Seeking Advice on Buying .com and .com.au Domains

ar7ist on 08/01/2024 - 17:34

Hi all,

I'm keen on buying 2-3 domains, lets say example.com, example.com.au and example.au

I've read the wiki to get cheap .au domains along with the deals on the Domain Name page.

Now I know that for .com, Cloudflare is probably the cheapest option but they don't have .com.au domains plus they force to use their nameservers (I read this in a comment from @Kyle-K and not a 100% sure of the implications)

My aim is to either host a web app or a website (code or wordpress).

Any recommendations if I should:

Would appreciate your help.

Internet Domain Name

Comments

  • AustriaBargain on 08/01/2024 - 17:44
    +3

    porkbun is cheap too for .com, I'm in the middle of transitioning from Namecheap to porkbun for .coms. If you only want three domains though saving a buck per domain probably shouldn't be your main concern.

    • ar7ist on 08/01/2024 - 17:52

      As far as domain management goes, is it better to have them all in one place?

      Howcome you decided to transfer from Namecheap?

      • AustriaBargain on 08/01/2024 - 18:02

        Hundreds of domains, porkbun saves me a few bucks per domain even with Namecheap's VIP bulk pricing. I thought about cloud flare but I think porkbun is a better fit for me. My au domains are with VentraIP, just for their reputation.

        • ar7ist on 08/01/2024 - 20:06

          Who do you use to host the websites?

        • thisusernameistaken on 08/01/2024 - 20:48

          If you have hundreds of domains, Synergy Wholesale would be a better fit for au domains

          • AustriaBargain on 08/01/2024 - 21:17

            @thisusernameistaken: Nah not hundreds of au domains. And almost all au domains are client domains so they ultimately pay for those.

            • ar7ist on 08/01/2024 - 21:23

              @AustriaBargain: That makes sense, I'm guessing you offer website related services?

              • AustriaBargain on 08/01/2024 - 21:24

                @ar7ist: More services that include a website, for small businesses. Offering just websites is kind of a chore.

            • thisusernameistaken on 08/01/2024 - 22:41

              @AustriaBargain: Ah, I see. You don't do domain reselling? Missing out on extra income there, although invoicing can be a pain.

              • AustriaBargain on 08/01/2024 - 23:27

                @thisusernameistaken: I get offers a lot. I did sell one but it was such a massive hassle. After they offered I should have just put it up for sale on a domain reseller site and let them pay. I thought giving them my WISE bank account details and such to avoid fees would be a good idea but it wasn't. They paid but it took a lot of time. Sometimes people offer cash through a service that acts as a middleman. Weird thing is I don't even have my contact details on the sites. All the domains have something on them. They offer through the abuse function through the registrar, so they are going pretty far out of their way to do it. Most individuals wouldn't even know it's an option.

                But I didn't buy them to sell them. I think that 30 years form now .com will be more valuable than ever. The more .xyz and .store domains they keep coming up with, the more .com will be seen as the king of domains. Except certain countries like the uk where .co.uk is king, and even Australia .com.au is seen as more legit.

                • thisusernameistaken on 08/01/2024 - 23:46

                  @AustriaBargain: I was referring to domain reselling through WHMCS where clients buy from you rather you referring them to VentraIP.

                  I hope you got a good price for the domain you sold. I'm sure selling existing domains would be a hassle.

  • SBOB on 08/01/2024 - 17:53
    +1

    Assuming all those domains are going to point to the same place, I wouldn't stress over a couple bucks a year and just buy them from a single well reviewed/trusted registrar (ie not GoDaddy)

    One interface/management page to make config and renewals easier.

    • ar7ist on 08/01/2024 - 17:58

      Good advice on not buying from GoDaddy.

      Do you have any recommendation for a registrar to buy all domains?

  • st1ng on 08/01/2024 - 19:38
    +2

    Clickhost for .au, porkbun for everyone else. Both have great services and sharp pricing.

    Just one thing to note. You don't actual 'buy' a domain name, you simply have a licence to use it. https://www.auda.org.au/au-domain-names/domain-name-help/ren…

    • ar7ist on 08/01/2024 - 20:08

      Ah, we are leasing the domain and it gets renewed periodically.

      Who do you use for hosting?

      • st1ng on 09/01/2024 - 10:56

        My DNS nameservers are hosted on two $1/m VPSes I picked up on a Black Friday sale. Having said that, there is nothing wrong with using the web interface (and API for Porkbun) for hosting the nameservers.

  • Chaddy on 08/01/2024 - 20:35

    As others have said, for the sake of simplicity register the 3 domains with one provider as it will make things easier.
    You could even buy the hosting from the same place as your domain names if the place has been around for a while and has a good reputation. Though the general consensus is to register the hosting with another provider to have some separation in case you need to change hosting providers one day.
    Basic shared hosting should do the job for setting up a basic Wordpress site.
    You can always look at things like Managed website hosting in the future if you feel you need further assistance with maintaining your web presence.

    • ar7ist on 08/01/2024 - 21:24

      Thanks @Chaddy, definitely planning to stick with 1 registrar based on the advice from evereyone here.

      • Chaddy on 08/01/2024 - 22:24

        No worries, We also use Synergy Wholesale at CPK Web Services for domains but our pricing is a bit higher due to targeting more business customers.
        Plus our hosting is fully managed so its a slightly different offering.
        But Synergy wholesale is owned by Nexigen Digital who own VentraIP who are another general shared hosting provider you can look at.
        What do you mean by software as a service, are you looking at building an online app or have you already got something built that you need hosted? This might need something other then basic shared hosting depending on requirements.
        I might suggest that you email sales at a few providers with some details of what your wanting to host.
        Though you also mentioned Wordpress so your requirements are slightly confusing.
        Unless you want a drag and drop type builder in which case you can install those on Wordpress probably wouldn't recommend them though certainly not long term.
        It all comes down to requirements and your budget at the end of the day. I've tried to keep my recommendations un-biassed given I own a hosting business.

        • ar7ist on 08/01/2024 - 22:41

          I work in tech myself (long hours) and eventually plan to code the app.
          For now, I'm keen on getting to a MVP using a no-code tool and have dynamic websites as well.

  • Chaddy on 08/01/2024 - 20:38

    Yeah the Au domains are leased from 1 to 5 years and the .com domains you can buy up to 10 years at a time.

  • thisusernameistaken on 08/01/2024 - 20:46
    +3

    Quantum Core is owned by GoHosting. GoHosting is also a registrar (the company that pays auDA directly)

    Clickhost is a reseller of Synergy Wholesale. Synergy Wholesale is the registrar

    Both Clickhost and Quantum Core (GoHosting) are well regarded companies.

    The wholesale price (the price registrars like GoHosting and Synergy Wholesale pay) for 1 year registration on a .com.au domain is $8.67

    ClickHost is 30c more expensive compared to Quantum Core because they have to pay Synergy Wholesale who add a small markup.

    Porkbun will be billed in a foreign currency and your bank may charge a conversion fee and add a markup to conversion rate making the great deal not so great.

    Web Hosting depends on what you're hosting. If it's just static code without a backend… use a CDN like Bunny.net. If it's WordPress, DreamIT Host would be my pick.

    Cloudflare is dirt cheap but has restrictions (like must use them for DNS). I also don't know what the support is like if you do run into issues with them. I'd recommend paying the extra couple of dollars if you have no clue about domains, at least that way you can contact someone if you do run into an issue (and quickly).

    Whatever you do, just make sure you get WHOIS privacy. WHOIS is a public database with the contact details for everyone who owns a domain. It contains your address, phone number and email address. WHOIS privacy is an optional service (free or paid depending on your registrar/reseller) that replaces your contact details with the registrar's details. It will stop your phone number or email address ending up in a spam database.

    While you cannot get WHOIS privacy for au domains (due to auDA policies), the amount of information exposed is much less. It's just ABN, Name, Email

    • ar7ist on 08/01/2024 - 21:21

      Thanks for detailed reply, will definitely look at getting WHOIS privacy.

      I might stick with Clickhost/Quantam Core for both my .com and au domains for the simplicity of managing the domains as recommended by everyone on the thread.

      Who would you recommend for Hosting for SaaS/Dynamic website?

      • thisusernameistaken on 08/01/2024 - 21:34

        I use DreamIT Host although Clickhost and Quantum Core should be fine.

        Quantum Core doesn't offer unlimited bandwidth though

        DreamIT Host has web hosting plans with DirectAdmin and cPanel (you choose). Both Clickhost and Quantum Core only use cPanel.

    • AustriaBargain on 08/01/2024 - 22:07

      If your website is just static code why not use Github Pages, or Cloudflare Pages, or even Netlify if it's relatively low traffic.

      • thisusernameistaken on 08/01/2024 - 22:36

        I don't know how familiar OP is with Git but those are all good options too. I think OP should just get a shared hosting plan though as those come with emails

    • Chaddy on 08/01/2024 - 22:42

      Doesn't Quantum Core only host servers and self managed servers at that? I certainly wouldn't recommend the OP buy a self managed server as they wouldn't have the system admin expertise required to manage the day to day running of the server.
      But if they have shared hosting as well as servers by all means take a look
      Been a while since I looked at their offerings.
      I know Gohost the parent company definitely have shared hosting.

      • thisusernameistaken on 08/01/2024 - 22:44

        They definitely offer shared hosting. I think initally it was just unmanaged servers

    • Kyle-K on 09/01/2024 - 07:05

      Everything else in your reply is perfect, but just wanted to point out this.

      Porkbun will be billed in a foreign currency and your bank may charge a conversion fee and add a markup to conversion rate making the great deal not so great.

      In actual fact, even with the bad exchange rate right now, even if you were to pay additional conversion over the Mastercard or Visa rate of the day, e.g. an extra 3%. It's still works out cheaper at porkbun.

      This is mostly due to the fact that most Australian registrars that operate here have to pay GST and hedge for currency and unfortunately most of them still haven't spent their funds when the Australian dollar was lower when they had to transfer into the registries apart from auDA and any other ccTLD's everything is pretty much build in USD to Australian providers.

      Early December I confirm this by doing my annual comparison of rates across markets.

      Cloudflare is dirt cheap but has restrictions (like must use them for DNS). I also don't know what the support is like if you do run into issues with them. I'd recommend paying the extra couple of dollars if you have no clue about domains, at least that way you can contact someone if you do run into an issue (and quickly).

      Unless you're on a paid DNS plan, it's community-based support with community based escalation. In my experience, 3 to 5 days before escalation to physical support from the community and the community is not very helpful.

      The MVP members are constantly just posting the same repetitive responses with no individual tailored context leaving you to pretty much a work it out for yourself.

      While you cannot get WHOIS privacy for au domains (due to auDA policies), the amount of information exposed is much less. It's just ABN, Name, Email

      It does depend on what you're registering now, but yes, you can also limit some of the exposure of some of that information by using user based roles and role based emails. but if you choose to do a personal citizen/resident registration for a direct .au your name is going to have to be shown publicly.

      • Chaddy on 10/01/2024 - 13:14

        Just on this as well, AuDA do allow Privacy on Au domains but they charge for it its expensive as well.
        Can't remember the actual name they give for it but its an option.
        They just don't call it privacy I think they call it whois protection or something like that its an option i've noticed it listed at Synergy before just had no-one ask about it.

        • thisusernameistaken on 10/01/2024 - 14:28

          WHOIS Privacy is called ID Protection with Synergy Wholesale and it's not available for .au domains. You might be getting confused with auLOCKDOWN which is "used to prevent any updates to a domain name without the express authorisation of the registrant".

          Furthermore, section 2.4 of the Registrant Contact Information Policy (2010-07) says

          "Registrants must not… do anything which may have the effect of concealing the true identity of the registrant or the registrant contact (eg. by using a private or proxy registration service), unless specifically permitted otherwise by another auDA published policy."

          • Kyle-K on 10/01/2024 - 14:53

            @thisusernameistaken:

            You might be getting confused with auLOCKDOWN which is "used to prevent any updates to a domain name without the express authorisation of the registrant".

            That was my thought as well.

            Furthermore, section 2.4 of the Registrant Contact Information Policy (2010-07 says

            "Registrants must not… do anything which may have the effect of concealing the true identity of the registrant or the registrant contact (eg. by using a private or proxy registration service), unless specifically permitted otherwise by another auDA published policy."

            There's also more outlined here in the .au Domain Administration Rules: Registrar 2.8 and 2.9

        • Kyle-K on 10/01/2024 - 14:52

          Just on this as well, auDA do allow Privacy on .au domains but they charge for it its expensive as well. Can't remember the actual name they give for it but its an option.

          Nope, definitely against policy to offer a privacy service. As I said you can use role, based information.

          In upcoming changes to current policy which was open for, and now closed public consultation back in October last year. There is proposed wording to be added that will allow auDA to suppress information from WHOIS. But these changes have not gone into affect but are expected to do so this year. It's only under certain circumstances and Wood need approval from auDA.

          They just don't call it privacy I think they call it whois protection or something like that its an option i've noticed it listed at Synergy before just had no-one ask about it.

          The term used by VentraIP and Synergy Wholesale is "ID Protection" and does not apply to .au domains it's against the registrar policy that they signed with auDA to offer such a service.

          Registrars are even not permitted to support a automated function that would support role based replacement, even know permitted all they can do is notify you that this is an option, but you have to do it yourself.

          • thisusernameistaken on 10/01/2024 - 15:08

            @Kyle-K: Can you give an example of role based replacement?

            Would it be

            Registrant Contact Name: John Smith
            Registrant Contact Email: [email protected]

            Becomes

            Registrant Contact Name: Domain Manager
            Registrant Contact Email: [email protected]

            • Kyle-K on 10/01/2024 - 15:31

              @thisusernameistaken: Yep, the one you mentioned would be acceptable as well as the examples shown in the registry rules here

              NOTE: For example, the following are role-based descriptions:

              Domain Name: forexample.com.au;
              Registrant Contact Name: CEO;
              Registrant Contact Email: [email protected];
              Technical Contact Name: Domain Administrator;
              Technical Contact Email: [email protected].

              I've always used personally.

              Registrant Contact Name: Domain Name Administrator
              Registrant Contact Email: [email protected]
              Technical Contact Name: Domain Name Administrator
              Technical Contact Email: [email protected]

              I started using this I want to say like 10+ years ago back then at the time, it was the most common one used by the largest companies and the banks or a slightly modified variant. but some of the biggest companies out there have now switched to various different things.

              I don't do this on direct .au as my name is listed anyway but I do use a custom email address for all direct .au domain names.

              • thisusernameistaken on 10/01/2024 - 15:36

                @Kyle-K: Thanks. Could you put the company or business name as the Registrant Contact Name? That's what OzBargain has put

                Registrant Contact Name: Delvu Media Pty Ltd

                • Kyle-K on 10/01/2024 - 15:45
                  +1

                  @thisusernameistaken: I can't see why not there's a few major companies doing that now.

                  • ar7ist on 10/01/2024 - 15:50

                    @Kyle-K: How can someone change:
                    Registrant Contact Name
                    Registrant Contact Email
                    Technical Contact Name
                    Technical Contact Email

                    Do we do this while registering for a domain or can we do this after registering as well?

                    • Kyle-K on 10/01/2024 - 16:01

                      @ar7ist: You can change this during and after the registration.

                      The only thing you can't change is what you used to apply under the eligibility criteria without doing a correction if you're eligible to do so or Change of Registrant (CoR) but the CoR process essentially re-registers the domain name to a new entity all the time on the domain is reset and you have to pay a nominal fee to do this.

                      You're technically required to do the CoR if you change the entity you used to apply for under the eligibility criteria as that entity technically is the owner of the domain and the new legal entity needs to also meet eligibility for you to be able to complete a CoR to it.

                      So for example, as you stated on discord to me if you're to use your soul trader ABN now and then change to a different business structure, you would need to complete the CoR process.

                      If you were to choose five years of registration the maximum allowed and you choose to do this in one years time, you would lose the remaining years of registration when you complete the CoR.

  • Scantu on 08/01/2024 - 22:18

    If your venture is significant enough that you need to buy 3 domain names to protect your IP - don't fret over the two dollars you are going to save by doing this

    • ar7ist on 08/01/2024 - 22:34

      I will ultimately end up buying about 9 to 12 domains, about 3-4 each of

      • .com
      • .com.au
      • .au

      So at this stage, I primarily have two concerns:

      • Having one place to manage all the domains so I dont have to switch between registrars — I would say convenience is more important than cost and should have mentioned this in my post.
      • Being able to host, both SaaS application and dynamic websites.
      • thisusernameistaken on 08/01/2024 - 22:39

        Are you developing this or is someone else? If it's not a basic WordPress website and you are not developing it, I'd talk to your developer about the server requirements.

        • ar7ist on 08/01/2024 - 22:43

          I'll be building it myself using a no-code tool initially.
          Once I have a MVP, I can export the code.

          • thisusernameistaken on 08/01/2024 - 22:45

            @ar7ist: Do you mind sharing the name of the tool or elaborate on what language the code is exported in?

            • ar7ist on 08/01/2024 - 22:49

              @thisusernameistaken: Have a few in mind and will play around in their free tier first:

              • Bubble - have been around for a while and has quite a few tools, however it does not offer code export.
              • Wappler - has a bit of a learning curve for a no-code tool but allows code export.
              • thisusernameistaken on 08/01/2024 - 23:00

                @ar7ist: If you choose Bubble, you won't need to buy web hosting (as Bubble already includes it) except if you want some email accounts.

                Wappler appears to support PHP, Node.js and ASP.NET.

                Almost every shared web hosting plan will support some PHP version. Some providers offer Node.js support as well.

                ASP.NET, you typically need to find a web host that offer this as it's niche in the shared hosting world.

                PHP is the most common server side language

      • Chaddy on 08/01/2024 - 22:55

        As I said before what do you mean by SAAS application,? these are normally hosted on their own inforstructure and you pay to access them, hence not having the need to host them yourself.
        If your building an application i'll need more details to be able to recommend suitable hosting.
        Certainly happy to discuss options, but what I am getting at is building your first wordpress blog is very different to building a web application that you expect 1000000 customers to access globally all at the same time. They have very different hosting requirements.
        So more details are needed.

  • Chaddy on 08/01/2024 - 23:04

    Based on the above comments I would open a free AWS account and play around with the tools in their.
    Or Microsoft Azure but AWS will probably meet your requirements as they have more services available.
    Azure is better for getting pre-configured software up and running and better for Windows licensing.

  • Chaddy on 10/01/2024 - 13:10

    Just on the ASP.Net comment, you need Windows shared hosting or a Windows VPS or dedicated server for that. Most providers can help you out with this in some way shape or form.
    Most will sell you a VPS though as Shared Windows hosting isn't very popular.

    • ar7ist on 10/01/2024 - 15:25

      That's true.

      I have experience hosting SaaS on Azure Web Apps so I might try and get a trial account and see if that works.

      I also liked your advice from earlier to open a free AWS account and play around.

  • Chaddy on 10/01/2024 - 19:39

    Yeah AWS have a lot of options when it comes to building web apps as they have been around longer.
    However if you go the reserved instances on Azure you get pretty large discounts for registering for say 3 years.
    But it comes down to requirements and budget.
    You can run Wordpress as a web App on Azure which is pretty good as you get access to auto scaling and the other cloud options.
    Sometimes it is cheaper just to host stuff on traditional VMs in a Datacentre though it just comes down to requirements.

    • kiitos on 11/01/2024 - 09:54

      How does Azure pricing compare to AWS pricing? I presume they're similar for comparable services, or do each also offer services unique to themselves?

      • Chaddy on 11/01/2024 - 14:56
        +1

        It depends on what your wanting to run, i'd say for Windows based applications and licensing Azure is a lot cheaper, especiallly if you have enterprise agreements in place with Microsoft bulk licenses etc, as you can run those on Azure.
        For VMs with things like Wordpress I think AWS Litesail probably gets you more resources for cheaper.
        The CPU and network performance from Azure certainly on the older VMs isn't too crash hot, I mean the amount of redundancy within the network is fantastic as its Microsoft and they've spent millions installing Fibre but the actual hardware they run when benchmarking is a bit average. Same goes for some of the AWS machines as well. You actually get quicker performance out of a dedicated server in a lot of cases.
        This is where having a multi cloud setup can work if you have the funds especially for redundancy for CPU intensive applications or normal websites though a decent sized VM with a decent network will do the job. The cloud stuff comes in handy if your dealing with traffic spikes or you need auto scaling servers for a large website or if you need to load balance between multiple servers.
        Don't get me wrong as my business is a Microsoft partner I quite like Azure and have used AWS in the past as well but I don't think cloud will completely replace the likes of dedicated servers any time soon. As some applications just run better with more CPU and Ram thrown at them without the complexity of cloud hosting.

  • Chaddy on 11/01/2024 - 15:00

    Just to add to this, some of the AWS EC2 models can be a bit expensive the same as Azure but if you start small and use the budgeting tools within the platform you should be fine.
    Though it sounds like the Azure App service would be what your after just make sure you use the pricing calculator and the budgeting tool within Azure.

  • b4rg on 29/01/2024 - 13:11

    Hi all.. trying to catch up on the whole thread here haha

    Got a renewal notice from crazy domains for our .com.au domain name.. seems expensive at $96 for 5 years and more expensive rates for less time duration..

    Should I stay with them or change to someone else? Who is good and cheaper please? Thanks

    • ar7ist on 29/01/2024 - 14:27
      +2

      For .com.au domains, try clickhost. I haven't used the transfer feature yet but its costing approx $10/year.

  • kwv42 on 06/02/2024 - 15:33

    I think for com.au you need a registered Australian business name?

    • Kyle-K on 06/02/2024 - 16:14
      +1

      Correct you need to meet one of the eligibility criteria. Direct .au does allow for citizen/residence.

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