How to register a domain in India, step by step

Before you start: decide who owns the domain

A domain belongs to whoever is named as the registrant. For a business, that should be the business itself or its proprietor, and not the web designer, an employee or a relative who happens to place the order. Disputes over who owns a company’s domain usually begin with this one field, and they are hard to fix once the person named has left.

Use an email address that will outlast any one employee and that you can always read. Registries and registrars send verification, renewal and transfer messages to it, and a missed message can put the domain on hold.

Step 1: Search the name and pick an extension

Type the name you want into a domain search and try a few variations. Keep it short, easy to spell aloud and free of hyphens if you can. For an Indian business, .in and .co.in are natural choices; .com remains the best-known extension worldwide. Our guide to choosing an extension goes into detail, and if the name is brand-critical it is sensible to register more than one and point the extras at your main site.

If your exact name is taken, a WHOIS lookup shows the domain’s registration and expiry dates, though owner details are often hidden. Before settling on a brand name, also search the public trade mark records on the IP India website, because owning a domain gives you no right to someone else’s registered mark.

Step 2: Choose the term and any add-ons

Add the domain to your cart, and look at these before moving on:

• Registration term: you can pay for more than one year, which delays the first renewal
• Renewal price for the same extension, shown on our pricing page, because that is what you will pay every year after this
• Domain Protect+, an optional yearly add-on that hides your name, contact number and address from public WHOIS on eligible extensions
• DNS, which is included free, so you do not need to buy anything extra to point the domain at a website

Step 3: Enter the registrant details accurately

At checkout you enter the name, company, address, email and contact number that are registered with the domain registry as the owner. They are hidden publicly when privacy is on, but the registry still holds them. Use your real legal name or registered company name, spelled the way it appears on your documents. Your GSTIN, if you have one, goes on the invoice.

Check the spelling of the domain itself now as well. All purchases are final, and a domain cannot be renamed after registration: a typo means buying a new one.

Step 4: For .in domains, confirm the e-KYC terms

The .in family covers .in, .co.in, .net.in, .org.in, .firm.in, .gen.in, .ind.in and .भारत. New registrations are limited to individuals and organisations based in India, so our checkout will not accept an order if the registrant country is outside India. You also tick a box confirming that you are based in India, that the registrant details match your ID, and that you will complete the registry’s e-KYC when its email arrives.

If you are abroad and want an Indian presence, register a .com or similar instead, or have your Indian company or partner hold the .in domain in its own name. Do not enter an invented Indian address to get past the check.

Step 5: Pay, and keep your invoice

You can pay by UPI, card or net banking, in rupees. GST is added at checkout, and a tax invoice is issued for the order, with your GSTIN on it if you entered one, so a registered business can claim input credit. Everything you buy is tied to your account, where you later manage DNS and nameservers and see renewal dates.

Step 6: Complete the verification email

For a .in domain, the .IN Registry (NIXI) emails a verification link to the registrant email after registration. Open it and complete identity verification with Aadhaar or DigiLocker within the time the email gives you. The name and address on the domain have to match the ID you use. A .in domain that is not verified can be put on hold, and then your website and email stop working. If you do not see the message, check spam, then raise a ticket.

For .com and other global extensions, the registrant usually receives an email asking them to confirm the address. Click the link when it arrives. If it is ignored for around 15 days, the domain can be suspended until you confirm it.

Step 7: Point the domain at your website and email

A registered domain does nothing on its own until DNS tells the internet where to send visitors and mail. Choose one of these approaches:

• Change the nameservers to the ones your hosting provider gives you, so DNS is managed on the hosting server
• Keep the current nameservers and add an A record for the root and for www, pointing to the server’s IP address
• Add MX, SPF, DKIM and DMARC records for email, wherever DNS is managed
• Allow time for changes to spread, which can take from minutes to about 48 hours for nameserver changes

Keep the domain safe after registration

Keep the transfer lock on unless you are moving the domain deliberately. Make sure more than one person knows the renewal date, and keep the registrant email working: an expired domain takes your website and every mailbox on it down at the same time, and if nobody renews it during the grace period, someone else can eventually register it. Update the registrant details whenever your company name or address changes, and for a .in domain keep them matching your verified ID.

If a domain you already own is with another registrar, you do not need to register it again: unlock it, get the authorisation code and transfer it. Questions about any of these steps can go in a support ticket, answered Monday to Friday, 10:00 to 19:00 IST.