.it domain — Italy's country-code extension, rules and how to register

What does .it mean?

The .it extension is the country-code top-level domain for Italy. The two letters are Italy's ISO 3166-1 code, IT — and they double conveniently as the English word "it," which makes .it a favourite for clever domain hacks as well as Italian sites. It was delegated in 1987, one of the earliest national domains in Europe.

The namespace is run by IIT-CNR — the Institute of Informatics and Telematics of Italy's National Research Council — through its registry operation Registro.it. For Italian users a .it address is the home of anything domestic: it reads as authentically Italian, the natural place for a local business, brand or institution.

Who uses .it?

The whole spread of Italian commercial and public life. National retailers, fashion and food brands, banks, newspapers, tourism operators, universities and public bodies sit on .it, and Italian consumers treat it as the trusted local default. For a country with a powerful "made in Italy" identity, a .it address reinforces that the business behind it is genuinely Italian.

Names are registered directly at the second level as yourname.it. Italy did not build a heavy co.it-style hierarchy, so the clean, flat name.it form is overwhelmingly the standard — short, memorable and part of the extension's appeal both to Italian firms and to international brands seeking a neat domain hack.

.it registration rules and requirements

This is the key thing to know about .it: it is restricted, not open. Eligibility is limited to individuals and organizations with a presence in the European Union, the wider EEA, Switzerland, San Marino or Vatican City. In practice that means a residence or a registered organization within those areas — Italian residency itself is not required, but a qualifying EU/EEA presence is.

For a registrant based outside that zone, the usual route is a registrar's local-presence or trustee service, which provides a qualifying contact so the registration can proceed. The takeaway is clear: .it is one of the more gated European country domains, and a non-EU owner should plan for a trustee arrangement rather than assuming open registration like Spain's .es.

How much does a .it cost?

Expect around $9 per year at a mainstream registrar, which keeps .it among the more affordable European country domains despite its eligibility rules. As with other ccTLDs, the national registry shapes the pricing rather than open wholesale competition, so quotes between providers stay close together. If you need a trustee service to qualify, that may add a separate fee on top.

Is .it good for SEO?

For the Italian market, very. Google and Bing read a ccTLD like .it as a strong geo-targeting signal that a site is meant for users in Italy, which can lift domestic visibility in a way a generic .com does not on its own. The trade-off is reach: a country domain quietly tells search engines "Italian audience," so it is a weaker choice if you want a single site to serve a pan-European or global market. Where this tradeoff guides your decision, our TLD comparison guide breaks it down.

.it vs alternatives

For an Italian audience, .it is the obvious choice and outranks a generic on local trust. The main alternatives are .com for a borderless brand and .eu when you want a pan-European identity without committing to one country — and notably, .eu shares a similar EU-presence eligibility logic, so it suits the same kind of registrant. Compared with fully open neighbours such as Spain's .es or Finland's .fi, .it's EU/EEA-presence rule makes it harder to obtain from outside Europe, more like the gated model seen on some other regional domains.