.nz Domain
New Zealand's Official Country Domain
Register your .nz domain from just £27.99/yr. Free DNS management, email forwarding, and 10GB mailbox included with every domain.
What is a .nz domain?
The .nz domain is New Zealand's country code TLD, managed by InternetNZ. Launched as a direct second-level domain in 2014 (previously only .co.nz was available for businesses), .nz offers a cleaner, shorter alternative. New Zealand has one of the highest internet penetration rates in the world at over 95%. Kiwi consumers trust .nz domains, and they perform well in Google's New Zealand search results. Registration is open to anyone worldwide.
Who should register .nz?
New Zealand businesses, UK companies trading with NZ, tourism operators, and exporters targeting the Kiwi market.
Why choose .nz?
- New Zealand's official country code managed by InternetNZ
- Open to worldwide registration
- 95%+ internet penetration in New Zealand
- Shorter and cleaner than traditional .co.nz
Who runs .nz, and since when
Registry data from the .nz delegation record held by IANA, which maintains the internet's root zone. Eligibility comes from the registry's own policy, and the prices are ours.
- Extension type
- Country-code (ccTLD)
- Registry operator
- InternetNZ
- The organisation that runs the extension
- In the root zone since
- 1987
- Delegated 19 January 1987
- Who can register
- Open registration; we could not reach InternetNZ policy pages to verify the detail
- Checked against the registry's own policy
- Our price
- £27.99 a year
- Ex VAT. Renews at the same price
What a .nz buys that a .kiwi cannot
New Zealand has two national-feeling extensions and they are not equivalent. .nz is the country code, delegated to InternetNZ on 19 January 1987, which makes it one of the older entries in the root zone. .kiwi is a generic extension delegated in November 2013 that borrows the nickname. The .kiwi registry says as much itself, answering the question of whether it has anything to do with .nz with an absolute not, and calling .nz a competitor it likes.
The consequence sits in Google. Google treats any extension ICANN has not classified as a country code as generic, and separately publishes a short list of country codes it makes generic anyway. .nz appears on neither, so it is read as country-targeted, while .kiwi is read as generic. For a business that wants New Zealand search visibility, that difference is the whole argument.
One caveat we would rather state than hide. InternetNZ blocks automated access to its policy pages, so we could not read the current .nz registration rules at source while writing this. Nothing above depends on them. If eligibility, a naming rule or a transfer condition matters to your order, ask us and we will confirm it with the registry before you pay.
Is .nz the right choice for you?
We would rather sell you the right extension once than the wrong one twice.
.nz works well if
- You sell to New Zealand customers and want the extension Google reads as New Zealand. That signal is the main reason to buy any country code.
- The co.nz is already yours and you want the shorter direct form as the address you actually put on the marketing.
- You are a UK exporter with New Zealand distribution, and the local site should not look like a translated afterthought.
Look elsewhere if
- Your customers are British. A .nz points Google at the wrong country and will do nothing for you in UK results.
- It costs more each year than a .co.uk, so it only earns its place where New Zealand trade is real rather than aspirational.
- You want warmth rather than officialdom. .nz reads as a jurisdiction, where .kiwi in the same market reads as a person, which suits some brands better.
Trading mainly with UK customers? The .co.uk carries the signal you need and costs less every year. See .co.uk pricing.
.nz vs .kiwi: which should you register?
Same country, different jobs. .nz is the official one: the country code, in the root zone since 1987, run by InternetNZ, and read by Google as a New Zealand site. .kiwi is a generic extension from the 2013 wave, open to anybody in the world with no check at all, which is a decision its own registry publishes and explains.
If you can only have one and you sell to New Zealanders, take the .nz, because the search signal and the familiarity both sit there. Take the .kiwi when tone is the point: on the van, in the radio advert, or as the address you say out loud, pointing at the .nz behind it.
.nz domain questions, answered
What people ask us before registering a .nz domain.
Can't find what you're looking for?
Ask us directlyOne is a country code and one is not. .nz was delegated to InternetNZ in January 1987 and Google reads it as a New Zealand site. .kiwi is a generic extension delegated in November 2013 to Dot Kiwi Limited, and Google treats it as generic, so it carries no country signal. The Dot Kiwi FAQ answers the question of whether the two are related with an absolute not. For search, buy the .nz. For tone, the .kiwi is the friendlier address.
Yes, as a signal rather than as a guarantee. Google says country-code extensions are tied to a specific country and provide a strong signal to both users and search engines that a site is intended for that country. .nz is a country code and is not on Google's short list of country codes it treats as generic, so the signal applies. It will not outrank better content, but it removes any ambiguity about who the site is for.
In practice yes, and 365i registers them, but we would rather be accurate than confident here: InternetNZ blocks automated access to its policy pages, so we could not read the current registration rules at source when writing this page. If eligibility, a naming rule or a transfer condition matters to your order, ask us before you pay and we will confirm the position with the registry. That is a better answer than repeating a rule from a reseller summary.
Included with Your .nz Domain
DNS Management
Full DNS zone editor to manage A, CNAME, MX, TXT, and all record types.
Email Forwarding
Set up professional email addresses and forward to any inbox.
Auto-Renewal
Never lose your domain with automatic renewal protection.
Free 10GB Mailbox
One 10GB mailbox (POP3/IMAP) included with every domain, on any TLD.
Other Geographic Domains Extensions
Register your .nz domain today
Secure your .nz domain from just £27.99/yr. Free DNS management, email forwarding, and 10GB mailbox included.
