Welcome to the new 1st Domains
For more than 20 years, 1st Domains has been helping New Zealanders get online. During that time, the internet has changed enormously and so have the needs of our customers.
Over the past year, we've been working behind the scenes on one of the biggest projects in our history, rebuilding the 1st Domains platform from the ground up.
Today, you're seeing the first stage of that work with the launch of our new 1st Domains website.
The first step in a much bigger rebuild
At first glance, you won't notice a huge difference.
The new website deliberately looks familiar, but underneath it's running on an entirely new technology platform. For the next few months, parts of 1st Domains will continue to run on our existing platform while we progressively migrate functionality and customers across.
As you move around the website, you may notice the address in your browser change from 1stdomains.nz to www2.1stdomains.nz. This will happen when you register a new domain or sign-in to manage services and access parts of your account that are still running on our existing platform.
Don't worry, www2.1stdomains.nz is still 1st Domains. You can continue using the website as normal.
Taking this approach allows us to carefully introduce the new platform in stages, rather than attempting to migrate more than 37,000 customers and 135,000 domain names all at once.
Over the coming months, we'll progressively move more functionality and customers onto the new platform. As that happens, you'll see www2.1stdomains.nz less often until our existing platform can eventually be retired.
Why are we rebuilding 1st Domains?
Our existing platform has served us and our customers well for many years. But as technology has evolved, it has become increasingly difficult to introduce the improvements and new services we want to offer.
Rather than continuing to make incremental changes to a legacy platform originally built many years ago, we made the decision to start again.
The new 1st Domains is being built on a modern technology stack, designed from the outset with security, maintainability and scalability in mind.
For customers, that means a more modern experience, better support for mobile devices and, most importantly, a platform that allows us to deliver improvements and new features much faster.
A sneak peek at what's coming
While there's still plenty happening behind the scenes, we wanted to give you an early look at the new customer experience we're working on.
If you've been using 1st Domains for a while, it should look familiar and that's intentional.
We're not trying to reinvent how you manage your domains. Instead, we've taken the parts of 1st Domains our customers already know and given them a more modern, refreshed interface, while keeping the experience simple and familiar.
An early preview of the refreshed 1st Domains account dashboard.
The same approach carries through to managing individual domain names. The information and tools you're used to, including contacts, DNS, name servers, renewals, email and hosting are still where you'd expect them to be, presented in a cleaner and more consistent interface.
The refreshed domain management experience, familiar, but with a more modern look and feel.
There's also a lot more happening underneath the surface than you can see in these screenshots. While the experience has deliberately remained familiar, underneath we're replacing the legacy technology that powers 1st Domains with an entirely new platform. It's that new foundation that will allow us to improve 1st Domains much faster in the future.
These screens are still being tested and refined, so you may notice some changes before they appear in your own account. We'll progressively migrate customers onto the new platform over the coming months.
More than a new website
While the new website is the first part you'll see, the project is about much more than giving 1st Domains a fresh coat of paint.
The new platform also gives us the foundation to build things that were difficult to deliver on our existing systems. Over time, that will include new customer APIs, improvements to Expired Domains, new website and hosting tools, and a growing range of services to help our customers establish and grow their online presence.
We've also created a dedicated 1st Domains & Cloud team, bringing product, engineering and customer support together under one team. That means more focus on 1st Domains, faster decision-making and a team dedicated to continually improving the products and experience we provide.
What's next?
This launch is the starting point, not the finish line.
Over the next few months, we'll progressively move customers and functionality onto the new platform. We'll be taking a careful approach, testing each stage before moving larger groups of customers across.
For now, there isn't anything you need to do. You can continue using 1st Domains as you normally would.
As more of the new platform becomes available, we'll keep you updated here and give you a closer look at some of the improvements we're working on.
We're excited about where 1st Domains is heading and as we roll out the new platform, we'd also love to hear what you think.
If there's something about 1st Domains you think we could make easier, or something you'd like to see us add in future, we’d love to hear from you.
We've been helping New Zealanders establish their presence online since 2003. This rebuild gives us the foundation to keep doing that and to build a much better 1st Domains for the years ahead.
The 1st Domains Team