Free · both registers at once

Company name and domain checker

A company name is only half the decision if the domain is gone. Check Companies House and the domains together, and tell us which extensions are must-haves.

Five extensions

.co.uk, .uk, .com, .io and .ai each checked live against the registries, not against a cached list, with a registrar link for anything free.

Must-have domains

Pick the extensions you can’t launch without and the verdict only clears when every one of them is free. A taken must-have counts as a conflict, not a footnote.

Variants & reputation

Hyphenated, plural and common-misspelling siblings are checked too, and a free domain with a spammy past is flagged before you register it.

Why check the company name and the domain together

The two registers know nothing about each other. Companies House will happily register a company whose .co.uk is owned by a competitor, and a domain registrar will sell you a domain for a company name that cannot be incorporated. Founders who check them separately end up compromising on one or the other. Checking them in one pass means the name you pick works in both places, or you find out now.

Which domain do you actually need?

For a UK business the .co.uk is still the extension customers guess first, and the .uk usually comes with it. The .com matters if you sell abroad or want to look established; .io and .ai signal a software or AI product to the people who buy those. You do not need all five. Tell the check which ones are non-negotiable and it will judge the name on those.

A free domain isn’t always a good domain

Domains that expire get re-registered, and some have a history: a spam operation, a defunct site with a bad reputation, or a previous business in the same name. The check looks at the Wayback Machine and the Spamhaus block list for any free domain it finds, so you know what you would be inheriting.

Domains and company names are the practical half of availability. The legal half is trademarks, which is why the same check counts similar marks in your classes. The full availability guide puts the four checks in order.

NameVetted is a pre-screening tool, not legal advice. For anything high-stakes, confirm with a qualified trademark attorney.

Comprehensive & Thorough

10+ checks for peace of mind

Companies House

“Same as” conflicts and “too like” warnings against the live UK register, plus phoenix-company and statutory name-format rule checks.

Trademark risk screen

The UK trademark register searched for identical, phonetic and fuzzy matches in your Nice classes, then scored with an AI risk assessment.

Domain availability

.co.uk, .uk, .com, .io and .ai checked in real time — with confusion-variant siblings and prior-life reputation flagged too.

Sensitive words & registers

Words that need approval before Companies House will accept them, plus Charity Commission and FCA register checks where the business calls for it.

Social & dev handles

Instagram, X and — for software names — GitHub, npm and PyPI namespaces checked, so your brand is consistent everywhere it matters.

Linguistics & spellability

Cross-language meanings, awkward smooshed-domain readings and a “radio test” for how easily people can spell it after only hearing it.

Frequently asked questions

Do I have to buy the domain from you?

No. Free domains link to a registrar so you can register them if you want to, and we may earn a small commission if you do. The check result is the same either way.

Why is the domain shown as taken when the site is empty?

Registered and in use are different things. A domain with nameservers or a registry record is taken whether or not anything is published on it. Some owners will sell; the registrar link shows the current registration details.

Does the company name have to match the domain?

Legally, no. Practically, a mismatch confuses customers and weakens the brand. Most founders treat a matching .co.uk or .com as part of the name decision, which is what the must-have filter is for.

Other free checks

UK business name checker

Companies House, sensitive words, domains and a trademark count in one free check.

Company name availability checker

Is the company name free to register? The registrar’s own rules, with the conflict named.

Brand name checker

Trademark, register, domain, handle and linguistic screening for a name you will build a brand on.

All free naming tools →

Read before you decide

Getting started · 6 min

How to check if a business name is available in the UK

Availability isn’t one check — it’s four. Here’s the order to run them in, and why a free Companies House result doesn’t mean the name is yours.