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.EE Annual Report: Strong Growth and AI Shaping Registration Trends

Estonia’s national domain grew by 5.31% in 2025, with nearly 35,000 new .ee domain names registered during the year. This growth stands out against the European average of 0.5% and sends a positive signal about the vitality of Estonia’s business environment. The renewal rate for .ee registrations was 84.2%, showing that .ee domains are used over a long period of time and remain an important part of their owners’ digital identity. Security also remains important for Estonian businesses: the DNSSEC security extension is used by 25.1% of domains.

A look into Estonia's business ecosystem activity

Domains are most often used for business-related purposes. Because of this, domain name trends reflect changes in the local landscape and in the business sectors of startups.

For years, the most common keywords used in domain names have been “24”, “auto”, and “Eesti”. The most notable change compared to the previous year is the rise of the keyword “AI”: while it did not make the top ten in 2024, in 2025 it climbed to fourth place. This suggests that the number of businesses and services related to artificial intelligence grew visibly last year, and that Estonian entrepreneurs are actively keeping pace with market demand.

The active use of the words “pood” (“shop”) and “keskus” (“centre”) also stands out, which may point to strong activity in retail and centre-related ventures. The continued high position of construction-related keywords shows that the construction sector remains clearly visible. At the same time, the use of school-related keywords is declining, which may reflect slower growth in that sector.

In 2025, the most commonly used words in .ee domain names were:

• 24

• auto

• Eesti

• AI

• ehitus

• kodu

• pg

• keskus

• my

• pood

The use of IDNs has remained stable: there are slightly more than 4,500 such domains in the registry, accounting for 2.5% of all .ee domains.

.ee domain owners

A domain is a cornerstone of digital identity and helps protect a name and brand in the digital environment. According to .ee registry data, the youngest domain owner was born in 2024, while the oldest was born in 1930. Men have registered 77% of .ee domains owned by private individuals, and the most active age group is 35–39-year-olds, followed by those aged 40–44 and 45–49.

Estonia’s internet space and domain names are becoming increasingly international in linguistic terms. On the one hand, this reflects the ambitions of local businesses; on the other, the growing share of international registrants. In addition to Estonia, the largest numbers of .ee owners come from the following countries:

• China
• Lithuania
• United States
• Germany
• Latvia

For .ee, 2025 can be considered a year of strong growth, also marked by increasingly clear internationalisation. Protecting digital identity is becoming more and more important both for businesses and for their customers, and a trustworthy domain is becoming an increasingly valuable asset. The full .ee annual report can be read on the internet.ee website.

• Read the .EE Annual Report 2025 in full here: 2025 EE ANNUAL REPORT.pdf