We often see online adverts offering ‘Free Domain Names’, such as get a ‘Free NZ Domain Name for life’. However there is actually no such thing as a ‘Free NZ Domain Name’, as NZ domain names do actually have a cost to them. So the company you are buying it from, will have to pay for it, and the cost will be subsidised in some way.

If you see a promotion for a ‘free domain name’, then the cost of the supposedly free domain name will be subsidised by the price of another service that it gets bundled with. So as a result you may be paying more for that other service, as it is also covering the cost of the domain name. So it is really just marketing spin. It can also make it more difficult to cancel one of the services, if the services are bundled together. So we never recommend buying a domain name and web hosting as part of a bundled service.

We strongly suggest you read the fine print of any of these types of ‘free domain’ promotions. In some cases, you may find that you don’t even ‘own’ the domain name, and you may only be given the rights to ‘use’ the domain name while you use the bundled services. So if you decide to move to another web hosting provider, you may end up losing the domain name. Or they may try to sell it back to you at a highly inflated rate. In other cases the ‘free domain for life’, may only apply while you are using that companies services, and once you stop using them, you will need to start paying for the domain. That hardly sounds like a ‘free domain name for life’ to us.

Domain names are cheap as it is, and cost less then the price of a coffee once a month. So there is no reason why any reputable NZ business should be taking up such promotions, just to save a few dollars. Think of the effects on your business if you lose your domain name, because you got ‘given’ a ‘free domain name that you thought you owned, but it was actually owned by the domain provider.

With the Lounge Network, you can register and transfer NZ domain names to us at anytime via our all new automated NZ Domain Manager system, and they are always registered under your name.We never put our name as the registered owner, of any domain name that we register on behalf of clients.

The Lounge Network is one of NZ’s longest serving NZ domain providers, and are 100% Kiwi. This means we are 100% NZ owned and operated, with NZ based support.