.pl domains: NASK, namespaces and the renewal trap

NASK runs the registry, somebody else sends the invoice

The IANA root zone database lists NASK, a Polish research and academic network institute, as the manager of .pl. It maintains the authoritative database, publishes the policy and keeps the zone running.

You do not buy from NASK, though. Registrars hold the contract with the registry and handle payment, the DNS panel and support. That is why the company on your invoice is not the one in the IANA record — normal, and not a sign that anything went wrong.

Renewal costs several times the first year

At a Polish registrar, a .pl name registers for 20 PLN net and renews for 73 PLN net a year — a three-and-a-half-fold jump. Functional and regional names such as company.com.pl or company.waw.pl cost 18 PLN and 48 PLN respectively (August 2026).

So price the name over three years rather than one: about 166 PLN net for .pl, of which the first year is barely an eighth. Offers advertising a domain for the price of a coffee are not dishonest, they simply describe year one and stay quiet about the rest.

company.pl and company.com.pl are two different domains

Beside the main space, NASK operates several dozen functional namespaces — com.pl, net.pl, org.pl, sklep.pl — and regional ones such as waw.pl for Warsaw. Each is a separate registration with a separate fee.

Registering company.pl does not reserve company.com.pl. A free company.com.pl next to a taken company.pl is therefore not a bargain; it is a sign that someone got there first and that part of your traffic will find them instead.

Availability answers come straight from the registry

NASK publishes an RDAP service, so a check for a .pl name is answered by the registry itself and the result is binding.

That is less common than it sounds. Of 248 country-code extensions, only 70 publish RDAP at all. For the rest, availability has to be inferred from DNS, which cannot tell a free name from a registered but unused one. .pl has no such ambiguity.

Four things to settle before you click register

Five minutes now, years of avoided trouble later.

• The holder record should name your company, not an agency or the employee who happened to place the order. Changing it later is a separate procedure.
• Use a company email address you will still control in three years — the renewal warning goes there.
• Read the renewal price before registering, not after the first year.
• Polish characters are allowed but cost slightly more and need a check that your other services handle them.