Here you will find all the information related to .ch domains.
.ch domains belong to Switzerland. The registration of these domains is carried out through Hexonet.
Reasons to register a .ch domain
These domains are ideal if you have a presence in Switzerland and wish to use them commercially or personally.
Registering a .ch domain
To register a .ch domain, you can go to our website. You have a tutorial that explains the domain registration steps.
Restrictions for registering .ch domains:
- .ch domains can have a maximum of 63 characters and a minimum of 3.
- Any natural or legal person is entitled to obtain the domain.
- Accepted characters for registration are: a–z, 0–9 and hyphen "-". The hyphen cannot appear at the beginning or end of the name.
- .ch domains can only be registered for a maximum of 1 year and expire on the penultimate day of the month in which they were registered.
Restrictions for .ch domain renewals:
- A .ch domain can be renewed for a 1-year period only, and only starting from 1 month before its expiration.
Restrictions for .ch domain transfers:
- Expired .ch domains cannot be transferred.
- A registered .ch domain can be transferred at any time during its lifecycle.
- Domain contacts do not change during a transfer.
- To approve the transfer of a .ch domain, the Authcode is required. Once the transfer is completed, the expiration date is reset and begins again from the new date plus 1 year.
- The transfer is processed immediately without the need to accept any validation email.
Because domains have an expiration date, they go through various lifecycle phases. This lifecycle is established by ICANN, the entity responsible for domain regulations. The following graphic shows the lifecycle of a .ch domain and its states.
- Available domain: the domain has not yet been registered, therefore it is available. When a registration request is submitted, it will be assigned to the first request received.
- Registered domain: when a request is submitted for an available domain, it is assigned to the requester. Registration can be requested for a period of 1 year.
- Active domain: the domain will remain active for the period for which it was registered. During this time, the registration period can be extended to prevent expiration.
- Redemption period: this period lasts 14 days. The domain has been deleted but can still be restored and renewed at a higher cost than a normal renewal.
- Pending delete: the domain can no longer be restored and will be released.
Registering domains with special characters (IDN)
It is possible to register .ch domains using special characters from the following character sets: Latin, Greek and Cyrillic. For Spanish use, the Latin set allows us to register ñ, á, é, í, ï, ó, ú and ü. When registering an IDN domain, it is not necessary to own the same domain without special characters. For example, someone may own lópez.ch and someone else lopez.ch; they are separate domains.
How to register an IDN .ch domain?
You must request the domain registration directly with the special character from the domain registration page. The system will check availability and allow you to complete the registration.
Transferring IDN domains
You can transfer your .ch domain registered with another provider through our domain transfer page. Enter the .ch domain name including the special character. The system will indicate whether it is transferable.