.uz domain and hosting in Uzbekistan: how to choose, cost and legal requirements
A .uz domain and hosting in Uzbekistan is a topic a business owner thinks about twice: when ordering a website and when the website suddenly stops opening. Between those moments a year or two passes, and it turns out the domain is registered to a former contractor, the hosting was paid from someone's personal card, and there are no backups. At OneDev we have untangled such situations more than once, so here is what to know before launch: where to register a domain, in whose name, which hosting to choose and what the law says about data.
The figures below are 2026 benchmarks; prices change, but the order of magnitude and the logic of choice stay the same.
The .uz domain: where to register and in whose name
.uz is the national domain of Uzbekistan. The registry is run by an authorised operator, and registration is done by accredited registrars — large local hosting and telecom companies offer it in their client area. Registration and renewal cost roughly 80,000–150,000 soums a year (about $6–12), one of the cheapest lines in a website budget.
A domain can be registered to a company (name, tax ID, contacts) or an individual (passport data). Registration takes from a few hours to a couple of days; renewal is annual.
The main mistake: the contractor registers the domain under their own account "to make it faster". A year later the contractor disappears, the account with the domain disappears with them, and the website, ads and email are all tied to that name. Re-registering a domain without access to the account is slow and painful. One rule: the domain is registered to your company, in your own registrar account, and the contractor gets access to DNS settings only.
.uz, .com or .ru: which to choose
| Zone | Pros | Cons |
|---|---|---|
| .uz | Local audience trust, a signal to search engines that the business is local; cheap | Little use if you target foreign markets |
| .com | Universal, clear to foreigners; suits export and IT products | Almost no short names left; pricier, paid in foreign currency |
| .ru | Sometimes taken "out of habit" or for an audience in Russia | Looks foreign for a business in Uzbekistan and gives no advantage |
For a company serving the domestic market the answer is simple: .uz as the primary domain. If you export or work with international partners, add a .com that redirects to the main site or hosts an English version.
Hosting in Uzbekistan or abroad
Three typical options:
- Shared hosting in Uzbekistan — with local providers (Ahost and others). From roughly 30,000–60,000 soums a month. Fine for a business card website, a landing page, a small CMS site. Paid in soums via Click or Payme, support in Russian and Uzbek.
- A VPS in Uzbekistan — a virtual server in a local data centre (Pro-Data and others). From 150,000–300,000 soums a month. Needed for an online store, a CRM, a portal, anything with a user database.
- A foreign VPS (European providers such as Hetzner) — from $5–7 a month, often more resources for the same money. Paid in foreign currency with an international card.
The key argument for local hosting is speed to users in Uzbekistan. A server in Tashkent answers in 5–20 ms, a server in Europe in 80–150 ms, and that is noticeable on slow mobile internet in the regions. Local traffic is also cheaper and more stable.
The argument for a foreign VPS is price per resource and developer convenience. So we often use a hybrid: the customer-facing site and the database in Uzbekistan, auxiliary services and test environments wherever it is cheaper.
Tip: assess the project honestly. A business card site or a landing page is fine on cheap shared hosting; paying for a VPS for three pages makes no sense. A web platform with user accounts and payments needs its own server and proper configuration — otherwise the first ad campaign will take the site down.
What the personal data law requires
Uzbekistan has a Law on Personal Data (ZRU-547). Simplified: personal data of citizens of Uzbekistan — names, phone numbers, addresses, order details — must be collected, stored and processed on servers physically located in the country. This concerns online stores, services with registration, CRMs and apps with user accounts.
In practice: if your website stores even an order form with a name and phone number in a database, keep that database in an Uzbek data centre. A landing page that sends enquiries to Telegram and stores nothing is formally in a different position, but many clients host it locally anyway.
Disclaimer: we are not lawyers and this article is not legal advice. Requirements and enforcement change; for projects with sensitive data (healthcare, finance, education) check the details with a lawyer. Our job is to design the system so that compliance is technically possible and does not require a rebuild a year later.
SSL, backups and access: checked when it is too late
SSL certificate. Free today: Let's Encrypt certificates are issued automatically and renew themselves, and most hosts do it in one click. Without it the browser shows "Not secure", and payment systems and ad platforms start complaining.
Backups. Ask the host directly: how often, how long are they kept, can you restore on your own. Good practice is a daily backup kept for 7–30 days plus a copy elsewhere (cloud storage, for example). We have seen a site with a three-year product catalogue restored from a two-month-old backup because "there was nothing fresher".
Access. The company must own its accounts with the registrar, the host and the control panel, plus administrator rights to the site itself. The contractor gets separate, revocable credentials. All logins and passwords live in the company's password manager, not in a Telegram chat.
What it costs per year
For a business card site or a landing page: a .uz domain at about 100,000–150,000 soums plus shared hosting at 400,000–700,000 soums a year — roughly $50–70 a year in total, often less than a day of advertising. For an online store or a platform: domain plus a VPS in Uzbekistan from 2–4 million soums a year plus backup storage. Our website support starts at $50 a month and includes monitoring renewals, backups and updates — a forgotten domain payment costs more than any support plan. If you have no website yet, start with a business card website from $300, with the domain and hosting set up correctly from day one.
Pre-launch checklist
- Domain registered to the company, in the company's account; renewal in the calendar.
- Zone: .uz for the domestic market, .com added when going abroad.
- Hosting matches the project: shared for a business card site, VPS for a store or platform.
- Customer database located in Uzbekistan.
- SSL enabled and renewing automatically.
- Daily backups kept at least a week, with a copy outside the host.
- All access owned by the company; the contractor has revocable accounts.
Conclusion
A .uz domain and hosting in Uzbekistan are not a technical detail but the foundation under your website, ads and email. Register the domain to the company, match hosting to the scale of the project, keep customer data on local servers, and enable SSL and backups from day one. All of this costs from $50–70 a year for a small site and saves months of stress. If you want us to check your current setup or plan a new one, get in touch and let's discuss the task.
FAQ
How much does a .uz domain cost?
Roughly 80,000–150,000 soums a year for registration and the same for renewal, depending on the registrar. Companies and individuals can both register one.
Do I have to host the site on servers in Uzbekistan?
If the site collects and stores personal data of Uzbek citizens, the law requires storing it on servers inside the country. For a landing page without a database the requirements are softer, but local hosting is still faster for local users.
Can a site be moved from foreign hosting to a local one?
Yes, usually within a few hours to a couple of days: files and the database are moved, DNS records changed, SSL reissued. Downtime with a properly planned migration is minutes.
What if the domain is registered to a former contractor?
Ask them to transfer the domain to your registrar account. If they cannot be reached, apply to the registrar with company documents; the process is slow, so better not to let it come to that.
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