Domains are now part of your It's Your Idea account. You can search for one and register it, renew what you already hold, switch on auto-renew, edit DNS records and name servers, and pull your own transfer code — without emailing anyone or logging into a registrar panel you last saw in 2019.
Why bother building this
Domains are the single most common way a small business loses its website, and it is almost always the same story. The domain was registered years ago by someone who has since left, or by a web person nobody is still in touch with. The renewal notice goes to an email address that no longer exists. Nobody notices until the site stops resolving on a Saturday.
I've written before about who actually owns your domain and why it matters more than almost anything else in your setup. The best fix is boring: hold it in an account you control, in the same place as everything else, with renewal that doesn't depend on anyone remembering.
What you can do now
- Search and register. Check what's available and register it from a cart, with the .au eligibility details collected properly at checkout — that's a requirement for Australian domains, not an optional field.
- Renew. One button against any domain you hold, including ones that have already lapsed into the expired state.
- Auto-renew. A switch. On means you stop relying on anyone noticing an email.
- See expiry dates. Every domain lists when it runs out, so there are no surprises.
- Edit DNS records. Add, change and remove records yourself — useful when you're pointing a domain at a new site or verifying a service.
- Change name servers. For when the hosting moves.
- Get your EPP / auth code. Your transfer code, available on demand.
- Invoices. Domain invoices sit in the same place as everything else you're billed for.
The bit I want to be clear about
That transfer code is deliberate. If you ever want to move your domains somewhere else, you can get what you need yourself, at 11pm, without asking me and without a conversation about why you're leaving.
It's your domain. A registrar that makes leaving difficult is telling you something about how it expects to keep your business, and I'd rather not be that. The same thinking runs through the rest of the platform — no lock-in, and your data stays yours.
Where to find it
Sign in and open Domains & Hosting from your launchpad. If you don't have an account yet, it's free to create and you don't need a card to make one.
If you already hold domains elsewhere and want them in one place, you don't have to do it all at once — move them as they come up for renewal. If you'd like a hand working out what you hold and where, ask and I'll go through it with you.
While you're in there
A domain is only one of the things that quietly stops working. If you haven't looked at how your site is actually performing lately, the free website audit takes about fifteen seconds and needs no sign-up, and this post covers the rest of what's been added recently.
Related reading
- Who actually owns your client's domain?
- SSL: what the padlock actually means
- Migrating hosting without anyone noticing
- What I've been building — and what it means for you