Company website registration in Thailand: DBD, domains and PDPA

The paperwork side of สร้างเว็บบริษัท: which documents take real time, what the DBD registration unlocks, and what your site legally needs on day one.

Guide · 8 min read

Most guides about building a business website start at design. This one starts at documents, because documents are the part that actually takes time, and it is what people discover far too late, usually the week they wanted to launch. Here is the administrative path for a Thai business: the DBD e-commerce registration, the paperwork behind a .co.th domain, PDPA consent, and the tax line you should know before you sell anything online.

The documents to prepare before the website

Two versions of this exist: a registered company (juristic person) and a sole proprietor or individual seller. They need different paperwork, but both should assemble their file before contacting any designer, because every later step waits on it.

For a company, the load-bearing document is the certificate of registration issued by the Department of Business Development, plus the ID of the person authorized to sign. For an individual seller, it starts with your ID and address details. Keep scans ready in one folder: the same file will be requested by the domain registry, the bank, and the platform you later join.

• Company: certificate of registration issued through DBD
• Individual seller: ID card and registered address details
• Scans prepared once, reused for domain, bank and platforms

DBD e-commerce registration: when it is required

If your website displays goods or services with prices and takes orders online, Thai rules treat that as e-commerce, and the registration is done with the Department of Business Development through their online service. You file, and you receive a certificate of registered dealer, which is the piece of paper everyone asks for afterwards.

That certificate is more useful than it looks: it is what banks, marketplaces and payment providers ask to verify you are a real business, and it is one of the two documents that can unlock a .co.th domain. Doing it online keeps the wait short, but only if the documents from step one are complete, so nobody has to file twice.

• Selling online with prices displayed: e-commerce registration applies
• Filed online with the Department of Business Development
• The certificate unlocks banking, platforms and the .co.th domain

The .co.th domain: which documents it needs

A .com domain registers in minutes with no paperwork at all, at roughly 490 baht a year. A .co.th domain costs around 685 baht a year and requires documents: your DBD company registration, or trademark documents. The .co.th is the address that signals a registered Thai business, and it makes up a little over half of all .th domains.

Practical order: secure the .com first so nothing delays your launch, then add the .co.th in parallel once your registration papers are in hand. The domain step becomes the bottleneck only when people start it last.

• .com: no documents, about 490 baht a year, instant
• .co.th: DBD registration or trademark papers, about 685 baht a year
• Register the .com first, layer .co.th on when papers are ready

Trademark: the slower alternative

Trademark documents are the second route to a .co.th domain, and they also protect the name and logo themselves. The trade-off is time: trademark proceedings run far longer than an online business registration, so treat it as brand protection that happens in parallel, not as a shortcut to launch a website.

If your trading name matters to you, file early. If you just need to be online this month, the business registration route is the fast one.

• Trademark papers also qualify you for a .co.th domain
• Trademark proceedings take much longer than business registration
• File it for protection, not as a launch shortcut

PDPA: what the website itself must do

Thailand's data protection law has been in force since June 2022 and the regulator moved to active enforcement in 2024. On a website this has a concrete shape: non-essential cookies must wait for explicit opt-in consent, a privacy policy must be reachable, and if you collect enquiries through a form, you say what happens to that data.

This is not theoretical money. Enforcement actions in August 2025 totalled more than 14.5 million baht in fines, with up to 5 million baht per incident. A consent banner that actually blocks cookies until the visitor agrees is cheaper than any of that, and it belongs to launch day, not phase two.

• Non-essential cookies only after explicit opt-in consent
• Privacy policy linked and reachable from every page
• Fines reached 14.5M baht in August 2025, up to 5M baht per incident

Tax line and the next step

One number decides your tax obligations: when annual revenue reaches 1.8 million baht, VAT registration becomes mandatory. Below that threshold most small sellers stay outside the VAT system, but the bookkeeping habit of recording income from day one makes the transition painless instead of a scramble at year end.

With the file assembled, DBD registration filed, domain strategy set and PDPA handled, the actual website becomes the easy part. That is the work we do: see our web design service, and for the design and build sequence itself, the full walkthrough is in the steps-to-build guide.

• 1.8 million baht a year is the VAT registration line
• Record income from day one, regardless of the threshold
• Documents first, website second: the order that never delays launch

Frequently asked questions

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