.am is Armenia's national domain zone. For an Armenian business it is the default choice: it signals that the company is local, and it is a positive signal in local search.
Where to register
The .am zone is managed by ISOC.AM (Internet Society of Armenia). You can register:
- Directly with the registry — isoc.am.
- Through an Armenian hosting provider — convenient when you want the domain and hosting in one place.
- Through an international registrar — foreign companies sell .am too, but usually at a higher price, since outside Armenia .am is popular as a short domain hack.
What it costs
Registered locally, the price usually falls in the 12,000–15,000 AMD per year range. International registrars can be noticeably more expensive.
Tariffs change, so check the current price at the moment you register rather than relying on a figure from an article.
What documents you need
For an individual: a passport or ID card. For a company: the registration certificate and tax number. The registrar may ask for more.
The part that matters most: whose name
The domain must be registered to you or your company — not to the studio, not to the developer, and not to "the guy who built the site back in 2019".
This mistake surfaces at the worst possible moment: when you need to move the site and someone else holds the rights. After registering, check that your email is on the administrative contact and that you can log in to the registrar's control panel yourself.
Choosing the name
- Short and pronounceable. If you have to spell it out over the phone, it is a bad name.
- No hyphens or numbers. Something like web-studio-2024.am does not inspire confidence.
- Check social media. Make sure the same handle is free on Instagram and Facebook.
- Check trademarks. A domain containing someone else's trademark can be challenged.
How not to lose the domain
Domains are usually lost through forgetfulness, not hacking:
- Turn on auto-renewal if your registrar offers it.
- Check the email. Renewal reminders go to the administrative contact address. If that is a former employee's address, nobody reads them.
- Put the date in a calendar with a reminder a month ahead.
- Keep the credentials in a company password manager, not in one person's head.
An expired domain is held for a while so it can be recovered, but after that it is released and anyone can register it.
After the domain
A domain is only an address. It needs hosting, DNS configuration and an SSL certificate so the site opens over https://. Most modern hosts include free SSL through Let's Encrypt.
