Quick Summary:
This is not an in-depth Crazy Domains NZ review by any means. But having worked with quite a few clients who have been lured into the trappings of Crazy Domains, I felt it was worth warning other potential customers of the major drawbacks of choosing this company to register your domain name.
They do their best to look like they have a big New Zealand presence. They do the same thing in Australia.
But in reality this is a Singapore-registered company operated through Dreamscape Networks International Pte Ltd. Which itself is managed by Newfold Digital Inc., a large US web-services conglomerate. Newfold is headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, and owns over 80+ brands that you probably thought were independent – everything from Bluehost to HostGator, Network Solutions to Web.com, and so many more. They have a reputation for acquiring smaller web hosting companies and running them into the ground.
They may have an office in New Plymouth (unclear). But it’s really not where anything significant happens. If you can even get hold of support, it’s not in NZ.
It’s very difficult to find any clear domain pricing on Crazy Domains website. That’s not normal behaviour for a domain registrar.
They will attempt to lure you in with what looks like a cheap price compared to other providers. But beware. This is a discounted first year only price. Renewals are at full price, which for .nz domains is 30-40% more.
You would also be forgiven for thinking that even this discounted pricing is inconsistent. It is. If you visit the site for the first time you will probably see $29.99 for a .nz. But come back later and try again and you’re likely to get $37.27 (and a different renewal price!). Clear your browser cookies and it’s back to $29.99 again.
Pricing in New Zealand is generally required to be clear on whether GST is included or not. If it’s not stated then it’s considered included.
Crazy Domains make this very unclear indeed. You may see a small ‘i’ (info) icon next to that attractive $29.99 price. If you hover over this not only does it say “renewal prices may differ” (‘may’ differ..? they do differ!), but it also says “Applicable taxes will apply at checkout.”
When you finally get to the checkout – an extra 15% GST is then added to this price.
Most domain companies either include GST already, or they clearly state that GST is not included in prices listed.
This is one my biggest issues with Crazy Domains. You cannot add a TXT record to your domain unless you buy their ‘Premium DNS Service’. And they do NOT tell you before you’ve bought the domain that this is the case. This costs an extra $15 +GST per year, per domain!
No other domain company we’ve ever come across (worldwide) charges you extra for this fundamental feature. And we’ve used pretty much all the main registrars at some point.
Any modern web presence will require at least one TXT record. They are a fundamental part of how domains and DNS work. TXT records are used for everything from verifying to 3rd party services that you own a particular domain, through to ensuring your emails get delivered (via SPF and DMARC records). This is not and has never been a ‘premium’ service. It’s like buying a car, then discovering the indicators only work if you pay for a ‘Premium Driving’ upgrade.
When you buy a domain they even add to your shopping cart a reassuring note that says “Great news! With this order, you get a FREE DNS hosting.” No mention that this is a kneecapped version that will require an upgrade for the domain to be usable!
SIDENOTE: There is a workaround to this. You can use a 3rd party DNS service such as Cloudflare (which has many other benefits besides) where you can add all the DNS records you like for free. Or you can transfer the domain away from Crazy Domains to another domain provider.
There’s nothing wrong with a company recommending other services they provide. And there’s nothing wrong with doing that during the checkout process.
But…
What is not OK, in my opinion, is automatically adding a bunch of ‘free’ services to your cart, that automatically renew and charge you. Yes, Crazy Domains do state that you will get charged when they renew, if you slow down enough to notice the very small grey print that says so! There is nothing there to acknowledge that you agree to ongoing charges. And you have to actually delete these ‘free’ services from your cart to not order them.
All domain providers should have a feature to be able to provide secure 3rd party access to your domain. So if you ever need help with DNS settings, which can be highly technical to get right, you can provide (and remove) that access when you need to. It should never be necessary to share your personal login details. But not all domain registrars have this feature so it’s worth checking before you buy a domain.
Crazy Domains do have a feature for this, but it is poorly designed. They call this ‘delegating a domain’. It does the job, but it has the very unusual side effect of also changing the Technical Contact on your domain to the person you ‘delegate’ to.
The Technical Contact is a public record held against the domain, same as the Registrant/Owner Contact, and Admin Contact. It’s just odd to require one of these contacts to be publicly updated in order to provide access to a 3rd party. It also limits how many ‘sub accounts’ you can add.
Sidenote: the Registrant Contact on your domain should always be you, the business owner. The Registrant is the legal owner of your domain name. It should never therefore, ever, be the company who built your website, your tech support person, or anyone else. Read more in: Who Owns My Website Domain?
Whilst there isn’t a ‘perfect’ domain provider yet for .nz domains, there are much better alternatives to Crazy Domains:-
Other options are: Enlighten Domains, KiwiData, Affordable Domains
The .nz domain landscape is becoming more confusing.
Domains4Less is now Crazy Domains. Freeparking is now Crazy Domains. These acquisitions are pretty clear.
Discount Domains say they are owned by Freeparking. Therefore are also effectively Crazy Domains (i.e. Dreamscape Networks).
Then what is less clear is that Freeparking and Crazy Domains also have ‘reseller accounts’, where an independent business can sign-up to sell their products. Any reseller who was with Freeparking is now a reseller with Crazy Domains. All domains sold via their resellers are therefore registered via Crazy Domains, and use their systems.
Domains Direct are currently still a reseller for Crazy Domains (despite now being owned by SiteTech Group/Myhost).