if you are buying one
That rule was never enforced and is not enforced now, so read it as history rather than a warning. Its useful residue is the association: a hosting company, an ISP or a network monitoring tool on a .net still reads as being where it belongs, which is worth something a .biz or a .info cannot offer.
Is .net the right choice for you?
We would rather sell you the right extension once than the wrong one twice.
.net works well if
- The .com you wanted has gone, and you would rather have a clean name on an extension from 1985 than a hyphenated .com.
- You run hosting, an ISP, a network service, a technical community or developer infrastructure, where the heritage reads as apt rather than second choice.
- You want a price ceiling in writing. The ICANN contract caps the registry increase at ten per cent a year and requires six months of notice.
- Your audience is spread across several countries and you need an address with no nationality attached to it.
Look elsewhere if
- Somebody else owns the matching .com and trades in your category. Most people type .com by reflex, and you will hand them traffic daily.
- You sell to UK consumers who search locally. Google treats .net as generic, so it carries none of the UK signal a .co.uk gives you.
- You are naming a consumer brand from scratch. To many people .net now reads as the address you settled for, and that is hard to argue with.
- You want the smallest annual bill. Check this page against the .co.uk price first, because a .net is not the budget option people assume.
Before you settle for the .net, check whether the .com is still free. It is what people type, and it usually costs about the same. See .com pricing.
.net vs .com: which should you register?
Almost nobody chooses .net over .com on the merits. The choice happens because the .com is taken, so the honest question is not which extension is better but whether a short clean name on .net beats a longer, more awkward name on .com. Usually it does.
The same company runs both. Verisign holds the registry contract for .com and for .net, both are thin registries, both are open to anyone, and neither carries a geographic signal to Google. Where they differ is habit: a stranger who half-remembers your name types .com, and whatever sits there gets the visit. That is the whole cost of choosing .net.
Price protection cuts the other way from what people expect. The .com agreement lets Verisign raise its maximum price by seven per cent, and only in four years out of every six. The .net agreement allows ten per cent every year, which argues for a long registration rather than annual renewals.
| .net | .com | |
|---|---|---|
| In the 1984 proposal | No, added at implementation | Yes |
| Original stated purpose | Network providers | Commercial entities |
| Registry operator | Verisign | Verisign |
| Registry price ceiling | 10% a year | 7%, in four years out of six |
| What visitors type | Rarely by reflex | Almost always |
| Short names still free | Some, in most categories | Very few without hyphens |
.net domain questions, answered
What people ask us before registering a .net domain.
Can't find what you're looking for?
Ask us directlyTechnically identical, commercially not quite. The same registry operates both, the DNS behaves the same way, and Google treats both as generic extensions with no country signal and no ranking difference. The gap is in what people type. A visitor who half-remembers your name reaches for .com, so if a competitor holds it you lose those visits for good. Where the .com is parked, that cost is small.
No. RFC 1591 said in 1994 that .net was intended for the computers of network providers, but that was a statement of intent with no machinery behind it, and it has never been checked. Anyone anywhere can register a .net with no documents, no company registration and no residency test. The heritage survives as an association, which is why network tools still look at home on one.
No, it is neutral. Google treats .net as a generic top-level domain, so it gets no boost and no penalty from the ending. What it does not get is a geographic signal. Google states that a country-code extension is a strong indication a site is aimed at that country, and .net is not one, so it starts a UK search without something a .co.uk has free.
Because the contract permits it. Section 7.3 of Verisign's registry agreement with ICANN lets the registry service fee rise to the highest fee charged in the previous calendar year multiplied by 1.10, a ceiling of ten per cent a year, on six months' notice to registrars. The same section requires registrations of up to ten years, so a multi-year renewal fixes the price against the next increase.
Yes, as a paid add-on. Free privacy is a .uk arrangement only, where Nominet does not publish a UK individual registrant's name and address by default. .net works differently: the agreement records it as a thin registry, so Verisign itself publishes only the sponsoring registrar and the domain status, and your contact details sit with the registrar. A privacy service therefore operates at registrar level.
Usually a few days rather than minutes. You need the authorisation code from your current registrar, the domain has to be unlocked, and it must be more than 60 days past registration or a previous transfer. Your existing registration period carries over and the transfer adds a year. A .uk domain moves almost immediately, being only an IPS tag change, so plan a .net move a week ahead.
Included with Your .net 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 .net domain today
Secure your .net domain from just £15.99/yr. Free DNS management, email forwarding, and 10GB mailbox included.
