A .at domain for your association in Austria

1. Choose a name members can find without an explanation

The association’s address should match the name that members, prospective volunteers and funding contacts already recognise. Test two or three options together: can someone write the address correctly after hearing it once? Will it fit on an event flyer and in an email signature? A recognisable short form can work better than a very long full association name. Avoid the year of a single event if this address is intended to remain your main website. A location can help distinguish your group, but that does not mean registering every possible town-and-name variation. Also check for confusion with existing names before ordering. Domain availability does not establish a right to use somebody else’s name.

• Agree on one main spelling and use it consistently.
• Test abbreviations with people who do not already know the association.
• Check readability and pronunciation before searching further variations.

2. Should the association use .at or .or.at?

A short .at address is one possible primary address for an Austrian association. The official registration rules also describe .co.at and .or.at. Each spelling is a separate domain: registering a .at address does not automatically reserve the matching .or.at address. First decide which address you want people to see on posters and membership information. At atdomain.at, standard .at registration is currently orderable with published pricing. Prices for .or.at and .co.at are not yet set, so do not budget for them as an already available bundle. If you add another address later, arrange its redirect with your website service rather than maintaining two association websites with diverging information.

3. Establish holder details, contact and responsibility first

Before ordering, agree whether the association itself should be named as domain holder and who is authorised to place the order on its behalf. Use the correct full name and current contact information. A ZVR register extract can help cross-check association details; the Austrian Interior Ministry explains that it contains status and recorded representation information. It does not replace your own check of current authority. The .at rules distinguish the holder, technical contact and billing recipient. Paying an invoice or maintaining the website does not by itself make someone the domain holder. Current rules also provide for publication of contact information for organisations with legal personality. Review the intended details consciously rather than supplying invented substitutes.

• Choose a reachable contact email that is not tied to one committee term.
• Keep the order confirmation and holder details in the association’s records.
• Document technical tasks separately from authority to place an order.

4. Include the domain’s total price in the association budget

A standard new .at domain currently costs €12.99 total price for the first year at atdomain.at. Annual renewal currently costs €15.99 total price. Assuming unchanged prices, one domain therefore has a total price of €44.97 across three years. This example is not an advance-payment offer or a guarantee of future prices. A second domain would have its own recurring cost. Record which addresses you actually need and who will check renewal in good time. Add any existing website or mailbox service charges separately. Registering an address does not replace hosting or a mailbox; atdomain.at does not sell either of those services. A clear budget separates the name from the services connected to it.

5. Connect an existing association website and email service

You can register the domain before the new website is finished. Your website service supplies the DNS values for the later connection, for example A or CNAME records. Your email service supplies its required MX and, where applicable, TXT records. Use only the instructions for your actual service and project. With the default nameservers you can manage DNS records in your atdomain.at account; custom nameservers are also supported. Change nameservers only once the required records are prepared. Afterwards, test more than the home page: check www, important pages and both incoming and outgoing email. Keep the previous service running until the new connection has been checked, and retain a record of the settings you changed.

6. Prepare for the next committee handover

A short handover record stops the domain from existing only in one volunteer’s memory. Write down the primary address, account contact, website and email services, responsible people and the next renewal review date. Keep credentials separately in suitable secure password storage. The email used for sign-in and account recovery must remain reachable when somebody leaves the association. Avoid a circular dependency where the only recovery route relies on an email service that has stopped working or been cancelled. If an agency handles the technical work, record the scope of its assignment. A technical handover does not automatically change the domain holder. Arrange any necessary changes in good time and then check that the appropriate people can still access the account.

• Review contact details and responsibilities when the committee changes.
• Transfer passwords securely and update them appropriately when responsibility changes.
• Treat the domain, website and email as three separate administrative tasks.

Your checklist before registering

Make the key decisions together before ordering the association’s domain. Then search the complete name ending in .at and check the current total price and displayed conditions. A search result or a basket does not reserve a name. After ordering, check the registration confirmation and account status. If a question remains, you can create a support ticket from the help centre and follow the conversation in your account. Do not send passwords or confidential access details in the message. Keeping the discussion there makes it easier to see what was asked and which next action was agreed. Keep your own handover record current when the setup is complete.

• Primary address and spelling agreed?
• Holder information and authority to order established?
• Registration and future renewal included in the budget?
• Contact, responsibilities and handover record ready?
• Website and email connection planned for the next step?