Why the .tk ccTLD Might Be a Bad Choice

As you research Country Code Top Level Domains (ccTLDs), you may come across a domain extension that doesn’t seem to quite fit with the rest that you see:

The .tk domain.

Rather than wracking your brain to figure out which country that domain belongs to – and whether it will be a good choice for your business – allow this article to explain. After all, there’s something about the .tk extension that could make it a terrible choice.

What Is the .tk Extension?

The extension .tk is the ccTLD for Tokelau.

If you haven’t heard of that country before, then you’re not alone. It’s barely a country at all, rather a small collection of islands that sit off the coast of New Zealand. They’re also owned by New Zealand, with those islands having a tiny population of around 1,900 people as of 2024.

And yet, despite these islands being so tiny – both in size and population – a staggering 31 million websites have been registered with the .tk domain name. That makes .tk the second-most popular domain extension in the world, which leads to an obvious question:

Why?

It’s clearly not due to businesses that want to appeal to the residents of Tokelau. The population of those islands is so small that it would be far too much effort to register a domain to appeal to what is essentially a village in terms of population density.

The real answer comes down to one thing – cost.

As ccTLDs have become more popular, registering them has become a more expensive process, at least compared to how it was when the concept first came about. Add competition into the mix – you’ll pay more for ccTLD that is in high demand – and you have the potential to spend heavily on domain extensions.

That is unless you buy a .tk domain. This ccTLD is available for free for the first 12 months of your ownership, after which you only have to pay a small subscription fee to keep it. If you decide not to pay for the subscription, the DOT TK registry will instead monetize the old website’s traffic using ads, with some of the money filtering through to Tokelau’s citizens.

So…Why Shouldn’t You Get a .tk Domain?

A .tk domain seems like a great idea, on the surface. You’re getting an extension that you can keep for free for 12 months, allowing you to experiment with a few ideas to figure out if you can make that extension work. And even if you abandon your .tk domain, Tokelau’s residents can still benefit from it by monetizing whatever was on the site before.

But you still shouldn’t get one.

The reason is that the very thing that makes .tk domain names so attractive – their low cost – has also led to them becoming associated with the darkest parts of the internet. Scammers soon hopped onto the .tk trend because setting up a domain with that extension cost them nothing for the first year. Millions upon millions of domains were registered by people and organizations that used them for everything from harvesting user passwords to delivering malware onto people’s computers.

Obviously, you wouldn’t intend to do the same thing with your .tk domain.

But it wouldn’t matter. The domain extension has become so associated with this type of illicit activity that any trust that a savvy web user might have has been lost. When many see the .tk domain today, they’re either aware of its association with the more criminal elements of the internet or they’re so confused by a ccTLD they don’t recognize that they bounce away anyway.

Neither is good for your business.

What Other ccTLD Options Do You Have?

Thankfully, .tk is far from the only ccTLD option that you have. Practically every country has its own ccTLD, all of which you can purchase through a reputable registrar.

A registrar like Register.Domains.

Explore its huge array of international domains and you’ll find reasonable prices across the board. Granted, you won’t get the first year free – as you would with a .tk domain – but you will get an extension that your potential customers will trust far more. Ultimately, that’s better for business – people feeling comfortable landing on your site leads to more sales.