Buy your fi domain directly from Traficom

In recent months, Traficom caused a small “uproar” when the Ministry of Transport and Communications proposed that the price of fi domains would increase from €9 to €12, and that domain name registrars would be charged an annual fee of €400 ¹.

The statements given by individuals and companies were generally against it, but some statements were in favour of the proposals. Of these, what caught my eye the most was that the statements in favour were statements from larger web hosting and domain brokerage companies. From the purpose of these statements, it can be assumed that they want to smoke smaller and private actors out of the playing field, that “professional” actors can guarantee a more reliable and secure service. At least that’s what they say. The background in reality is only for narrowing the field of competition, and if, for example, private customers registry status becomes too difficult, then these customers will naturally switch to be customers of these larger providers. As, for example, it is clear from this Shellit.org statement, which is a bit shocking how directly they want to limit competition, and drive more money into their own pockets.

I need to renew my domain at the beginning of the year, and when I was researching where the cheapest way to renew is, I noticed that a very typical strategy for these big companies is to offer a cheap initial domain registration and charge more than triple the amount for renewal. For example, in the case of the aforementioned Shellit.org, the normal price for registration is €21.50/year, but I couldn’t find the renewal price on their website.

Based on the large number of responses, the Ministry of Transport and Communications removed the domain name registrar change from the regulation, and plans to reassess the matter. ²

The new annual domain name registrar fee (400 euros) proposed in the draft regulation will be completely removed from Section 2 of the regulation due to the reassessment of the legal basis.

Interestingly, Shellit.org saw a niche and started offering a reseller platform to domain registrars for a small additional fee. Brilliant! ³

Having learned from this and due to the renewal prices of fi domains, I decided to register with Traficom as a domain name registrar myself and cut out the middlemen. The process is very simple.

You just fill out the application form on Traficom’s website ⁴. I filled it out as a private individual, and I marked that the service I offer is Verkkotunnusten hallinnointi ilman muita palveluita

About a week later, I received an email that due to the new NIS2 requirements, I had to fill out the Cybermeter self-assessment Excel spreadsheet, which seemed a bit challenging at first. The questions on this Cybermeter were intended more for businesses than for private domain registrars. However, I answered this honestly and from the perspective of my own IT equipment.

The next day I received a registration link to the management service from Traficom and to my surprise the view was no different from other domain providers. The question is why Traficom needs to make such an intermediate step for individuals, instead of offering the registration of fi domains without DNS servers directly.

By the way, it’s worth making this application before January 16, 2026, when the price of domains will increase. I registered directly for 5 years at once for €54.