Registering a domain is one of the cheapest things a New Zealand business will ever do, and one of the easiest to get quietly wrong. Most guidance on the subject either sells you extensions you don’t need or glosses over the parts that actually matter — what happens if you miss a renewal, what your provider is and isn’t allowed to charge you, and who to go to when something goes wrong.
This guide covers the practical mechanics of buying and holding a .nz domain, checked against the .nz Rules and the registry’s own documentation. It explains the terminology as it goes and doesn’t recommend any particular registrar.
Understanding .nz and its second levels
New Zealand’s country-code top-level domain is .nz. Beneath it sit a set of second-level domains — .co.nz, .net.nz, .org.nz and others — and since 2014 you have also been able to register directly at the second level, giving you a shorter address like yourbusiness.nz.
There were 764,987 registered .nz domains as of March 2026.
.nz versus .co.nz
The practical differences are smaller than most guides suggest. Both are country-code addresses, both carry the same wholesale registry fee, and both are treated the same way by search engines as a signal of New Zealand focus. The choice comes down to availability and how you want the address to read.
Registering both and pointing one at the other with a permanent 301 redirect is a common approach. It’s sensible if the name matters to your brand, and it costs roughly the price of one extra domain a year.
One historical wrinkle worth knowing: when second-level .nz opened in 2014, some base names were already held by different people across different second levels — one party holding jobloggs.co.nz and another holding jobloggs.net.nz, for example. These are known as conflicted names, and InternetNZ has confirmed the question of who is entitled to the top-tier version still isn’t settled in every case.
Moderated second levels
Not everything is open registration. A small number of second levels — including govt.nz, ac.nz, iwi.nz, health.nz and school.nz — are moderated, meaning eligibility is checked before a registration is granted. The commonly used ones (.co.nz, .net.nz, .org.nz) are not.
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Worth noting: there is no local presence requirement for .nz. Anyone in the world can register one. The extension signals a New Zealand focus; it doesn’t prove a New Zealand business is behind it.
Who runs .nz, and why that matters to you
InternetNZ holds the delegation for .nz and operates the registry. Domain Name Commission Limited (DNC) is an InternetNZ subsidiary that manages compliance, enforcement and dispute resolution, acting independently in the performance of those functions. The current .nz Rules, version 3.2, came into effect on 17 March 2026.
This matters because the framework gives you protections that generic global extensions don’t. Two specific ones are worth committing to memory:
Your provider cannot charge you to generate a UDAI (the code you need to move your domain elsewhere), and cannot charge you an exit fee. The Domain Name Commission states this plainly. If a registrar tries either, that’s a compliance issue you can raise with the DNC rather than a cost you have to accept.
The DNC also administers a Dispute Resolution Service for cases where someone has registered a name that unfairly conflicts with your established trading name or trademark. It’s designed as a cheaper and faster alternative to court, with an independent expert deciding whether the registration was unfair.
What a .nz domain actually costs
The registry charges authorised registrars a wholesale fee of NZ$22 per domain per year, excluding GST, and that fee is the same for second-level (.nz) and third-level (.co.nz) registrations.
Retail pricing sits above that. NZ$23 to NZ$50 per year is the normal range for standard extensions, with variation reflecting what the registrar bundles in. You can register for one to ten years at a time.
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The trap to watch for is the discounted first year followed by a much higher renewal — a pattern the Domain Name Commission specifically warns about. Check the renewal price before you register, not after. Because you can transfer away for free under the .nz Rules, an unreasonable renewal is fixable, but it’s easier to avoid.
How to register a domain, step by step
Check availability. Any authorised registrar’s search tool queries the live registry.
Check for trademark conflicts. Before committing to a name, search the Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand (IPONZ) trademark register. Registering a domain that conflicts with someone’s trademark is how disputes start.
Register through an authorised registrar. You’ll supply registrant contact details, and can include your NZBN where relevant.
Point your DNS. Update the nameservers or A record to point at your hosting environment. This is what connects the name to your actual website files.
Set your MX records if you want email on the domain, pointing at whichever mail provider you use — Google Workspace, Microsoft 365 or another service.
Install an SSL certificate so the site loads over HTTPS. Most hosts now issue these automatically; our guide to enabling SSL on NZ WordPress hosting covers the process.
Turn on two-factor authentication and auto-renewal in your registrar account before you do anything else.
Registration itself takes effect quickly, but DNS changes propagate across the internet over a period that can range from minutes to around 24 hours depending on cached record lifetimes. Expect some inconsistency in that window rather than a clean switchover.
Choosing a registrar
Look past the headline first-year price at these:
Full DNS record access — A, AAAA, CNAME, MX and TXT records, editable without extra charges. You will need TXT records for email authentication and site verification.
Two-factor authentication on the account. Domain hijacking usually happens through a compromised registrar login, not through the registry.
Renewal pricing shown upfront, not discovered at renewal.
Registrar-level locking where offered, which prevents unauthorised transfers.
Support you can actually reach in your time zone when DNS breaks at an inconvenient hour.
Consolidating domains with one provider is genuinely useful for keeping track of renewal dates, though it isn’t worth paying a large premium for.
Does a .nz domain help your search rankings?
This is where domain guides tend to overpromise, so it’s worth being precise.
A country-code extension is a geotargeting signal. It tells Google your site is aimed at New Zealand, which helps you surface for New Zealand-focused queries. It is not a ranking boost in the sense of moving you up a national results page against equally relevant competitors.
The mechanism became more important in September 2022, when Google removed the International Targeting report from Search Console and dropped manual country targeting entirely — Google’s own documentation says the feature “was determined to have little value for the ecosystem, and is no longer supported.” Geographic relevance is now inferred from signals including the ccTLD, hreflang annotations, URL structure and the content itself.
The practical implication is the opposite of what older guides claim: a .nz domain doesn’t require configuration to signal New Zealand focus, and a .com now has one fewer lever available for doing so. That’s a real advantage of the local extension, but it’s about which audience sees you rather than how high you rank among them.
What actually happens when a .nz domain expires
This is the part most guides get wrong, and getting it wrong is expensive.
When a .nz registration expires, the domain is cancelled and enters a 90-day redemption period — the .nz Rules call this the Pending Release Period. During those 90 days:
Your website and email stop working. The domain no longer resolves.
You can still reinstate it. The current holder can have their registrar reinstate the domain at any point before the period ends, and can also transfer it to a different registrar and ask them to reinstate it.
Your registrar is not allowed to assign it to someone else or claim special access to it during this window.
Only after the 90 days does the name enter pending delete, get removed from the register, and become available for anyone to register.
So there is no brief 30-day window and no scramble. There is a three-month recovery period — but your site is down for all of it. That’s the actual cost of a missed renewal.
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The prevention is simple: enable auto-renewal, keep a valid payment method on file, and make sure the contact email on the account is hosted somewhere other than the domain in question. If your renewal notice goes to an address on the domain that just expired, you won’t receive it.
Transferring between registrars
Moving a .nz domain uses a UDAI — Unique Domain Authentication Identifier, effectively an authorisation code. You request it from your current provider, then give it to your new one along with the domain name.
Two details that trip people up:
The UDAI format changed when InternetNZ launched its new registry platform on 1 November 2022. Codes issued before then are no longer valid, so if you have an old one filed away, request a fresh one.
UDAIs expire after a set period for security reasons. Request yours when you’re ready to move, not months ahead.
Keep your existing nameservers pointed at your live hosting throughout the transfer and your site and email keep running. .nz transfers complete quickly once authorised, without the multi-day holding periods common to generic extensions. There’s more detail in our guide to transferring domain names.
Privacy and defensive registrations
The .nz register includes a Privacy Option — formerly the Individual Registrant Privacy Option — which withholds the holder’s contact details from public query results. It’s available to individuals rather than organisations, and under the current registry it’s applied at domain level rather than per contact. Businesses trading under the domain generally can’t use it.
On defensive registrations: securing the alternative second level of your own name is usually worthwhile and costs very little. Registering plurals, singulars and common typos is a judgement call that scales badly — a determined typosquatter has more variations available than you can affordably buy, and no registration strategy gives you exclusive control over a name. If your brand is genuinely valuable, a registered trademark plus the Dispute Resolution Service is a stronger protection than a long list of defensive domains.
This article is provided for factual and informational purposes only. It does not constitute legal, financial or professional advice, and it is not a recommendation to use any particular registrar or service. Registry rules, fees and policies change — the .nz Rules were last updated in March 2026 and further changes were under consultation at the time of writing. Verify current requirements with the Domain Name Commission or InternetNZ and seek qualified advice on trademark or dispute matters before acting.
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Frequently asked questions
What’s the real difference between .nz and .co.nz?
Very little in practice. Both are New Zealand country-code addresses, both carry the same registry fee, and search engines treat both as a New Zealand signal. .co.nz has longer familiarity with local consumers; .nz is shorter. Availability usually decides it. Registering both and redirecting one to the other is common.
How much does a .nz domain cost per year?
The registry charges registrars NZ$22 per domain per year excluding GST, and retail prices commonly land between NZ$23 and NZ$50. You can register for one to ten years. Check the renewal price before registering — heavily discounted first years often come with much higher renewals.
What happens if I forget to renew my domain?
The registration is cancelled and the domain enters a 90-day redemption period. Your website and email stop working immediately, but you can reinstate it through your registrar at any point during those 90 days. Only after that does it become available for anyone else to register.
Can my provider charge me to move my domain elsewhere?
No. The Domain Name Commission states that your provider must let you transfer free of charge, and is not permitted to charge you to generate your UDAI or to charge an exit fee.
Do I need to be in New Zealand to register a .nz domain?
No. There’s no local presence requirement for the open second levels. That also means a .nz address doesn’t by itself prove a New Zealand business is behind a site — treat it as a signal, not a guarantee.
Does a .nz domain improve my Google rankings?
It’s a geotargeting signal rather than a ranking boost — it helps Google understand your site is aimed at New Zealand. Since Google removed manual country targeting from Search Console in September 2022, the extension itself does more of that work than it used to, but it won’t lift you above equally relevant competitors in local results.
What can I do if someone registers a domain using my business name?
The Domain Name Commission administers a Dispute Resolution Service, which is designed to be faster and cheaper than court action. An independent expert assesses whether the registration is unfair given your rights in the name. Having a registered trademark strengthens your position considerably.