.co.za Domain
South Africa's Go-To Business Domain
Register your .co.za domain from just £18.99/yr. Free DNS management, email forwarding, and 10GB mailbox included with every domain.
What is a .co.za domain?
The .co.za domain is the commercial extension within South Africa's .za namespace, run by the ZA Registry Consortium (ZARC), appointed by the .ZA Domain Name Authority in October 2022. South Africa is the continent's most developed economy, and .co.za has been the standard for South African businesses since the early days of the web. Registration is open to anyone, with no South African residency or company requirement, and names go first come, first served. The one thing to plan for is that your nameservers have to be working before the domain will register, so set the DNS up first. For UK businesses with South African operations or trade links, .co.za is the domain South African customers expect.
Who should register .co.za?
South African businesses, UK companies with South African operations, and brands targeting the South African consumer market.
Why choose .co.za?
- South Africa's standard business domain
- Trusted by South African consumers
- Open to UK and overseas registrants, no local presence needed
- Africa's most developed digital economy
Who runs .co.za, and since when
Registry data from the .co.za 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)
- Registered under the .za zone
- Registry operator
- ZA Domain Name Authority
- The organisation that runs the extension
- .za delegated
- 1990
- The date belongs to the .za zone, not to .co.za itself
- Who can register
- Any identifiable natural or legal person with the capacity to enter a registrar agreement
- Checked against the registry's own policy
- Our price
- £18.99 a year
- Ex VAT. Renews at the same price
How co.za registrations work under ZARC and ZADNA
Start with who is actually in charge, because this is one of the details that ages badly on other people's pages. The published policies covering co.za, org.za, net.za and web.za are issued by ZA Registry Consortium (Pty) Ltd as contracted registry operator, and they name ZADNA, the .za Domain Name Authority, as the regulator under the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act 25 of 2002. The .za country code itself sits with ZADNA in the IANA root zone record.
Eligibility is the part most UK buyers get wrong, in the cautious direction. There is no South African presence requirement on co.za. ZADNA's own guidance is that co.za normally accepts registrations from both South Africans and non-South Africans, which sets it apart from most of the other second levels under .za. The registry policy asks only that registrants are identifiable natural or legal persons with the legal capacity to conclude an agreement with a registrar, and it runs first come, first served with no view on whether an applicant has a better claim to a name than anyone else.
Two conditions come with that openness. A non-South African holder is normally taken to have consented to South African law and the jurisdiction of South African courts over any dispute about the name, and disputes run through the .za alternative dispute resolution regulations published in government gazette GG29405 rather than through the UDRP you may be used to.
The mechanics are conventional and generous. Registrations run from one to five years, a seven-day grace period lets a mistaken registration be cancelled, and an expired name goes through pending deletion and then a twenty-day closed redemption window during which it can still be reinstated for a fee. Nothing disappears the day after the renewal date.
Registering a domain name is akin to obtaining a licence to use. As long as the domain name is kept current, i.e. the create, renewal and closed redemption fees are paid, the Registrant can continue to use that domain name. Domain names are not regarded as property per se and can therefore not be "owned" by any party.
What that means if you are buying one
Every registry works this way and almost none of them writes it down so plainly. The reason to read it twice is the renewal: a licence that lapses is a licence gone, and the name returns to the pool for anybody. Put the renewal on a calendar that outlives whoever set it up.
Is .co.za the right choice for you?
We would rather sell you the right extension once than the wrong one twice.
.co.za works well if
- You sell to South African customers, who look for co.za the way British customers look for co.uk and treat anything else as a foreign site.
- You have a South African office, agent or supplier and want a local address without a local company registration to arrange first.
- You are entering the market and want a name secured early, since co.za is one of the cheaper country extensions we sell.
- You want the country signal Google says a ccTLD provides, pointed at South Africa, over content priced and written for that market.
Look elsewhere if
- You would rather not accept a foreign forum. A non-South African holder normally consents to South African law and courts, and disputes run under the .za ADR regulations rather than the UDRP.
- You expected a local presence rule to keep the namespace tidy. There is none, so the extension carries no more trust than the site behind it earns.
- South Africa is not a market you are working. A second address that redirects to your UK site costs money every year and persuades nobody.
Only serving UK customers today? Keep the .co.uk as the address and add the co.za when there is a South African page to point it at. See .co.uk pricing.
.co.za vs .co.uk: which should you register?
These two do the same job in two countries, and they are close cousins in structure: both are commercial third levels under a national namespace, both are what local customers type without thinking, and both read as foreign anywhere else.
The differences that matter are legal and practical rather than technical. A .co.uk gives a UK business free WHOIS privacy under Nominet's consent-based rules, transfers that finish almost immediately because they are an IPS tag change, and a dispute process run by Nominet. A co.za holder outside South Africa normally consents to South African law and courts, has no free privacy, and takes disputes through the .za ADR regulations.
Neither replaces the other. The realistic pattern for a UK company trading into South Africa is the .co.uk as the head office address and the co.za over a page written for South African buyers, with local pricing and delivery terms on it.
| .co.za | .co.uk | |
|---|---|---|
| Local presence needed | No | No |
| Registry operator | ZA Registry Consortium (Pty) Ltd | Nominet |
| Regulator | ZADNA under the ECT Act 25 of 2002 | Nominet, self-regulating |
| Registration term | One to five years | One to ten years |
| WHOIS privacy | Paid add-on | Free under Nominet rules |
.co.za domain questions, answered
What people ask us before registering a .co.za domain.
Can't find what you're looking for?
Ask us directlyNo. ZADNA states that co.za normally accepts registrations from both South Africans and non-South Africans, and the registry policy asks only that a registrant is an identifiable natural or legal person with the capacity to enter an agreement with a registrar. That makes co.za unusual among the second levels under .za, several of which are restricted. A UK company can register one in its own name today.
South African law, in practice. A non-South African holder is normally taken to have consented to the application of South African law and the jurisdiction of South African courts over any dispute involving the name, and name disputes are handled under the .za alternative dispute resolution regulations published in government gazette GG29405 rather than the UDRP. Factor that in if the name is contentious, or if you hold a trade mark somebody else might dispute.
You get more room than you might expect. An unrenewed name moves through a pending suspension and pending deletion process and then into a closed redemption period of twenty days, during which your registrar can still reinstate it, though a separate closed redemption fee applies. Once that window closes the name goes back into the pool for anyone to register. Renew early rather than relying on the safety net.
The current published policies for co.za, org.za, net.za and web.za name ZA Registry Consortium (Pty) Ltd as the contracted registry operator, with ZADNA as the regulator under the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act 25 of 2002. If you are reading a page that names a different operator, check its date. IANA lists the .za country code itself under the ZA Domain Name Authority, which is ZADNA.
Included with Your .co.za 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 .co.za domain today
Secure your .co.za domain from just £18.99/yr. Free DNS management, email forwarding, and 10GB mailbox included.
