UPDATED 01/04/2019: If you want to “Start a Website”, a blog or an online eCommerce shop you will need a domain name. With a website name, you will also need a webhosting account to host your website files and website. The first most important thing you would need to consider is “Do I get an Australian .com.au domain” or do I get a .com domain. Website name prices are not getting any cheaper in 2019 and so it pays to get a cheap webname provider.
The price factor between .com and .com.au domain names can make a difference, and decide who you go with if you are on a tight budget. The Australian .au extensions are generally much pricier. Today there are heaps of Domain name registration companies that not only provide Aussie domain extensions, but a whole lot of new exciting extension’s to choose from.
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Best Domain Name Providers Online
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What is a domain name and how do you register one? |
Let me explain it to you!
In simple terms, a domain or website name is like an online address to your blog or website.
Just like people need an address to get to your house, on the internet they need a domain name eg. johndoesblog.com , www.facebook.com to find your blog or website .
So you can give a person your online address which is www.johndoesblog.com – they then type that in their browser and reach your website/blog ( which is your online address).
You do not have to be a company or organisation to register a top-level domain extension or a .com.au domain name. Any individual can register a domain for themselves from less than $1 or $2 for a dot-com domain name (when they are special deals). When they are no discounts or promo offers available, the prices for this can be between the range of $10 and $14 for a year.
The dotcom.au Australia names are just a little bit pricier and can be priced anywhere between $22 to $49 a domain a year depending on who you buy it from – yes Australian domains are a bit pricier and you need an ABN (Australian Business Number) to get one.
In order to register .com.au domain names, as part of the registration process you’ll need to supply either:
- an Australian Business Number (ABN)
- an Australian Company Number (ACN)
- a Registered Business Number (BN)
- Trademark number
| 2 |
Should I get a .com or .com.au domain extension |
Your domain name is your website address or URL on the internet.
Domain names are the unique identity for your online Business. They help establish, promote and protect your brand. And they’re where you direct new and potential customers, so making sure your name belongs to you is essential.
Registering a .com.au domain improves local search results and marks your business as Australian. If you are just after starting a hobby website or a personal blog you can surely start off with a cheaper .com extension domain and it would not make much difference to your online presence.
Why is .au or .com.au domain name important?
- .au represents the Top Level Domain for Australia and is the preferred Domain Name for all Australians. Japan (.jp) and Germany (.de) are other examples of TLD (Top Level Domains).
- Any website that ends in .au is a website built specifically with Australian Internet users in mind, but open to a global audience.
- .com.au are generally for commercial purposes and can include commercial entities – currently registered and trading in Australia, as well as commercial products and services.
One other way of getting a cheaper domain and still making the website name relevant to Australia is to either get the term/word Australia or Australian in the domain name you are planning to buy and get that as a .com rather than .au
For example: If you are thinking of starting a gadget blog – you could name it www.gadgetaustralia.com! This way while you could be just paying $0.99 cents for a dot.com domain name and still letting people know that your domain is Australian focused.
In this example even though you are not buying a .com.au extension, the name gadgetaustralia.com clearly shows that its an Australian related domain name and so you can get away with buying a .com at a cheaper price.
The price difference could be cheaper @$9.99 year (99 cents promo price) instead of $22 or more for a .com.au extension for a year. However saying that there are some providers that provide both webhosting + free domain name offers, you can check out our 2019 listing of webhosts over here.
Quick Tips to choosing a Website Domain Name
- Make it Memorable
- Keep it short
- Target your audience
- Don’t use hyphens or numbers
- Name should be brand-able
- Keep it Interesting
Use these tips and you will not regret choosing your website name or brand name for your business.
Most of the prices given below is for 1 year term unless where specified for a longer term.
Most aussie domain names ending with .au extensions registration has a minimum registration requirement of two years. This means if the price is $22 for a year – you will be paying approximately $44 upfront to purchase or register a website name with au extension.
| 1 |
Comparison of 10 Australian .com.au and US .com domain registration providers |
Below I have provided short reviews detailing price and information on some Australian and US based domain name registration and web-hosting companies that primarily provide names for blogs and websites.
www.godaddy.com.au (Recommended)
Godaddy is one of the largest domain name registrar and Web hosting provider in the world and has more than 12 million customers around the world. They also cater to the Australian market and is the only US provider to compete with local domain providers to give a cheaper price for .com.au domains
$9.99 for.com
$9.99 for .com.au (as of publishing)
2 year registration required for .com.au domains( regular price$14.99)
Updated Discount Link:
$1/mo WordPress Managed Hosting from GoDaddy!
Activate this link and get $1 per month on order of managed WordPress hosting
Sale/Discount – Coupon code: cjcwph1applied link
Get A$.99 .COM Domains at GoDaddy!
Get a domain name for just a 99 cent with this link. Coupon Code: cjc99com
AUS$ – 30%* off! Get going with GoDaddy!
EOFY Savings – Get your Australian business online with upto 56% off and .com.au domain name.
With this promo code you will save 30% off all your online purchase. If you are small business owner, this is an opportunity for you to order multiple items and save big. This promo code also applies to basic, deluxe, and advanced plans.
24/7/365, round-the-clock customer care operations and good phone support
http://www.crazydomains.com.au (Aus)
For 2 years its $12 for.com ( current sale price)
Crazy Domains was originally founded in 2000 and provide services as a domain name registrar, web hosting and online marketing company$3 for.com
$12 for .com.au
Regular price is $9 for.com
Minimum registration period for .com.au is for 2 years
http://www.namecheap.com (US)
Namecheap was founded in 2000 and has over 800,000 clients and over 3 million domains under its management. They provide services like domain registration, web hosting packages, secure SSL certificates, WhoisGuard domain name privacy
They are the only provider who actually reduce the price if you register your domain for more years.$10.69 for.com
$14.98 for .com.au Prices get cheaper a few cents if you register for more years
2 years minimum registration for .com.au domain
* Free WhoisGuard Privacy Protection, a $2.88 value*
http://www.netregistry.com.au (AUS)
Netregistry since 1997 is Australia’s trusted online provider offering domain names, hosting and online marketing services$12.50 for.com. They have helped over 500,000 Australian businesses establish themselves online and are well known as a web host and domain name provider.
In 2018, Netregistry became part of the ASX-listed Arq Group and remains owned and run by Australians, for Australians. With offices in Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane.
$16.95 for .com.au
Net registry has taken over many other hosting companies in this space including Smartyhost, Jumba, AussieHQ, Illsys and Uber.
http://www.hostgator.com
Hostgator not only provides cheap hosting but also domains
HostGator.com LLC founded in 2002 is a world-wide provider of shared, reseller, VPS and dedicated web hosting$12.95 for.com
They do not provide .com.au aussie domains. With Hostgator you can get a .com domain and the webhosting for your domain in the same place and in one seamless transaction.
You can also avail 25% off by going to www.hostgator.com website via this partner link alternatively use dg25percentoff coupon code to get 25% off
https://www.domaincentral.com.au/
Registrations for international and Australian domains
$22 for.com (1 year)
$22 for .com.au (1 year)
Its a bit surprising how Domain Central are so pricey.
Their list of extensions available for registration and pricing is available over here
https://www.bluehost.com
Bluehost.com currently has a special deal of $2.95 per month for hosting (until sep 15th) which will not last long at this reduced rate. The reason why I added them is their plans usually provide a free domain with hosting, so if you are planning to start a website – this is a good option to get domain and hosting both in 1 go and get started.
They also have a 1 click install to get a word-press blog started quickly. check out their most current deals here.
Most of the us providers provide the additional services like url forwarding and cloaking, email forwarding, dns and mx servers records adjusting for free
https://www.domain.com
Domain.com is known for the domain registration and web hosting services since 2000. They specialise in affordable domain names, web hosting, VPS hosting, Email, SSL certificates, web design, and online marketing services and provide free domain services including URL Forwarding, Email Forwarding, Transfer Lock, and Total DNS Management.
Dot.com starts as low as $9.99 a domain name and upwards.
Dotster.com and mydomain.com are listed as affiliate’s under domain.com in the commission junction affiliate program.
Domain.com LLC is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Endurance International Group Holdings, Inc.
https://www.1and1.com
1 and 1 is known for their webhosting as well as domain registration services. The 1&1 Group manages more than 19 million domain names.
1&1 currently offers a wide range of Web hosting products, including email solutions and high-end servers in 10 different countries including Germany, Spain, Great Britain and the United States.
Since it was founded 26 years ago, 1&1 has successfully established its product range in many different international markets. Its products are available in the following countries: Germany, Austria, Great Britain, Spain, France, Poland, United States, Canada, Italy and Mexico.
Cloudflare has been providing top webhosting companies like Bluehost, Dreamhost and WP engine with their free cloudflare CDN service, but now they have decided to enter the domain registration business.
Pricing :
Cloudflare has decided to enter the business with a wholesaler price point for customers. They say they will get rid of promo discounts and just sell for a wholesaler even low price, rather than upping the domain name price when you need to renew. This is good news for those who are in the website or bloggin business for the long haul, rather than just testing/trying things out.
If you are serious about your domain name security, Custom Domain Protection, a Cloudflare Registrar feature available on the Enterprise Plan, is the highest level of registrar security. It protects your organization from domain hijacking with high-touch, on and offline verification of any changes to your Registrar account.
https://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/
Yahoo small business has got a unique offer where you purchase a domain and get email and hosting free. This is different from what other provider’s offer –where you get domain free with hosting. So this yahoo small business offer certainly sounds sweeter.
In this offer from yahoo, you can register a domain and instantly get a website and custom email at no extra cost or you can you can even get them for free when you purchase Website Builder or Business Mail.
Check yahoo small business domains for more details
Can you buy a domain name forever?
Short Answer – No!
But luckily most domain name providers do have a button in their settings/admin panel that say renew my domain automatically and your domain will renew automatically when 1 or 2 years are over.
You can also set it to manually renew in your settings so that it doesn’t automatically get renewed on expiration and you don’t want get charged for another year if you want to dump the domain name.
Most providers will send you and email saying your website name is going to expire and ask you if you want to renew or saying that it is auto renewing prior to expiring.
Domains ending with .com or .com.au are not the only options available and people can easily buy .info or .org or .net .au which are generally more cheaper than a .com or .com.au domain
Privacy is another extra that one might need to consider while buying domain, most domain providers charge a extra charge for privacy ..so they block out your personal email contact and address from the website if you take the privacy option provide by the registrar.
How to Register Your Own Domain Name
If you have a website or blog , you should seriously consider registering your own domain name. So what is a domain name ? A “domain name” is a name like e.g. “www.digitalgrog.com.au” or “gadgetaustralia.com” which you give to your website , which you can then use to refer or point to your website or blog.
Registering a www domain in 5 minutes
Generally, there are no restrictions on who can register .com domain name, the period of registration can vary from 1 to 10 years
Buying your own domain name can be a great way to set up your own website/blog and/or personalized email address.
To register a domain name its as simple as doing search on the domain name provider for your name
Go daddy Domain Checker
Example: Say you are going to start a bbq recipe blog, go to the website godaddy.com and in the search button put in bbqrecipe and search (go) and they will tell you if its available or not available to register ( and also provide you other name options and prices) .
If the name you want is not available, you will need to try different variations to the name until you get related name and then buy the domain via PayPal or your credit card or other payment options available and this whole process is done in 5 minutes.
Bluehost Domain checker tool :
(Free Domain deal with hosting below )
You can also get our DG blog special offer for bluehost Hosting where you get a Domain free ( with an hosting account for $3.49 a month)- Get this deal here.
Why is it so difficult to register a Australian domain name ?
While eligibility rules for .AU names can be somewhat of a pain and a bit more cumbersome than registering top level domains, they do serve a very important purpose – preserving the Australian namespace’s integrity and ensuring it continues to enjoy a solid reputation as one that can be trusted.
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Thanks for sharing information with us.
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A website name is an important thing to select. It largely effects your brand and presence on the net.Thank you for the post and helful tips.
thanks mon
Need to get a .com.au for my online shop..so this was handy
Yah mon…jen .. hope you snagged a good one .. 🙂
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I’d be careful recommending netregistry …. They keep your credit card details, you cannot delete your credit card details. They set all accounts to auto renew – if you turn off auto renew they turn it back on. They renew your domain one month before its due and if you say you don’t want it renewed they say “too bad” and sign that advice with “kind regards”. I am deleting all my accounts – its the only way I can erase my credit card details. I am so concerned I am seriously thinking of reporting my card as stolen and get a new one just to get my details out of their hands.
That doesn’t sound very professional or good at all for a company to act that way !
Im very confused. I would like to buy say all 10 variations of my new website venture.
As in .com, .com.au, .net & a few variations of the paraphrase / wording of the domain name. How and where do I group buy all of these then have them all linked to the .com format????
Very dumb i know
Hi markus
No question is dumb
I would say go – godaddy.com. They are good for domains and its daymm easy to redirect domains to the main domain or other websites as well. You should be able to buy multiple domains from godaddy. You can use my affiliate discount promo link if you like-> godaddy.com
Hope that helps
Good luck
Jeff
Hi, I have seen many bad reviews for GoDaddy. I am planning to create a new business and need to create a website. From my research I have done, it seems that GoDaddy is only good for registering a domain and that it is cheap. It should not be used for web hosting and email. I am thinking about registering with GoDaddy and going with inmotion for web hosting, is this feasible.
Thank you
When i got my first godaddy account , i also did some research online and all i could find was bad stuff written about godaddy.. but if you want something cheap that works ,its a good option. I dont have anything to complain about and have blogs and niche sites hosted on godaddy. check out this review here http://start-a-website.info/wordpress-software/is-godaddy-a-good-host-to-start-a-website/
Hey JJ, i’m still a little confused. To be on the safe side i’ve purchased both .com.au AND .com for my new business. I will be selling active wear on line, so would like it to appeal to a world wide market, but i am based in Melbourne, Aust. So which domain should i use for my Shopify store? I’m worried that using the .com.au will disengage potential customers from, say USA or other countries?
Hi candace
Just use the .com.au for your shopify store and also redirect your .com permanently to the .com.au in your domain admin panel
That way you can use both domains while making one shop
Hope that helps
cheers
jeff
Yo dude is the Blue host 2.95 deal still available..need to get hosting for my new blog
Sanj
iTs expired but check out the new deal link above
I made a purchase Online at Melbourne IT at 1.45pm on 30th May 2016. The purchase was for a domain name. I made the purchase on the recommendation of a Sensis Representative. Unfortunately that advise was not good as I can not use the domain name he recommended as it is too similar to another companies name and I do not wish to open myself to possible ligitation. As someone who is not very familiar with the IT world all I can do is follow advise given to me. I contacted Melbourne IT by phone at approximately 4.48pm 30/5/2016. I asked to cancel the product and for a full refund of the purchase $149.99. The first person read from a script and was totally unhelpful. I asked to speak to the supervisor. His name is John Patrick who refused to offer a surname for the record.I explained the situation to him and asked for some goodwill from MELBOURNE IT he blank refused to budge. Citing only terms and conditions. I asked for some compassion and the credit card purchase is still pending and still hasn’t been completed as I type this review. Surely in less than 4 hours it is fair and good will to offer a customer a refund. Shame on you Melbourne I! You can still fix this by offering a refund now. Once again the tickabox mentality prevails. Why are companies such as Melbourne IT so inflexible. I even offered due to Melbourne IT inflexibility and bad will to purchase another product in lieu of one I purchased but again Melbourne IT refused. Essentially they would lose no money but still they would not accept. Totally exasperating that a surpervisor can be so INFLEXIBLE. He offered some kind of upgrade on the existing product which I can not utilise and which I explained to John Patrick. His words that’s all I can offer. In the end Melbourne IT terminated the call at 6.09pm. I was not abusive or rude and MELBOURNE IT your lack of compassion in customer service is totally unacceptable. If I could give a zero score I would. Tghe ball is in your court to resolve this complaint to my satisfaction. To this point I have received NONE.
Hi Pat
i think it would be a good idea to go to the ombudsman if you think they have not done right by you , i know i would in your situation
Hope it gets sorted out
cheers
Jeff
Superb blog! Do you have any hints for aspiring writers? I’m hoping to start my own website soon but I’m a little lost on everything. Would you propose starting with a free platform like WordPress or go for a paid option? There are so many choices out there that I’m completely overwhelmed .. Any ideas? Kudos!
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I think generally .com are perceived as american based websites. So if you want a entirely Australian focus its still better to register a .com.au address.
Hi kev
You are right if you want people to know its a aus domain you can get .com.au domain which is also now available from godaddy
.com domains are cheaper and really on the internet if your blog is popular it doesnt really matter .com or .au
I like your write up
I have actually switched over from smarty host to godaddy reading your article and thanks for the discount link .. i bought 4 au and com domains
time for aussie domain providers to up thier game
It’s a good head ups, JayJay. I’ve just read your post and done a good comparison about both .com and .com domain. This is something worth to read and I’ll share this in my social network too. 🙂
I always spent my half an hour to read this website’s posts all the time along with
a mug of coffee.