.kiwi Domain
New Zealand's Cultural Domain
Register your .kiwi domain from just £32.99/yr. Free DNS management, email forwarding, and 10GB mailbox included with every domain.
This domain has registration restrictions
Anyone anywhere may register a .kiwi, but two-character names are blocked and the registry holds some names back entirely. Read the full eligibility rules.
What is a .kiwi domain?
The .kiwi domain is an identity TLD for New Zealanders, playing on the national nickname that Kiwis use for themselves. It's not New Zealand's official country code (.nz holds that role), but it carries a warmth and cultural pride that .nz and .co.nz don't quite match. Managed by Dot Kiwi Limited, it's open to anyone worldwide. For businesses connected to New Zealand, or brands wanting to tap into that laid-back Kiwi identity, .kiwi is a distinctive choice.
Who should register .kiwi?
New Zealand businesses, Kiwi diaspora communities, tourism operators, and brands wanting a casual New Zealand identity.
Why choose .kiwi?
- Carries New Zealand's cultural identity
- Warm and distinctive alternative to .nz
- Open to worldwide registration
- Instantly associated with New Zealand
Who runs .kiwi, and since when
Registry data from the .kiwi 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
- Generic (gTLD)
- Registry operator
- DOT KIWI LIMITED
- The organisation that runs the extension
- In the root zone since
- 2013
- Delegated 25 November 2013
- Who can register
- Open worldwide; the registry states it places no restriction on who may register
- Checked against the registry's own policy
- Our price
- £32.99 a year
- Ex VAT. Renews at the same price
Dot Kiwi on why anyone may register a .kiwi
The obvious question about .kiwi is whether you have to be one, and the registry answers it head on in its own FAQ. Dot Kiwi says it would be very challenging to prove who is or is not a Kiwi, and that rather than turn away real New Zealanders it has placed no restrictions on who can register. That candour is worth reading twice: the cultural signal this extension sells is one the registry has decided not to verify.
Two mechanical details matter more than the branding. Names sit directly at the second level, so it is great.kiwi rather than the shared co.nz structure, and a two-character name cannot be registered at all. The registry also supports macrons, which it says makes a fully te reo Maori domain possible for the first time, while recommending you register the version without macrons alongside it, because most readers will not type one.
Behind the scenes it is a New Zealand company running on Canadian infrastructure. IANA records Dot Kiwi Limited of Auckland as the sponsoring organisation and CIRA, the Canadian Internet Registration Authority, as the technical contact.
Who is allowed to register .kiwi?
Anyone anywhere may register a .kiwi, but two-character names are blocked and the registry holds some names back entirely.
- Who qualifies
- Everyone. Dot Kiwi says on its own FAQ page that it has placed no restrictions on who can register, reasoning that proving somebody is a Kiwi is not practical and a test would turn away real ones living abroad.
- Two-character names
- A name of two characters, me.kiwi for instance, cannot be registered. Neither can a name the registry has restricted for sensitivity, regulatory or internal reasons; those simply show as unavailable when you search.
- Macrons and te reo Maori
- Macronised names are supported. The registry recommends registering the version without macrons as well and running one as a redirect, because a reader who does not use macrons will not otherwise reach you.
- Second level only
- There is no co.kiwi or net.kiwi. Every name sits directly under .kiwi, so you hold the whole address rather than a share of one, which is the registry's stated reason for not copying the co.uk model.
Rules taken from the Dot Kiwi FAQ. Registry policy can change, so check before you buy if the answer matters to you.
Not sure whether you qualify? Ask us before you order and we will check the registry rules with you. We would rather answer the question than take an order the registry will refuse.
Is .kiwi the right choice for you?
We would rather sell you the right extension once than the wrong one twice.
.kiwi works well if
- You are a New Zealand business, or a New Zealander abroad, and want the address to carry that without saying it. Nothing else does the same job.
- The co.nz is already yours and you want a shorter, warmer address for marketing that points at the same site.
- Your name in te reo Maori uses macrons and you want them in the domain itself rather than stripped out of it.
Look elsewhere if
- It costs a good deal more each year than a .co.uk or a .com, and the signal it sends only lands with people who already know New Zealand.
- Because anyone may register one, a .kiwi cannot prove a New Zealand connection to a sceptical customer the way a verified extension could.
- It does nothing in New Zealand search results. Google treats .kiwi as generic, so the country signal sits with .nz and not here.
If the point is to look and rank as a New Zealand business, the .nz is the extension carrying the country signal. See .nz pricing.
.kiwi vs .nz: which should you register?
The registry itself puts it bluntly. Asked whether .kiwi has anything to do with .nz, Dot Kiwi answers absolutely not, and calls .nz a competitor it happens to like. The two are not variants of each other. One is New Zealand's country code, run by InternetNZ and in the root zone since January 1987. The other is a generic extension delegated in November 2013 that borrows the nickname.
For search, that difference is the whole story: Google reads .nz as a country signal and .kiwi as a generic one. For tone, .kiwi wins, because it sounds like a person rather than a jurisdiction. Most New Zealand businesses we would point at the .nz first, and treat the .kiwi as the one that goes on the van.
.kiwi domain questions, answered
What people ask us before registering a .kiwi domain.
Can't find what you're looking for?
Ask us directlyAnyone, anywhere. The registry says so on its own FAQ page and gives the reason: proving that somebody is a Kiwi is not practical, and a test would end up turning away real New Zealanders living overseas. So there is no residency check, no document and no verification step. The flip side is that a .kiwi address does not prove a New Zealand connection, because nobody checked yours either.
Two-character names are blocked. Dot Kiwi lists them alongside names it has restricted for sensitivity or regulatory reasons, and they show as unavailable in a search rather than being offered at a premium price. If you wanted initials, you need a third character. Everything else is first come, first served, and because names sit directly at the second level you get the whole address rather than a slot under something.
Only if the New Zealand identity is the point of the name. It costs a good deal more each year than a .co.uk, for ever, and earns no ranking advantage in New Zealand because Google treats it as a generic extension. Where it does pay is recall: a .kiwi address gets remembered and repeated in a way a hyphenated .com never will. Buy it as branding, and hold the .nz or the .com as the address on your invoices.
Included with Your .kiwi 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 .kiwi domain today
Secure your .kiwi domain from just £32.99/yr. Free DNS management, email forwarding, and 10GB mailbox included.
