Which is the best registrar for .nz domain names?

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lissie

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#50989 26-Nov-2009 16:22

I normally register domains with godaddy but their price for nz domains is outrageous US$60 - the cheapest I have found locally is 1stdomains at NZ$25+GST - any one had good/bad experiences with them or has found somewhere cheaper?

Thanks

I help authors publish their books - DIYPublishing.co.nz

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#276601 26-Nov-2009 17:23

The margins over the wholesale cost of a .nz domain are pretty tight.

Hosting Direct is the cheapest ($19.95), however Domains For Less has "cheap Tuesdays" where they bring their price down to $20 + GST (instead of $22ish)

https://www.hostingdirect.co.nz/domain-names/compare-pricing

Bear in mind the "cheapest" does not always equal "best" when you factor in service/support and performance/uptime/response time of name servers.

If you're wondering who is behind some of the other cheap ones (as far as I can tell):

Domains For Less is by Open Host
1st Domains is Net24
Discount Domains is by DigiWeb

boby55

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#276602 26-Nov-2009 17:25

I prefer discountdomains.co.nz

its not the cheapest but they have a great management panel.

lissie

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#276603 26-Nov-2009 17:28

Thanks for your reply. Yes I assumed who ever owns the nz tld charges more for it than for a dot com or a dot info. I was impressed with audacity of the nz registrars ofdfer dot infos at $24 though - they are generally less than US$1 on godaddy and a dot com is less than US$10

thanks I will check out the ones you mentioned

I help authors publish their books - DIYPublishing.co.nz

lissie

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#276607 26-Nov-2009 17:37

I should clarify that I have no intention of hosting in NZ its just the domain registration I'm looking for

I help authors publish their books - DIYPublishing.co.nz

Stu

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#276612 26-Nov-2009 18:17

I've been with 1stdomains for a few years now. Very happy with the price and service. Hosting is obviously handled elsewhere. Easy to manage multiple domains.

People often mistake me for an adult because of my age.

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casper021

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#276613 26-Nov-2009 18:18

i use asiaregistry.com for my domains and hosting from a usa based company

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LennonNZ

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#276626 26-Nov-2009 19:35

If people are replying I might want to note 1 thing. There are :

1) Registrar - The people who you pay to actually register the domain
2) Name Servers - The people who hold your DNS Records
3) Hosting - The people who host content which the Name servers point towards

All 3 can be at different places but normally 1+2 or 2+3 are done together.

lissie

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#276642 26-Nov-2009 20:04

@LennonNZ - really ? 1 and 2 can be separate? I hadn't come across that - but I admit to having just used US registrars to date. So I should check that a domain registrar will allow me to change the nameservers to my own hosting?

I help authors publish their books - DIYPublishing.co.nz

antbs

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#276659 26-Nov-2009 21:04

Had great personal experience with 1stdomains.co.nz - would reccomend!

lissie

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#276664 26-Nov-2009 21:27

1stdomains are my front runner at the moment - they seem to have a bunch of happy customers here

I help authors publish their books - DIYPublishing.co.nz

freitasm

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#276696 26-Nov-2009 23:14

I use iserve to register NZ domains.

For DNS I used to use iserve - you could have a free hosting account and edit the zone file for your domain - I can't find a way to create more free hosting accounts (I still have one). So I usually register with iserve but have my DNS on dyndns - very good service.

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#276877 27-Nov-2009 12:54

There really is so little margin in domain names it's not funny, and equally, there really isn't much technical stuff either.

As a result, really, one company is as good as another. There are the odd one out there that have pretty manky management interfaces, but if you strike one, you can always transfer the domain to another company anyway.

For .nz domains, I use Discount Domains mainly just because I've done some work for them and Digiweb in the past, but any of the others mentioned can do the job just as well.

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Ragnor

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#276965 27-Nov-2009 15:39

LennonNZ: If people are replying I might want to note 1 thing. There are :

1) Registrar - The people who you pay to actually register the domain
2) Name Servers - The people who hold your DNS Records
3) Hosting - The people who host content which the Name servers point towards

All 3 can be at different places but normally 1+2 or 2+3 are done together.

Yes I agree, this is an important distinction!

For a small site or personal you can get away with using whoever for your name servers, but if you are a large site you want professionally managed name servers.

nate

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#277005 27-Nov-2009 16:51

Recently registered a mate with domains4less, wasn't too painful and works well for a basic HTML site.

insane

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#277649 30-Nov-2009 01:10

LennonNZ: If people are replying I might want to note 1 thing. There are :

1) Registrar - The people who you pay to actually register the domain
2) Name Servers - The people who hold your DNS Records
3) Hosting - The people who host content which the Name servers point towards

All 3 can be at different places but normally 1+2 or 2+3 are done together.

Yeah what this guy said is important , There is no point in having your zone files / NS setup with a different hosting provider to your website as you'll only create another dependancy and single point of faliure.

Register the domain with whoever is cheapest and is still going to be in business in 10 years time.

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