The restricted ones get the attention, but they are the exception. Far more country-code domains will sell to anyone in the world. Here is the practical short list, and the traps at the edges of it.
The large majority of country-code domains have no residency rule, no entity rule and no trademark rule. At most you verify an email address. This guide covers the well-known open ones and, more useful, the handful that look open but are not.
What open means here
Open means the registry does not check who you are or where you are based. You do not need to live in the country, register a company there or hold a local trademark. Some open registries still ask you to confirm an email or agree to their terms, which is not a barrier.
Watch out
Openness is not permanent
Widely used open ccTLDs
Some country domains are sold worldwide as general-purpose names, often for what the letters spell rather than the country they belong to. Commonly used ones with no local-presence requirement include:
- Tech and startup names: .io, .ai, .sh, .co, .dev is a gTLD but sits in the same bucket commercially;
- Personal and media names: .me, .tv, .fm, .cc;
- European domains open to anyone: .nl, .be, .ch, .at, .dk, .se, .pl, .es, and .de, which surprises people and is covered below.
A few genuinely open domains still carry a small catch. .us expects a US connection, a person, organisation or activity in the country, declared at registration. Always read the registry's eligibility page rather than a reseller's checkout copy.
The ones people get wrong
Look open, are not
.eu, .fr, .it and .hu are sold all over the web with no obvious warning, but each requires the holder to be established in the EEA, with small extensions for Switzerland and a couple of microstates. If you are outside that area you need an EEA presence or a trustee.
Look restricted, are not
.de has a reputation as a hard one, but any registrant in the world can hold a .de domain directly. The only practical condition for a holder abroad is naming a German address for legal documents, and only if a court ever asks.
Genuinely hard
.no, .ca and .au mean it. Norway wants a Norwegian identifier, Canada a Canadian presence, Australia an Australian one, and all three check. For these, a trustee or a local company is the only route.
If your target is restricted
Start from the index of restricted domains, which groups every tracked extension by how the restriction works and whether an EEA address is enough. Then:
- read what a trustee service is to understand the arrangement;
- weigh it against setting up an entity in trustee or a local company;
- if you go the trustee way, use the comparison page for your extension to pick one.
Next
Common questions
Is .io safe to build a business on?
It is open to anyone and widely used commercially. The occasional concern is that it is tied to a specific territory whose status could change, which is a long-tail risk rather than a present one. Eligibility to register it is not the issue.
Does open mean cheap?
No. Some of the most open ccTLDs, like .io and .ai, are among the more expensive. Openness is about who may register, not price.
Can an open country domain become restricted later?
Yes. Rules are set by each registry and do change, usually with notice and grandfathering for existing holders. It is a reason to check the registry's current policy rather than an old article.
Last updated September 2026. Registry eligibility rules change without much fanfare. Confirm on the registry's own site before you buy.