A practical guide to choosing a domain, DNS settings and hosting for a Serbian business - what’s worth it, what isn’t, and where not to go wrong.
Which domain to choose: .rs, .com or .co.rs?
For a Serbian business focused on the domestic market, .rs is the natural choice - a stronger local SEO signal, shorter, recognizable. It costs about RSD 1,800-3,000 per year through RNIDS-accredited registrars.
.com makes sense if you also serve foreign markets or plan to expand. Two domains (yourcompany.rs + yourcompany.com), one primary and the other redirecting - standard practice.
.co.rs is an older option and rarely used today; .org, .net and gTLDs (.studio, .agency) are for specific cases. For most small businesses: .rs. End of story.
Where to register and how much to pay
For a .rs domain - any accredited RNIDS registrar; prices vary slightly: mCloud, Hosting.rs, Loopia, EUserv, Beotel. The price difference is minor (a few hundred dinars); what matters more is having a simple DNS panel, auto-renewal and support in Serbian.
For .com - Namecheap, Porkbun or Cloudflare are cheap and reliable worldwide. Cloudflare sells domains at cost, with no markup.
Hosting - what you actually need
- Small company website / WordPress with 5-10 pages: SiteGround StartUp (€6/mo), Hostinger Premium (€3/mo), or a standard plan from local providers mCloud/Hosting.rs (€4-7/mo). That’s enough.
- Larger WordPress or WooCommerce: SiteGround GrowBig, Kinsta Starter (€35/mo), Cloudways DigitalOcean plan (€14-28/mo). Worth paying more, because speed directly drives conversion.
- Custom website (Next.js/React): Vercel, Netlify, or a VPS (Hetzner Cloud from €4/mo). Free plans and free tiers are enough for 90% of early-stage projects.
DNS - what everyone gets wrong
Five rules every site owner should know: (1) always point both www and root (@) to the same site with a 301 redirect to one version - we recommend without www; (2) SPF, DKIM and DMARC records are mandatory if you send business email from your domain, otherwise your email lands in spam; (3) don’t change nameservers during critical periods (a campaign launch), because DNS propagation takes up to 48h; (4) keep your registrar passwords safe - losing a domain is nearly irreversible; (5) turn on auto-renew. Expired domains get snapped up within the minute.
Next steps
We also help with configuration if you hire us for website development or website maintenance. For a specific hosting + domain setup recommendation before you buy something you can’t use later: write to us.