Trustee service or a local company: which one for a restricted domain?

Both routes get you a restricted country-code domain. One is a contract you can set up this week. The other is a business you have to run. The right choice mostly comes down to whether you are trading in the country.

Depends.The verdict

For a redirect, a landing page or a market test, use a trustee. It is cheap, it is quick, and the dependency does not matter much for a site that is not load-bearing. If you are invoicing customers in the country, or the domain is central to the business, register a local entity and hold the domain yourself.

The trustee route

A trustee service puts a local company on the registry record as the holder, and a contract keeps the control with you. Set-up is a matter of days, the cost is an annual fee on top of the domain, and there is nothing to file and no accounts to keep.

The catch is the dependency. Your hold on the domain is only as good as the contract and the trustee's cooperation, and moving the domain later means the trustee has to release something the record says is theirs. Whether you own the domain in any real sense is covered in its own guide.

The local company route

Registering an entity in the country gives you the local identifier the registry wants, and then you are the holder, in your own name, with no middleman. Examples:

A Norwegian AS or NUF gives you an organisation number and full eligibility for a .no domain, up to a hundred of them.
An Australian company or an ABN meets the presence rule for a .au domain.
A Canadian corporation satisfies the .ca presence requirement.

The cost is real: an incorporation fee, sometimes share capital, and then ongoing accounting and filing whether or not the company does anything. For a single redirect that is a lot of overhead. For a business that is trading there anyway, it is overhead you already carry.

A five-year view

Set the two routes side by side over the time you are likely to hold the domain.

Trustee

Local company

Time to set up

Days

Weeks

Up-front cost

Low

Incorporation, sometimes share capital

Yearly cost

Trustee fee plus the domain

Accounting and filing, plus the domain

Ongoing admin

None

Bookkeeping, annual accounts, tax returns

On the registry record

The trustee

You

To leave or unwind

Depends on the trustee's cooperation

Close the company when you are done

Note

The numbers that decide it

A trustee usually wins on cost for the first few years. A company can pull level once you factor in that you would be running it anyway for the business, or that you want several of the country's domains rather than one.

Which one for which situation

Choose a trustee if

the domain is a redirect, a landing page or a market test;
you want one or two of the country's domains, not a portfolio;
you are not otherwise doing business in the country;
you want to be live this week.

Choose a local company if

you are invoicing or employing in the country;
the domain is the primary address of the business;
you want more than a handful of that country's domains;
you cannot accept that your hold on the domain depends on a third party.

The in-between options

Using a resident's personal ID. Some registries let an individual hold a few domains, and it can be tempting to ask a friend in the country. It is legal, but it puts a business asset inside someone's private affairs with no contract and no recourse. Not advisable for anything commercial.

Buying an existing local entity. Occasionally worth it if a dormant company is cheap and clean, but you inherit its history and its filing obligations from day one.

An EEA entity for the European domains. If your target is .eu, .fr, .it or .hu, a company anywhere in the EEA is enough, so you are not tied to the specific country. See the domains an EEA address unlocks.

Leaving a trustee serviceIf you start with a trustee and later set up a company, this is the move-out.Read this Domains an EEA address unlocksWhere an EEA company removes the problem for four extensions at once.Read this Can a foreigner register a .no domain?The Norwegian entity route and the trustee route, side by side.Read this Trustee provider directoryIf you go the trustee way, start here.Read this

Common questions

What is the cheapest way to hold a restricted domain?

Over one or two years, almost always a trustee, and within trustees the spread is wide, so the comparison pages matter. Over a long horizon with several domains, a local company can be cheaper per domain, but only if you were going to carry the company anyway.

Can I start with a trustee and switch to a company later?

Yes, and many people do. Once your company gives you the local identifier, you move the domain into its name. How smooth that is depends on the trustee's contract, which is why the exit guide is worth reading before you sign up.

Does one local company let me hold other countries' domains?

Only where the rules line up. An EEA company covers the four European extensions above. A Norwegian company does nothing for .ca or .au, which want their own national presence.

Last updated September 2026. Company costs and registry rules change. Check the current position with the registry and a local accountant before committing.

Trustee service, or a local company?