.wales is the internet address for Wales, open to anyone who wants to show a Welsh connection, and it supports the accented letters of the Welsh language. It's a generic top-level domain run by Nominet, the same not-for-profit registry that manages .uk.
We're PD Hosting, a London-based company accredited by Nominet as a registrar. We register .wales names, verify the owner's email address as ICANN's rules require, and keep DNS, renewals and reminders together in one client area. Search for your .wales name below.
Per year. Compare every extension on our domain pricing page.
What is a .wales domain?
- Type
- A geographic generic top-level domain (gTLD), approved by ICANN, rather than a country code. Source
- Registry
- Nominet UK, which has managed .wales since its delegation on 7 August 2014. Source
- Who may register
- Individuals, companies and organisations. There's no Welsh address or residency requirement. Source
- Welsh characters
- Names may use letters with Welsh diacritics such as â, ê, ŵ and ŷ. Accented and unaccented spellings are treated as one: once a name is registered, its other variants are blocked for everyone else. Source
- Email verification
- As an ICANN gTLD, the owner must confirm their email address after registering or changing owner. We send the request; if it isn't confirmed within 15 days, the name has to be suspended until it is. Source
- Public WHOIS
- Personal data in gTLD registration records is redacted from public lookups under ICANN's Registration Data Policy. Source
- Transfers
- Between registrars with an authorisation (EPP) code. Source
Facts checked against the registry on 9 November 2026.
Who a .wales domain suits
A .wales address suits anyone who wants their Welsh roots to be the first thing a visitor notices: a holiday cottage on the Llŷn peninsula, a Cardiff restaurant, a Swansea solicitor's practice, a Snowdonia walking guide, a wool mill selling online. Tourism businesses in particular find that the ending does some of the selling, because it places them in Wales before the page has even loaded.
It's equally at home with festivals, rugby and choir societies, Welsh-language publishers, artists and the Welsh diaspora abroad. Because the registry allows proper Welsh spellings, a business called Caffi'r Môr or a town such as Llanelwy can be written as Welsh speakers would expect.
- Tourism, hospitality and holiday-let websites
- Businesses that trade on being Welsh
- Bilingual sites using correct Welsh spelling
- Clubs, festivals and cultural organisations
- Email addresses for businesses based in Wales
Benefits of a .wales domain
A clear sense of place
Visitors know straight away that you're in Wales or proud of a connection to it, which a .co.uk or .com can't tell them.
Written the Welsh way
The registry supports the Welsh diacritics, so names can carry a to bach (ŵ, ŷ) or other accents instead of an approximate spelling.
Protection against look-alikes
When you register a name, all its accented and unaccented variants are blocked for others, which helps prevent phishing sites that differ from yours by a single accent.
Good names are still available
Far fewer .wales names are taken than .co.uk names, so short, descriptive addresses for a town, trade or attraction are often free.
Welsh accents and mirrored names
Most domain extensions only allow plain a–z letters. Nominet worked with the Welsh Language Commissioner's office so that .wales and .cymru could support Welsh spellings properly. Names may include the accented vowels Welsh uses, including the circumflex (to bach) on w and y.
To stop confusion, the registry treats every accented spelling as a variant of the plain one. If you register cafe.wales, nobody else can register café.wales or càfe.wales, and the reverse is true. The owner may then add one variant, called a mirror, through the same registrar, and Nominet doesn't charge for it. The mirror has no separate record: it follows the original's owner, nameservers, renewal and transfer automatically. If your original has no accents, you can pick which accented spelling to mirror; if it does, the mirror can only be the unaccented form.
In practice, register the spelling you'll print and promote, and think about the other one people will type. Browsers display accented names correctly, but many people type without accents on an English keyboard, so a mirror on the plain spelling means both versions reach you. If you'd like one, open a ticket after registering and we'll tell you whether we can add it for your name.
.wales pros and cons
Works well if
- Your business, venue or organisation is based in Wales
- Your customers choose you partly because you're Welsh
- You want your domain spelt correctly in Welsh
- The .co.uk you wanted is taken but the .wales is free
Look elsewhere if
- You serve the whole of the UK: a .co.uk or .uk reads as national rather than regional
- You expect Google to favour you in Wales because of the ending: it treats .wales as a generic domain
- You want the lowest running cost: .uk names renew for less
.wales compared with similar extensions
| Extension | Best for | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|
| .wales | Businesses and groups with a Welsh identity | Open to all; supports Welsh accents. |
| .co.uk | Businesses selling across the UK | The most familiar British ending, with no regional flavour. |
| .uk | Short national brands | Same registry, country-wide identity. |
| .london | Businesses in or about the capital | The equivalent city ending for London, with its own nexus rule. |
Register your .wales domain
- Search for the name you want below.
- Add it to your basket and choose how many years to register it for.
- Check out. Your domain is registered straight away and appears in your client area, ready to point at your website and email.
Every domain includes DNS management, DNS backup and restore, and free mail forwarding.
.wales questions
Do I have to live in Wales to register a .wales?
No. Individuals, companies and organisations anywhere can register a .wales. It's meant for people and businesses who want to be associated with Wales, but there's no address test.
Can a .wales name include Welsh accents?
Yes. The registry supports the accented vowels used in Welsh, including ŵ and ŷ. An accented name and its unaccented spelling are treated as the same name, so registering one blocks the others, and you may add one variant as a mirror.
Will a .wales help me rank in Welsh searches?
Not directly. Google has said it treats city and region domains such as .london and .bayern as generic top-level domains, and keywords in the ending don't give an advantage. Local rankings depend on your content, your Google Business Profile and links from other Welsh sites.
Is .wales the same as .cymru?
They're sister extensions from the same registry, one in English and one in Welsh, with the same policies. They're separate registrations, so owning one doesn't give you the other. We currently sell .wales.
Does a .wales cost more after the first year?
Yes, renewal is higher than the introductory first-year price. A .wales renews at £27.95 a year with us, and we send reminders before it's due.
Why have I been asked to confirm my email after registering a .wales?
ICANN requires registrars to verify a gTLD owner's email address after a new registration or a change of owner. Click the link in our message; if it isn't confirmed within 15 days, the domain must be suspended until it is.
Sources: IANA .wales record · Nominet .wales and .cymru IDN policy · Our home online: how the domains work · ICANN 2013 RAA, WHOIS Accuracy Program Specification · Google: handling of new top-level domains
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