Who Owns Australian Web Hosting Companies? The ABN Register

By David Mau · Updated 30 August 2026

When you buy hosting or a domain from an "Australian" brand, the company you actually contract with is often a different legal entity, and sometimes a different country. VentraIP, Zuver and Synergy Wholesale all trade under one ABN. Melbourne IT, Webcentral and Netregistry are one company. Crazy Domains bills through a Singapore entity. This page is the register: brand, legal entity, ABN, and GST status, taken from the Australian Business Register on 29 August 2026.

The register: who you actually contract with

Every row below was read from ABN Lookup, the Australian Business Register's public search, on 29 August 2026. The "registered since" column is the date the ABN became active, not the date the brand launched. The "GST" column matters for your invoices: a supplier that is not registered for GST cannot charge you GST, and you cannot claim a GST credit on what they bill you.

(All rows read from ABN Lookup on 29 August 2026. Records are updated by the businesses themselves, so an old "last updated" date means the entity has not changed its registered details, not that it is inactive.)

Five brands, one ABN: the Nexigen Digital group

The single most surprising entry in the register is ABN 91 137 543 018. The entity name is Nexigen Digital Pty Ltd (ACN 137 543 018), an Australian private company registered in Victoria since 1 July 2009 and GST-registered since the same date. Against that one ABN sit fourteen registered business names, including most of the "independent" Australian hosting brands people compare against each other:

The practical consequence is for anyone comparing hosts. If you shortlist VentraIP against Zuver and think you are choosing between two suppliers, you are not - you are choosing between two product lines of one company, with one support organisation and one balance sheet behind them. That is not a criticism of either. It is just something the marketing does not tell you, and it matters if you were spreading risk across "two" providers. Our VentraIP review covers the service itself.

Melbourne IT, Webcentral and Netregistry are one company

Three of the oldest names in Australian hosting now sit on a single ABN: 13 080 859 721, entity name Netregistry Pty Ltd (ACN 080 859 721), active since 22 February 2000 and GST-registered since 1 July 2000. Its registered business names include Melbourne IT (recorded 8 December 2023), Melbourne IT Corporate (12 December 2023), Webcentral (15 February 2024), Domain IP Services and New Domain Services (both 12 December 2023).

Melbourne IT was Australia's first domain registrar and an ASX-listed company for years. Webcentral was the group brand that succeeded it. Netregistry was a separate business that the group acquired. Today all three are trading names of the same Victorian company. A related entity, Netregistry Group Pty Limited (ABN 54 128 050 019), remains active at the same Melbourne location.

Crazy Domains bills from Singapore

The registered business name "Crazy Domains" has been held since 1 June 2020 by Dreamscape Networks International Pte Ltd - a Singapore-registered company with an Australian ABN of 95 851 604 390, main business location Singapore postcode 369522, GST-registered in Australia from 1 June 2020.

Two Australian Dreamscape entities remain active: Dreamscape Networks Limited (ABN 98 612 069 842, an Australian public company, NSW 2000) and Dreamscape Networks (Australia) Pty Ltd (ABN 51 153 974 595, NSW 2000). An older UAE free-zone entity, Dreamscape Networks FZ-LLC, also holds an Australian ABN (26 165 567 144) and is not currently registered for GST.

Which of those entities appears on your invoice depends on what you bought and when. Check the invoice itself before you assume you have an Australian supplier - it is the only reliable source. Domain pricing across the AU registrars is covered on our buying a domain name in Australia page.

Which hosts have no Australian entity at all

Searching the active ABN register on 29 August 2026 for each of the big international hosting brands returns no matching Australian registration:

Having no Australian ABN is not a red flag on its own - plenty of good hosting is bought from overseas. It changes two practical things: what your invoice looks like at tax time, and who you would be dealing with if something went badly wrong. The billing side is covered in detail in our guide to AUD pricing, GST and tax invoices on Australian hosting.

GoDaddy: two very different Australian companies

Searching "GoDaddy" on the register returns several Australian entities, and it is easy to conflate them. They do different jobs:

• GoDaddy Registry Australia Pty Ltd (ABN 16 103 729 620, VIC 3000, active since 17 February 2003) and GoDaddy Registry Asia Pacific (Australia) Pty Ltd (ABN 18 092 242 209) are registry operations - the wholesale infrastructure behind top-level domains, formerly trading under other names before GoDaddy acquired that business.
• GoDaddy Singapore Pte. Ltd. (ABN 52 500 944 661, main business location Singapore 627753, GST-registered from 1 October 2017) is the entity that carries an Australian GST registration for retail sales.

So an Australian buying a domain from GoDaddy's retail site is generally not contracting with an Australian company, even though a GoDaddy company with an Australian ABN does exist. Again: the invoice is the source of truth.

Binary Lane and the limits of a stale record

One entry shows why a register needs reading carefully. Binary Lane Pty Ltd (ABN 24 168 554 863, QLD 4068, active since 14 March 2014) shows "Not currently registered for GST" on its ABN record - but that record was last updated in December 2014, and the company's own pricing page states its prices are in Australian dollars and exclusive of GST, which implies it does charge it. Treat the GST field as accurate only as at the record's last-updated date, which ABN Lookup shows on every entry; where the two disagree, the invoice you actually receive settles it. If that is still current when you buy, its invoices will not include GST, and a GST-registered business cannot claim an input tax credit on them. It is not a problem - it usually just means the entity is under the A$75,000 turnover threshold or has structured itself differently - but it is worth knowing before you budget the GST back.

What an ABN record does and does not tell you

This page deliberately answers a narrower question than "who owns this company". Here is the honest boundary:

What the register proves: the legal entity behind a trading name, its ABN and ACN, when the ABN became active, whether it is registered for GST and from what date, its entity type, its main business location, and every business name currently recorded against it. That is enough to know who is on the contract and what your invoice should look like.

What it does not show: shareholders, ultimate parent companies, or private-equity backers. A company can be wholly owned offshore and still be a perfectly ordinary Australian Pty Ltd on this register. For beneficial ownership you need ASIC company extracts (paid) or public filings, and for listed groups, ASX announcements. Where the press has reported an acquisition and the register has not caught up, both can be true at once - the register reflects the entity, not the cap table.

How to check any of this yourself: go to abr.business.gov.au, search the brand name, and open the ABN. It is free, it takes about twenty seconds, and it is the authoritative source. If a hosting company will not tell you which entity you are contracting with, that itself is information. Our testing and research methodology explains how we verify claims like these before publishing them.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who owns VentraIP?

VentraIP is a registered business name of Nexigen Digital Pty Ltd, ABN 91 137 543 018, ACN 137 543 018 - an Australian private company registered in Victoria (postcode 3805) since 1 July 2009 and GST-registered since that date. The same ABN also holds the business names Zuver, Synergy Wholesale, Intaserve, Bluefish Hosting, Hosting Cloud, WebWoo, Digital Eagles and several others. ABN Lookup shows the legal entity, not the shareholders, so it identifies who invoices you rather than who ultimately owns the group. Checked 29 August 2026.

Who owns Digital Pacific?

The Australian entity is Digital Pacific Pty Ltd, ABN 65 111 823 333, ACN 111 823 333, registered in NSW since 16 November 2004 and GST-registered since the same date. Related active entities include Digital Pacific Group Pty Limited (ABN 19 602 613 936), Digital Pacific Services Pty Ltd (ABN 28 602 627 752) and Digital Pacific Assets Pty Ltd (ABN 26 602 627 743). The company's own website carried the line "A Web.com Partner" when we checked it on 29 August 2026, which points to the Web.com / Newfold Digital group rather than Australian ownership. The ABN register does not record shareholders, so treat the ownership chain as reported rather than registered.

Are Melbourne IT and Webcentral the same company?

Yes. Both are registered business names of Netregistry Pty Ltd, ABN 13 080 859 721, ACN 080 859 721, a Victorian company active since 22 February 2000. Netregistry itself is the entity name. Melbourne IT was recorded against that ABN on 8 December 2023 and Webcentral on 15 February 2024. If you hold domains at any of the three brands, they sit with the same legal entity.

Is Crazy Domains an Australian company?

The Crazy Domains business name is held by Dreamscape Networks International Pte Ltd, a Singapore company (Australian ABN 95 851 604 390, main business location Singapore 369522), registered for Australian GST since 1 June 2020. Australian Dreamscape entities also exist - Dreamscape Networks Limited (ABN 98 612 069 842) and Dreamscape Networks (Australia) Pty Ltd (ABN 51 153 974 595) - so which entity appears on an invoice depends on the product. The brand is Australian in origin and marketing; the entity holding the name today is Singaporean.

Does SiteGround have an Australian ABN?

No. A search of the active Australian Business Register on 29 August 2026 returns no SiteGround entity. The same is true for Hostinger, Kinsta, Bluehost, Cloudways and Namecheap. They are non-resident suppliers, so any GST they charge Australian customers is collected under the ATO's imported-services rules and their invoices will not carry an Australian ABN.

Which Australian hosting companies are still independently owned?

On the register, Conetix Pty. Ltd. (ABN 47 126 365 268, Ipswich QLD), Micron21 Telecommunications Pty Ltd (ABN 68 148 180 661, Kilsyth VIC), Binary Lane Pty Ltd (ABN 24 168 554 863, QLD) and the Arktisma Unit Trust that trades as Serversaurus (ABN 56 213 841 739, VIC) each still operate as their own Australian entity rather than as a business name of a larger group. Conetix's website states it is 100% Australian owned and Brisbane-based, with its office at 142 Brisbane Street, Ipswich QLD. Note that the ABN register cannot confirm shareholders, so "own entity" is not the same as "independently owned" - it is the strongest signal the public register can give.

Why does it matter which entity I am buying from?

Three reasons. Tax: only a GST-registered supplier can charge you GST, and you need a valid tax invoice showing an ABN to claim an input tax credit. Risk: if you deliberately split services across "two" providers for redundancy, sharing one ABN defeats the point. Recourse: Australian Consumer Law applies most straightforwardly when you are contracting with an Australian entity, and a foreign entity means a foreign contract.

Where can I look this up myself?

ABN Lookup at abr.business.gov.au, run by the Australian Business Register. Search the brand name, open the matching ABN, and you will see the entity name, ABN status and start date, entity type, GST registration status and date, main business location, ASIC registration number, and every registered business name held against that ABN. It is free and it is the authoritative source. Every figure on this page came from it on 29 August 2026.