.be Domain: Belgium ccTLD Guide

Updated October 2026

.be is the country-code top-level domain for Belgium.

Overview

Extension.be

Country or territory

Belgium

RegionEurope

RegistryDNS Belgium vzw/asbl

Who can registerOpen worldwide

TypeNational country code

Used by Belgian businesses, organisations and individuals, and widely by Dutch, French and German-speaking users serving the Belgian market.

The .be domain was added to the root zone on 5 August 1988 and became active in 1989, administered by Professor Pierre Verbaeten of KU Leuven. The not-for-profit dns.be was founded in February 1999 by ISPA Belgium, BELTUG and Fabrimetal (later Agoria), and it took over registrations in January 2000. It is now called DNS Belgium.

Names are registered directly at the second level, such as example.be, through registered agents. The registry's rules require non-IDN names to be 2 to 63 characters using a to z, 0 to 9 and hyphens, with no hyphen at the start or end or in the third and fourth positions. Internationalised names are supported with a defined set of accented letters.

The registry does not accept names already registered, in quarantine after removal or blocked by a court order. Registrars have reported that WHOIS privacy services are not available for .be. Disputes are handled through alternative dispute resolution, in addition to the courts. DNS Belgium also runs the .vlaanderen and .brussels extensions, added in 2014.

Published figures put .be at 1,746,459 registered names on 10 December 2022. In November 2005 the registry offered free initial registrations with per-person limits; about 17,000 registrations were made on the first day. The federal government has used the domain as part of its logo since 2003.

Who can register

Anyone may register on a first-come, first-served basis through an accredited registrar, with no residency or local presence requirement. Registrants must warrant that their data is accurate and that the name does not infringe third-party rights or break the law.

Rules and prices change. This summary is general information, not legal advice: confirm the current policy with the registry before you buy. The registry's website is www.dnsbelgium.be. The official record for .be is in the IANA root zone database.

Before you buy a .be name

Check the renewal price as well as the first-year price. Our cost calculator shows what a name really costs over time.
Make sure you meet the eligibility rules yourself, without relying on a trustee if you can avoid it.
Search for trademarks and for the same name in .com.
Say the name out loud: will people type it correctly?

Weighing up a specific .be name? TLD.is gives an AI appraisal that explains a name's strengths and weaknesses.