.wales Domain
Wales in English, Online for the World
Register your .wales domain from just £22.99/yr. Free DNS management, email forwarding, and 10GB mailbox included, plus free Nominet WHOIS privacy for UK individuals.
What is a .wales domain?
The .wales domain is the English-language counterpart to .cymru, giving Welsh businesses a domain that's accessible to non-Welsh speakers. Nominet runs it, and businesses, tourism operators and organisations across Wales use it. Like .cymru it is a generic extension rather than part of the .uk namespace, so a transfer uses an authorisation code and the free .uk WHOIS privacy does not apply. If your customers are English-speaking tourists visiting Snowdonia or house-buyers relocating to Pembrokeshire, .wales speaks their language.
Who should register .wales?
Welsh businesses, tourism operators, Welsh Government bodies, and organisations based in or targeting Wales.
Why choose .wales?
- English-language Welsh identity
- Managed by Nominet
- Accessible to international audiences
- Pairs with .cymru for bilingual branding
Who runs .wales, and since when
Registry data from the .wales 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
- Nominet UK
- The organisation that runs the extension
- In the root zone since
- 2014
- Delegated 31 July 2014
- Who can register
- Open to anyone worldwide, with no requirement to be based in Wales
- Checked against the registry's own policy
- Our price
- £22.99 a year
- Ex VAT. Renews at the same price
Choosing .wales when your customers do not read Welsh
If you are only registering one half of the pair, the deciding question is which language your customers read in, not which one you feel more strongly about. .wales is the English-facing half. It says the same thing as .cymru to a different reader, and it can be given out over the phone without a spelling lesson, which for a business selling to visitors, incomers and buyers from outside Wales is not a trivial advantage.
Both extensions are generic top-level domains operated by Nominet under registry agreements with ICANN dated 8 May 2014. Neither carries an eligibility rule. There is no residence requirement, no language test and no community restriction, so anyone anywhere can register a .wales. Nominet supports internationalised domain names here as it does on .cymru, and publishes the permitted characters at IANA.
The pattern to copy is the Welsh Government one: gov.wales in English, llyw.cymru in Welsh, the same organisation addressed properly in both languages. Nominet encourages exactly that by discounting the second registration at wholesale when the same registrant takes a .cymru and a .wales within thirty days of each other, matched on name and address, with no requirement that the names in front of the dot are the same.
Two honest caveats, both of which follow from these being generic extensions rather than part of .uk. Google reads no country into .wales the way it does with .co.uk, so the Welsh association is a signal to people rather than to a search engine. And none of the Nominet .uk conveniences carry across: transfers use an authorisation code and take the usual few days rather than moving near instantly on an IPS tag, and WHOIS privacy is a paid add-on rather than the free arrangement a UK individual gets on a .uk domain.
Is .wales the right choice for you?
We would rather sell you the right extension once than the wrong one twice.
.wales works well if
- Your customers are English-speaking visitors, tourists, buyers or people relocating, and you want a Welsh identity they can read at a glance.
- You are running a bilingual organisation and want the English side of the site on an address that matches the language on the page.
- You are a tourism, hospitality or property business where being in Wales is part of the offer rather than an administrative detail.
- The .co.uk you wanted has gone and .wales gives you the clean name back with something extra attached to it.
Look elsewhere if
- You are relying on the extension to lift you in Google. It is a generic extension with no country signal, and a .co.uk costs less than half as much every year.
- You want the Nominet .uk conveniences. Transfers here take the usual few days rather than moving on an IPS tag, and WHOIS privacy is a paid add-on.
- Your market is the whole of Britain. An address that names one nation narrows the audience, which is the point when it is deliberate and a cost when it is not.
Publishing in Welsh for a Welsh-speaking audience? The .cymru half of the pair is the one that matches your readers. See .cymru pricing.
.wales vs .co.uk: which should you register?
This is the comparison a Welsh business actually makes, and the two extensions do not overlap as much as it first appears. A .co.uk is an address. A .wales is a statement about where you are.
.co.uk wins on price, on the UK association Google reads automatically, on transfer speed because .uk domains move on an IPS tag rather than an authorisation code, and on privacy, since Nominet rules keep a UK individual registrant name and address out of the public WHOIS at no charge. .wales wins on availability and on meaning: it tells a visitor something true before they have read a word of your copy.
The pattern that works is holding both. Keep the .co.uk as the address on invoices and in search, use the .wales on signage, vehicles and campaigns, and point one at the other. If you also publish in Welsh, take the .cymru at the same time and let Nominet apply the pairing discount.
| .wales | .co.uk | |
|---|---|---|
| Type | Generic | UK country-code |
| Registry | Nominet UK | Nominet UK |
| Google location cue | None | United Kingdom |
| Transfer speed | Hours to a few days | Near instant |
| WHOIS privacy | Paid add-on | Free for UK individuals |
.wales domain questions, answered
What people ask us before registering a .wales domain.
Can't find what you're looking for?
Ask us directlyNo. .wales is an open generic top-level domain with no residence rule, no language test and no community restriction, run by Nominet under an ICANN registry agreement dated 8 May 2014. Anyone in the world can register one. The practical limit is credibility rather than policy: an address naming a country you have no connection to invites the obvious question from the first customer who notices.
The language, and nothing else that matters. Both are run by Nominet, both went live under registry agreements dated 8 May 2014, both are open to anyone, and both cost the same with us. .wales is the English form and .cymru the Welsh one. The Welsh Government uses both in exactly that way, at gov.wales and llyw.cymru. If your audience is bilingual, take the pair, because Nominet discounts the second registration at wholesale when both are registered by the same registrant within thirty days.
No, and it is worth being clear about it. Google reads .co.uk as a UK site automatically. .wales is a generic extension, so no country association comes with it, and no ranking benefit follows from the word itself. Local visibility comes from your content, your Google Business Profile and links from Welsh sites. Choose .wales because it means something to the people reading it, and hold a .co.uk alongside it if search traffic matters to the business.
No. A .uk domain moves on an IPS tag change, which is why .co.uk transfers to us are usually near instant. .wales and .cymru are generic extensions, so they transfer with an authorisation code from your current registrar, with the domain unlocked, and the process typically takes hours to a few days rather than minutes. Whatever is left on the current term comes across and a year is added on completion, so nothing is lost apart from the speed.
Included with Your .wales 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 UK Domains Extensions
Register your .wales domain today
Secure your .wales domain from just £22.99/yr. Free DNS management, email forwarding, and 10GB mailbox included.
