Uganda has one country-code top-level domain: .ug. Names such as .co.ug, .org.ug and .ac.ug sit inside that namespace.
People call all of them “domain extensions”, but they do not occupy the same level of the Domain Name System.
That is not a technicality for its own sake. It explains why you can register yourbrand.co.ug through a registrar, but you cannot assume that yourbrand.ngo.ug is an official NGO registration route just because ngo.ug exists.
I checked the current IANA delegation, the .UG Registry, Uganda’s government website standards, the registry-confirmed Public Suffix List and our current registration guidance.
Ten routes have enough public evidence to help a buyer choose.
For a normal Ugandan business, .co.ug is the clearest default. A short direct .ug is the stronger brand when the exact name is available and the price works for you.
Only .ug is a top-level domain
IANA lists .ug as Uganda’s ccTLD. It sits in the same technical layer as .ke, .tz and .uk.
Now compare these two addresses:
In
lakeview.ug,ugis the top-level domain and the registrant controlslakeviewdirectly beneath it.In
lakeview.co.ug,co.ugis the registry namespace andlakeviewis the registrant’s name beneath that namespace.
The second address has three labels, so lakeview.co.ug is a third-level domain. In everyday sales copy, calling .co.ug an extension is harmless. Calling it a separate TLD is wrong.
This distinction also exposes fake lists. A word followed by .ug can be an ordinary registered domain. Its owner may create subdomains beneath it, but that does not make the word an official registry category.
10 UG Domain Extensions
UG Registry supports about 10 domain extensions:
Domain ending | Intended registrant | Practical choice |
|---|---|---|
| A person, business, project or organisation | Shortest Uganda address; broadest identity |
| A company or commercial operation | Best default for most Ugandan businesses |
| A company or commercial operation | Valid commercial alternative when the preferred |
| An NGO, charity, church, association or nonprofit | Most recognisable local nonprofit address |
| An NGO or nonprofit organisation | Shorter local nonprofit alternative |
| An education organisation | Publicly offered, but the registry’s public pages do not define its eligibility clearly |
| A university, college or other recognised tertiary institution | Proper route for accredited higher education |
| A primary or secondary school | Proper route for schools below tertiary level |
| A government ministry, department, agency or authority | Restricted government address |
| An internet, telecoms or network-service organisation | Specialist route for network operators |
A business normally needs .co.ug or direct .ug
The real commercial decision is not between ten endings. It is usually between two.
.co.ug gives a business a commercial identity tied to Uganda. It works well for a shop in Kampala, a tour company in Entebbe, a contractor in Mbarara or an agency serving clients across the country.
The extra co makes the role obvious, and the format already feels familiar across East Africa.
Direct .ug removes that category label. lakeview.ug is shorter than lakeview.co.ug, looks cleaner on signage and leaves room for the organisation to change.
A personal brand, media project, public campaign or company with a strong one-word name may benefit from that flexibility.
.com.ug is a legitimate commercial route, but it is rarely my first recommendation. It is longer than .co.ug and less clean than direct .ug.
It becomes useful when the preferred .co.ug name belongs to someone else, or when the business already uses the same name under .com and wants a matching Ugandan address.
None of these three endings gives weak pages a ranking shortcut.
Google treats a country-code domain as a strong country signal, but it does not say that .co.ug outranks direct .ug. Your content, links, business details and technical setup still carry the site.
Once you have two or three complete names, check their current availability in our domain search. Compare the full addresses, not just the ending.
If you expect to sell mainly outside Uganda, compare the local signal with a global address before committing. Our .ug versus .com comparison covers that separate decision.
Institutional endings protect a claim about who you are
An institutional namespace tells the public that the registrant belongs to a defined category, so the application may need documents and manual approval.
For nonprofits, .org.ug is the clearest option. The word org is familiar, and it suits NGOs, charities, associations and churches.
.or.ug serves the same broad group with a shorter ending, but fewer people recognise it immediately.
On the other hand, education has three visible routes, but they should not compete with each other:
.ac.ugfits universities, colleges and other accredited tertiary institutions..sc.ugfits primary and secondary schools..edu.ugappears in the registry’s public sales selector for academice institutions, same with .ac.ug
Uganda’s government website standards require ministries, departments and agencies to use .go.ug.
The same policy assigns .ac.ug to tertiary institutions and .sc.ug to secondary schools.
.ne.ug is narrower still. It belongs to organisations that provide internet, telecoms or network infrastructure, not every company that sells software or repairs computers.
Just like .net, .ne.ug remains unrestricted.
.ngo.ug, .law.ug and .ltd.ug fail the registry-category test
Older articles often turn any plausible word before .ug into a new “extension”. That is how lists acquire .ngo.ug, .law.ug, .ltd.ug, .inc.ug and .med.ug without proving that the registry accepts names beneath them.
The current registry selector does not advertise those labels. More importantly, the registry-confirmed Public Suffix List does not treat them as public registration boundaries.
Take ngo.ug. DNS checks on 3 August 2026 found nameservers for it, which shows that someone controls the direct .ug name ngo.ug. If that owner creates project.ngo.ug, project becomes a subdomain inside the owner’s domain.
The registry does not register it separately under an official .ngo.ug category.
The same test applies to law.ug and ltd.ug. A live website or DNS record proves that the name exists.
The technical Public Suffix List also contains gov.ug, mil.ug and us.ug. gov.ug and mil.ug are reserved so you can’t really register any second level domain under them.
The registry does not advertise those names in its selector or current buyer guidance, so treat them as policy-controlled technical space rather than normal checkout options.
Price, paperwork and control can change the final answer
The registry’s published price page currently lists direct .ug at UGX 95,000 per year and groups .ac.ug and .sc.ug as school domains at UGX 65,000 per year.
Both figures include VAT; I checked them on 3 August 2026. A registrar’s retail price can differ, so compare the registration charge with the renewal charge rather than judging the first invoice alone.
Restricted names add a second cost: time.
A school that has not prepared its licence, institutional contact and approval letter can wait longer than a business registering an ordinary .co.ug.
Government applications follow their own approval path through the responsible public authority.
Technical readiness matters too. The registry account form asks for nameservers, while current .ug guidance calls for at least two working nameservers plus administrative and technical contacts.
When you register the domain and hosting with us, we can assign the required nameservers. If another company hosts the website, collect its nameserver details.
You can change nameservers or DNS records anytime from your control panel.
A clean registration sequence looks like this:
Decide whether the owner is a business, nonprofit, school, university, government body, network provider or none of those.
Remove every restricted category the owner cannot document.
Compare the remaining full names aloud, including every dot and label.
Check registration and renewal prices, then prepare the nameservers and contacts.
Register the domain in an account the organisation controls and use an independent recovery email that will still work if the domain expires.
Our step-by-step .ug registration guide explains the ordering process. When the name is ready, search the current Uganda domain options and register the shortest address that truthfully describes its owner.
Register the name people will actually remember
Start with the words before the extension.
A short, correctly spelled name beats a clever abbreviation that customers cannot repeat. Say the full address aloud.
Type it on a phone. Put it after info@ and see whether the email still looks clean.
Then check three things before you pay:
Eligibility: Can you supply the documents required for a restricted extension?
Renewal: Can the organisation comfortably keep the name for years, not just buy it today?
Ownership: Will the domain sit in the organisation’s account with an email address it controls?
For a normal business, search .co.ug first and .ug second. For a school, university, NGO or public body, use the extension created for that institution. If your ideal name is gone, improve the name before settling for an awkward ending.
