Registering a .sa domain, step by step
From the registration requirements to pointing the domain at your hosting, through the steps you actually go through and the documents they need.
By Salwa Al-Otaibi, reviewed by Nora Al-Mutairi · Published · Updated · 5 minutes read
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Before you start
.sa domains are run by the Saudi Network Information Center, and registration goes through an accredited registrar rather than the centre directly. Before you start, know which extension you want: something under .com.sa for commercial activity tied to a registration or a mark, while the direct .sa extension carries its own conditions.
The rule governing all of it is that the name must connect to something you hold: your entity’s name as it appears on its registration, a trademark registered to you, or your own personal name on the extensions that allow it. Without a documented link between you and the name, the application is refused however available the name looks.
1 Choose the name and check it is free
Start by searching for the name to confirm it is free, and check it with the registrar and the centre both: a name can look available in one search tool and turn out to be reserved or blocked. Choose a name that matches the document you are going to submit, not a shortened trading name you invented this morning.
And allow time for review. Registering under .sa is not the instant purchase a generic domain is: documents are checked between application and activation, and an application can come back to you for a missing paper.
2 Prepare the documents
Prepare the document that ties you to the name before you begin: the commercial registration if you are registering for an entity, the trademark certificate if the name is a mark, or proof of licence if your body is non-commercial. Make sure the name on the document is written the way you will write it on the application.
Prepare the contact details that will be recorded against the domain owner, too. Renewal notices and verification requests arrive there, and an inbox nobody reads is the recurring reason a domain that could have been renewed is lost.
3 Register with an accredited registrar
Choose an accredited registrar and submit the application with the documents. The registrar deals with the centre on your behalf and is also where you will renew later, so look at its renewal price rather than its first-year price alone, and at whether it lets you move the domain to another registrar afterwards.
Once the application is accepted the domain stands in your name on the register. Keep the login details for the registrar account somewhere you can reach later: whoever holds that account holds practical control of the domain, whatever the register says.
4 Point the domain at your hosting
For the domain to work with your hosting, point it at the hosting company’s name servers. You will find those two addresses in your hosting control panel or in the welcome message, and you enter them in the domain settings at your registrar, in this shape:
example.sa. IN NS ns1.your-host.example.
example.sa. IN NS ns2.your-host.example.Then wait. The change spreads across the network gradually, and a visitor may see your new site while you still see the old one for a while. Do not repeat the change during that period — each edit starts the wait over.
If the domain does not work
If the domain does not open after a reasonable wait, start from the bottom: were the name servers actually saved in the registrar panel, are they spelled without error, and is the domain itself active rather than suspended for a missing document. Then check that the hosting knows about this domain: a great many faults come down to a domain pointing at a server it was never added to.
If the site appears but the secure certificate does not, that is usually a matter of time as well: the certificate is issued after the domain points at the server, not before. If it drags on, remember the registrar and the hosting provider are two different parties, and ask each about its own half of the path.
Where this advice stops
This guide describes the general path and its conditions as the centre publishes them; it does not replace reading the conditions of the extension you want on the centre’s own site, which change and differ between extensions. It names no prices and recommends no registrar: domains are a category this site has not checked.
Next step
Questions
Can I register a .sa domain as an individual?
Some extensions allow it under their own conditions and some require a registration or a mark. Read the conditions of the extension you want on the centre’s site before choosing a name.
How long does activation take?
It is not instant the way a generic domain is, because documents are verified. The period varies with how complete your submission was and with the registrar.
Can I move the domain to another registrar?
Transfers are possible within the centre’s and the registrar’s rules. Ask about it before you register rather than after: some accounts make it harder than you expect.
Sources
- SaudiNIC · retrieved
Changes to this guide
- Updated
- Published
About this guide
- Salwa Al-Otaibi wrote this guide
- Nora Al-Mutairi checked the figures before publication