How to Register a .az Domain in Azerbaijan

Registering a domain in Azerbaijan comes down to five steps: pick a TLD, check availability, submit either a company tax ID (VÖEN) or a passport copy through an accredited registrar, pay the annual fee, and wait for activation — usually about 24 hours for .az, minutes for international TLDs. After that, the only remaining step is pointing the domain at your hosting so the site actually goes live. Below is the full process, the real costs, and the mistakes that cause the most damage later.

What is a .az domain, and when should you use one?

.az is Azerbaijan's country-code top-level domain (ccTLD), operated under the AzNIC registry. If your business serves the Azerbaijani market specifically — local customers, searches phrased around Baku or Azerbaijan — a .az domain signals local legitimacy and gives a small edge for local search intent. If you also serve an international audience or the diaspora, registering both .az and .com and redirecting one to the other is the safer route: it protects your brand name in both local and global search.

What documents do you actually need?

The paperwork for a .az domain is genuinely simple:

• Legal entities (companies) — a VÖEN (tax identification number).
• Individuals — a copy of a national ID or passport.

There's no notarisation requirement or lengthy documentation bundle — which makes the process noticeably faster than ccTLD registration in many other countries.

Where to register: local vs. international registrars

.az domains can only be registered through accredited registrars. Online.az is one of the long-established, officially recognised .az registrars in this market. For international TLDs (.com, .net, .org and similar), registration typically goes through international registrars such as Namecheap.

If you're registering through an agency as part of a website build, the domain is often set up under the agency's existing registrar account rather than a brand-new one in your name — this speeds things up, but it makes it important to confirm upfront whose account actually owns and controls the domain (more on that below).

What does it actually cost?

Pricing varies by registrar, TLD and whether it's bundled with a managed hosting package:

Domain type	Typical annual cost
.az / .com.az / .net.az	~30–80 AZN (varies by registrar)
.com / .net / .org	~$10–15
Newer TLDs (.io, .app, .studio, .tech)	~$30–80
Premium (short, single-word) domains	hundreds to thousands of dollars on the secondary market

.az registration can run from 1 to 10 years — choosing a longer term is a simple way to avoid an accidentally lapsed renewal.

.az or .com — which one should you pick?

Short answer: if your customers are exclusively in Azerbaijan, .az is sufficient and gives you a local-trust edge. If you have export ambitions, diaspora customers, or international partners, keeping .com alongside it is the safer choice — it stops someone else from registering your brand name on the more globally recognised TLD. Registering both and redirecting one to the other is the usual recommendation.

Connecting your domain to hosting

Once registered, a domain still needs to be pointed at something — its DNS records need to resolve to your hosting server's IP address. This is normally done with an A record for the root domain and CNAME records for subdomains like www, mail or blog. If you haven't chosen hosting yet, our complete guide to choosing hosting in Azerbaijan breaks down shared, VPS, cloud and dedicated hosting, real local and international pricing, and why Cloudflare's CDN is close to mandatory for any modern site.

How to actually choose a good domain name

A strong domain name tends to satisfy a few criteria:

• Length — 6–14 characters is the practical sweet spot.
• Ease of dictation — it should survive being read out over the phone. Avoid hyphens and numbers where possible.
• Brand fit — it should reflect your brand name rather than a generic keyword. A keyword-stuffed domain (like "bakuhotels.az") used to carry real SEO weight 15 years ago; brand strength matters far more today.
• Trademark check — verify the name isn't already protected as a trademark in Azerbaijan before you register.

Domain security: WHOIS privacy and auto-renewal

A few settings are worth switching on immediately after registration:

• WHOIS privacy — hides your personal contact details from public WHOIS lookups, cutting down spam and phishing.
• Registrar lock — blocks unauthorised transfer attempts.
• Auto-renewal — as long as the card on file is valid, the domain never lapses by accident.
• Two-factor authentication (2FA) — protects the registrar account itself from takeover.

Transferring a domain to a new registrar

If your domain is already registered elsewhere and you want to consolidate management: you request an EPP transfer code from the current registrar, the transfer is initiated (this typically adds one year to the registration term automatically), and within 5–7 days the domain is fully under the new registrar's management — DNS, WHOIS and renewal included — with no downtime for the live site.

What happens if you forget to renew?

This is the single most common problem for small businesses. After expiry there's usually a 30–45 day grace period during which renewal is still available at the standard price. Miss that window too, and the domain enters a redemption period where recovery costs jump sharply. After that, it goes back on the open market and anyone can register it. The practical consequence: your site can disappear overnight, business email stops working, and a competitor could pick up your brand name. Keeping auto-renewal switched on removes this risk entirely.

The most common mistakes

1. Registering the domain under an employee's or contractor's personal account. If the relationship ends badly, you can lose access to your own domain. It should always sit in an account the company itself controls.
2. Registering only .az and leaving .com unclaimed. As a brand grows, someone else can register the same name on .com.
3. Skipping WHOIS privacy. The predictable result is a phone number and inbox full of spam.
4. Turning off auto-renewal or leaving an expired card on file. This is the most common cause of a site "disappearing" with no warning.
5. Registering the domain but delaying the hosting connection. The domain activates, but the site still doesn't show up — because the DNS records were never configured.

Frequently asked questions

Can I register a .az domain as an individual, not a company? Yes — individuals can register with a national ID or passport; a company registration isn't required.

How many TLDs can I register at once? There's no limit — registering at least .az and .com in parallel is the practical recommendation for protecting a brand.

Who actually administers .az domains? Accredited registrars (such as Online.az) handle the technical registration under the AzNIC registry.

Bottom line

Registering a .az domain is genuinely straightforward — the right documents, a reliable registrar and a few days are all it takes. The real work starts afterwards: pointing the domain at hosting, configuring DNS, switching on the security settings, and not letting long-term renewal slip. Through our domain registration service, ONE Studio registers .az and international domains, configures DNS against your hosting, and tracks renewals for the life of the domain — so it never lapses unnoticed.