100% Australian owned and operated

Great renewal prices. No loyalty tax. No dark patterns. No tricks.

Already own it? Pop in the name — we’ll quote the transfer: no transfer fee. A .au is free to transfer unless it’s within 90 days of expiry, when the transfer includes its renewal. Don’t own it yet? Same form, we’ll check availability.

Register or transfer · no loyalty tax, no hidden renewal price

Australian domain names, with the renewal price up front.

In short: Chill Domains registers and transfers domain names for Australian businesses, sole traders and individuals. A .com.au costs $20 a year including GST and renews at the same $20 list price, and new and existing customers pay the same list price. Chill Domains is a domain reseller operated by Digital Greenhouse in Sydney; domains are registered through an auDA- and ICANN-accredited wholesale registrar.

Ever notice the big domain sites rarely put the renewal price up front? In October 2026, a search ad offered .com.au domains “from $0.01” — but not a word about what you’d pay the year after. And you can’t check out for $0.01: the offer needs two years, and with the extras they added to our cart without asking, including two free trials listed with paid renewals, it came to $39.59 inc GST at checkout and an estimated $415.03 inc GST in the first year, if you cancel nothing. At some registrars the renewal price is in a footnote, behind a login, or not on the page at all. That’s the trick: a sweetheart deal for new sign-ups, then a much bigger renewal once you’re settled in. We don’t play that game. Renewal is the same list price as the first year — no loyalty tax, no laziness tax. If a list price ever changes, it changes for everyone at the same time, and your reminder email shows the current price before you renew.

Exhibit A · Search ad, captured October 2026 A search ad headed ‘Aussie Domains $0.01 - Flash Sale on Domains Now’, reading ‘Flash sale on .COM, .COM.AU & .AU domains from $0.01. Limited time only.’
From $0.01, and no renewal price in the ad. Whoever you buy from, check the year-two price before you pay — ours is on the same line as year one. We took this offer to the checkout.
  • $20/year — at renewal too
  • No transfer fee
  • DNS hosting included
Meet Jack, the Chief Chill Officer
Real humans, Sydney

Why is Chill Domains run this way? Because we’re sick of enshittification.

Our philosophy is greyhound philosophy. The greyhound is the fastest dog on earth — flat out, around 70 km/h — but the rest of the time it’s asleep on the sofa. That’s the model. Sharp when it counts: registrations and transfers go to the registry as soon as you pay, and DNS changes take a few clicks in your dashboard. The rest of the time we leave you alone, apart from plain-text renewal reminders. Best at what we do, no pestering — that’s the whole personality.

Chill Domains is a small, Australian-run domain reseller. We’re not a venture-backed funnel and we don’t have a sales floor. No advertising pixels, no remarketing audiences, and we never sell your details. We use Google Analytics 4 for aggregate visit statistics. We just want owning a domain to be as boring and predictable as it ought to be — renewal time included.

And here’s why we can keep it that way: Chill Domains is operated by Digital Greenhouse Pty Ltd and run by John Walsh-Green, its founder and director — captain of the ship. No shareholders pushing him around, no board of directors asking why the renewal isn’t higher this quarter, no VC term sheet demanding growth-at-all-costs, and no plan to sell the business off to someone bigger who’d quietly walk back every promise on this page once you’re a customer. We’re not playing the late-stage capitalism game where every product slowly gets worse, every price quietly climbs, and every checkout grows a new dark pattern six months from now. Anti-enshittification isn’t a marketing line for us — it’s structural. We make a fair margin, we don’t answer to anyone but our customers, and we keep our emails to the ones you actually need. That’s the whole business. More on who runs Chill Domains and how it works.

The practical upshot for you: no need to shop around every year to dodge a loyalty tax or a laziness tax. Your renewal is charged at the same list price a brand-new customer pays that day, and forgetting to comparison-shop doesn’t get punished. The price you’re on stays fair by default.

Search a domain Transfer a domain in

Play the game

Can Jack get a domain past the dark patterns?

Jack’s Renewal Run is a free game you play in your browser. Help Jack register a domain, renew it a year later and then try to leave, jumping pre-ticked add-ons, fake countdowns, renewal price hikes, auto-renew traps and a roach-motel cancel flow on the way. Every trap he hits goes on the bill.

Play Jack’s Renewal Run

Play another game

Can you buy just the domain?

Just the Domain, Please puts you in a made-up registrar’s checkout with two minutes on the sale clock. Your goal: register jackruns.com.au for one year, and nothing else. The boxes come pre-ticked, every “Remove” asks if you’re sure, and the coloured button is rarely the one you want.

Play Just the Domain, Please

Miss the domain games? See all our games

Dark patterns · Case file 1

How much does that $0.01 domain name really cost?

A search ad headed ‘Aussie Domains $0.01 - Flash Sale on Domains Now’, reading ‘Flash sale on .COM, .COM.AU & .AU domains from $0.01. Limited time only.’
A one-cent search ad, October 2026. We haven’t tested whether the sale is time-limited.

Ads like this one are everywhere. We put a one-cent .com.au in this advertiser’s cart, and here’s what came with it:

  • Other products in your cart without your asking. An expiry protection add-on, a business email trial and a website builder trial were already there.
  • Pop-ups when you try to remove them. “Remove with Caution!” and “Confirm Builder Opt-Out”, with “KEEP IN CART” as the filled button.
  • Free trials that turn into paid plans. $187.44 inc GST for email in November, then $62.67 inc GST a quarter for the builder from January, unless you cancel.
  • A renewal above the regular price. The cart quotes $23.79 a year before GST ($26.17 inc GST) to renew, more than its own regular $20.99 ($23.09 inc GST). And like any renewal, the price you pay is the one in force two years from now.

The domain itself came to $23.10 inc GST for two years. The whole cart: an estimated $415.03 inc GST in its first year, if you cancel nothing.

At Chill Domains, there’s no intro price: renewal is the same list price a new customer pays that day, and every reminder states it before you pay. And nothing is added to your cart without your asking.

Read the case file

Another provider’s cart, 22 October 2026.

What you actually get

The renewal trap

Why don’t some registrars show the renewal price up front?

Try it — open a few big registrars in a new tab and hunt for the price you’ll pay next year. At some of them it isn’t next to the sign-up price: it’s in a help-centre article, a footnote, or only visible once the domain is in your cart. When year one is a promotional price, the renewal can be several times the headline number. We put both prices on the same line: the same list price, year one and at renewal. Digital Greenhouse explains why cheap first-year domains cost more to renew.

And watch out for the strike-through trick. You’ve seen it — $15 $1, big bold “save 93%!”. On some sites that crossed-out number isn’t the renewal. It’s the regular first-year price, marked down for the first year only. The renewal is a third number, and it may not be on the page at all.

No transfer fee

Bring a domain across and there’s no transfer fee. A .au transfer is free unless it’s within 90 days of expiry, when it includes the renewal ($20 for a year); a .com transfer includes one year’s renewal at the normal price. Every transfer needs the domain password (auth code) from your current registrar, and we’ll show you where to find it. Filling in the form takes a few minutes; .au transfers usually complete within a few hours once the code is accepted, and .com, .net and .org transfers usually take 5–7 days. Start a domain transfer.

Renewal price shown up front

Year one and your renewal are the same list price, printed right next to each other. No hunting through a help article to find what you’ll pay next year. No “$0.01 first year, more than full price to renew” switcheroo buried two clicks deep. Every renewal reminder states the current price in plain text.

Zero upsell maze

No 14 checkboxes between you and checkout. No “protect your privacy for an extra $20”: WHOIS privacy is included at no extra cost for extensions that support it. No SSL upsell for a thing your host already gives you. One page, one price, done.

No scare-emails

Plain-text renewal reminders 30 days, 7 days and 1 day before expiry, and they stop if you renew or tell us not to. No “FINAL NOTICE - DOMAIN EXPIRING” in bright red, no fake invoices. Paper letters about your domain aren’t from us — here’s how to spot them.

Renewing is your call

Auto-renew is off by default. If you turn it on, we email you the exact price before every renewal and only then charge the card you saved for it, so a charge never comes out of the blue. Prefer to renew yourself? We’ll remind you, and if you want to let a domain go, you can. We won’t guilt-trip you.

Reply from a human

Email info@digitalgreenhouse.com.au and an actual person replies within one business day (Monday to Friday, 9am–5pm Sydney time). No ticket system, no chatbot routing, no “tier 1” vs “tier 2” runaround.

Honest pricing

How much is a .com.au? $20 to register or renew, and no transfer fee.

Prices include GST. A new registration and a renewal each cost $20 a year for a .com.au. A transfer in has no transfer fee: it’s free, or $20 if the name is within 90 days of expiry, because then the transfer includes its renewal. Some registries charge more for certain premium names; checkout shows the first-year and renewal price before you pay.

Prices and rules last checked:

.com.au, all in.

  • Registered through an auDA- and ICANN-accredited wholesale registrar
  • DNS hosting included, plus email and URL forwarding
  • Renewal price = first-year price (not several times it, as at some registrars)
See every extension’s price

Also: .au $20 · .com $28 · .id.au $20 · .com.au eligibility and details

$20 .com.au · per year inc GST same list price at renewal

How it works

How do I register or transfer a domain?

  1. Search the name

    New domain or one you already own — pop it in the search and we’ll quote the flat price.

  2. Grab the auth code

    Transferring in? Every transfer needs the domain password (auth code) from your current registrar, .au included. We’ll show you where to find it.

  3. Pay by card

    Pay by card through Stripe. Nothing pre-ticked and no extras in the cart: you pay for the domain, and that’s it.

  4. Renew when reminded

    Plain-text reminders before expiry show the current renewal price — the same list price a new sign-up pays. Renew by card from your dashboard.

How registration and transfers work

The ads

Four short films about domains.

Renewal pricing, fine print, retention popups — and a greyhound who naps through all of it.

Watch the ads

Ready when you are

Bring your domains over, or start a new one.

Pop in a domain you already own and start the transfer in a few minutes. You’ll need its transfer code (auth code) from your current registrar. There’s no transfer fee: a .au transfer is free unless it’s within 90 days of expiry, when it includes the $20 renewal. New domain instead? Search for it and pay by card at checkout.

Transfer a domain in Search a new domain