Most shopkeepers assume a domain name is an annual bill. In Nepal, it does not have to be.
The .np domain is free
Nepal's country domain is handled by Mercantile Communications, and .np registrations are free of charge. Not discounted. Free, and renewable.
That is the single most useful fact in this article, and almost nobody outside the tech trade knows it. A shop in Bhaktapur can have yourshop.com.np for nothing while paying a reseller for a .com it did not need.
You register at register.com.np.
What you need before you start
The registry checks that you are who you say you are, so have your papers ready. Broadly:
- For a .com.np, you need proof the business exists. A company registration certificate or a business registration from your local body, matching the name you are asking for.
- For a .name.np, you need your citizenship certificate. This one is for people rather than businesses.
- An email address you actually read. Approval and renewal notices go there, and a domain that lapses because nobody read the mail is a shop that vanishes.
Scans are fine. The name you ask for should relate to the name on the paper, so a shop registered as Naya Bazar Bakery will have an easier time with nayabazarbakery.com.np than with something unrelated.
Approval is by a human, so it is not instant. Allow a few days. If it is refused, the reason is usually that the name does not match the document.
When you should pay for a .com instead
Free is not always right.
Pay for a .com if you sell outside Nepal, or want to. A .com.np reads as local, which is an advantage inside the country and a question mark outside it.
Pay if you want it in minutes. A .com from any international registrar is roughly NPR 1,500 to 2,500 a year, no documents, live in ten minutes. When you are impatient, that is worth the money.
Pay if the name matters more than the money. Some names are gone in .com and free in .com.np, and some the other way round.
The one that is often better than both
A subdomain you get with your shop, free and instantly.
If you are on Pasal, your shop is live at yourshop.pasal.studio the moment you create it. No papers, no waiting, no renewal to forget. Plenty of shops run for a year on that and buy a domain later, once they know the business is working, and nothing breaks when they do: the shop moves and the old address keeps pointing at it.
That is the order we would suggest. Get selling on the free address. Buy the name when the shop has earned it.
The mistake we see most
Somebody buys a domain first, from a reseller, for three years, before they have a shop to put on it. Then the shop takes a different shape, or the name changes, or it never gets built, and there is a bill renewing every year for an address nobody visits.
A domain is a sign above a door. Build the shop first.