Crazy Domains wants your money: Domain Guard and .au domains

It’s unfortunately common for web hosts to be vague and mysterious with their pricing. Surprise last-minute add-ons will somehow find their way into your shopping cart, and discounts will suddenly vanish. Domains and web hosting need to last longer than a discounted first month or year, so it’s the ongoing prices and services that really matter.

We didn’t plan on writing this article, but when we were looking at Crazy Domains to update our MyHost vs Crazy Domains comparison page we found something that surprised us. It’s normally the hidden prices that need untangling, rather than the features themselves.

If you’re buying Domain Guard for an .au domain please be aware that you’re paying the price of privacy protection, without the privacy or the protection.

That’s a surprise

It began when we added a .com.au domain into our Crazy Domains cart. We were already surprised to see our shopping cart automatically filled up with products that we hadn’t added ourselves. But we were even more surprised to see Domain Guard advertised as a feature to add to our order for around $10 a year. It’s a feature that supposedly protects and adds privacy to domains, including .au domains.

And that surprised us, because domain privacy is prohibited in Australia. That’s why MyHost hides the option to add ID Protection when you buy .au domains.

All we wanted was an .au domain, but Domain Guard caught our attention.

Call it what you want

When you register new domains you’re asked to provide contact details like your name, postal address, email and phone number. Some of these details are made publicly available through an online database called a WHOIS lookup, with the exact information displayed publicly changing according to the rules that apply to each domain TLD.

Shopping around for domains and Web Hosting is often a lot trickier than it ought to be. We think shoppers should be able to easily compare ongoing domain prices without any surprises.

Most domain providers offer a feature to mask this information from the public view. At MyHost we offer it as ID Protection, but some places will call this feature privacy protection or domain privacy. The main reason to do this is to prevent spammers and other fraudsters from accessing your contact info.

Whatever you call it, this feature is the main way that domain retailers can protect the personal information of domain owners.

But in Australia, the .au Domain Administration (auDA) forbids hiding domain contact information. If you look hard enough, Crazy Domains says it themselves: domain privacy is unavailable for AU TLDs.

It’s clear that Domain Guard is essentially a rebadged version of ID Protection. So what is Crazy Domains really offering when they sell Domain Guard for .au domains?

A hamburger, without the meat

When the most important part of the package doesn’t actually apply, you’re left with a pretty threadbare offering. Maybe that’s why Crazy Domains sneaks it into your shopping cart, whether you want it or not.

There’s an easy way to tell that the little bits of Domain Guard which apply to .au domains aren’t worth much. Every retailer is different, but ID Protection usually costs around $9-15 for a .com domain. That puts our $10 charge at the low end of normal. It’s also the price for Crazy Domain’s fancy-sounding Domain Guard package.

If you’re paying for Domain Guard, you’re paying for ID Protection. The rest of the stuff you’re being offered is worth a few cents at most, and is usually provided as part of the service by domain retailers.

If you’re buying Domain Guard for an .au domain please be aware that you’re paying the price of privacy protection, without the privacy or the protection.

The short end of the stick

Buying Domain Guard for a .nz domain also costs the price. Except, .nz domains get Domain Protection and .au domains don’t. If you’re an .au domain holder with Domain Protection you’re getting a bad deal.

After subtracting Privacy Protection from the equation, what value is this $10 per year add-on really offering?

Measly offering

For an extra ~$10 a year, Domain Guard for .au domains offers extremely little. By billing Domain Guard at $0.82 per month, Crazy Domains has made it small enough that some people will pay for it without a second thought. But for over a third of your annual domain renewal price, it’s worth reconsidering—especially if you’re like us and can’t tell exactly what you’re getting.

It’s a deliberate ploy that relies on you not looking deeply into what you’re getting. And what you’re getting is very little.

Domains and hosting, without the trickery

Shopping around for domains and Web Hosting is often a lot trickier than it ought to be. We think shoppers should be able to easily compare ongoing domain prices without any surprises.

We put together a few examples in our Web Hosting shopping guide to make it a bit easier.

It’s up to you who you register your domains with. We just recommend that you choose someone who has honest pricing and is upfront about their features.

Photo by StevePB from Pixabay.