Welcome to LocalBox

Start your journey with LocalBox and Raspberry Pi.

Start with your own domain name.

LocalBox registers South African domains and can help with other domain requests.

Find your domain Read this first See the journey

After registration

After your domain is registered, your journey begins. Park your domain for free, or start hosting your first website and register your first email address. It is all up to you.

Park it with LocalBox

Secure your domain name now and decide on hosting later.

  • Free basic domain parking
  • No website or mailbox setup required immediately
  • Use LocalBox hosting later, or send new nameservers when you have another provider

Host it with LocalBox

Try the app with LocalBox hosting first. When you are ready, LocalBox can help you move to your own Raspberry Pi cloud at home or work.

  • DNS and routing setup
  • Starter website and mail options
  • Low power Raspberry Pi hardware with easy UPS integration and a stylish rack-mount direction in design

Search for and register your domain

Enter your domain name. LocalBox can check .za domains, other supported domains, or a repeatable LocalBox test subdomain. Read this first if you want to understand why LocalBox uses Raspberry Pi hardware.

Domain registration

Automatic domain registration is disabled at the moment. You can still search for a domain name and send us a request.

Register your domain first. After registration, check My domains for the next part of your journey: keep it parked for free or ask LocalBox to host it.

Your previous domain choice has been restored.

Ask about a domain

Use this if you need help choosing a domain, parking, or LocalBox hosting.

For .co.za domains, the current estimate is R150 for domain registration.

This is just for your domain registration and does not include hosting or email. Your domain belongs to you without provisos.

The journey

Start by securing your domain name. LocalBox parks it first, then you can leave it parked, send another provider's nameservers, or ask LocalBox to prepare hosting.

1. Choose your domain Search for a new domain, including .za domains, and choose your domain name.
2. Keep it parked Your domain can stay parked while you decide whether to use another DNS provider or LocalBox hosting.
3. Register and provision Create your LocalBox account, complete payment, then LocalBox registers your domain and records your choice.
4. Use it when ready Keep it parked, connect it to another provider, or add LocalBox website and mail hosting later.

Why this setup is different

LocalBox uses small, low power Raspberry Pi hardware so a person, practice, group, or organisation can run useful online services without the cost, heat, noise, and power needs of a normal server. Read why LocalBox runs well on a Raspberry Pi.

5V and ~2.5A DC

Easily integrate with small UPS, battery, inverter, or solar-backed power.

Low heat and quiet

A Raspberry Pi class setup does not need the same cooling as a desktop or rack server, and it can run quietly in a studio, school, office, clinic, or shared room.

Small enough to place anywhere

The computer board is about the size of a bank card, so it can be placed in a small case, cabinet, or hosted shelf without needing a server room.

Affordable hardware

A Raspberry Pi 3 class board can cost under R1000 before storage, power, case, and setup, which keeps the starting point realistic for small hosted services.

Built for shared responsibility

The domain, email, website, and data can be managed for an artist, school, NGO, project, cooperative, clinic, church, company, or local group instead of being tied to one person's laptop.

Simple to replace and back up

The setup can use mounted storage and planned backups, making it easier to recover or replace the device than a large custom server.

Optional hosting later

These services are available after your domain decision, but they are intentionally secondary to registration.

Email and content

  • Extra email addresses
  • More website pages for notices, classes, events, and documents
  • Outlook or Thunderbird access over VPN
  • Existing mailbox migration available as a paid service

Hardware and backups

  • Case, power, storage, and courier options for full Raspberry Pi packages
  • Mail and website data mounted on removable storage
  • Periodic backup recommended for hardware failure recovery
  • Syncthing file sharing can be added for approved devices

Setup and support

  • Help moving from a hosted setup
  • Email migration quoted separately
  • Remote admin over the secure VPN mesh
  • Backup, update, and recovery options

Be the first to know

Join the LocalBox waitlist for early access, product releases, setup notes, and useful guides.

We will only send LocalBox updates, early access notes, and useful setup information.

Contact LocalBox Mail

Use this for questions from an artist, NGO, school, company, practice, local project, or support contact. We will try to answer any questions you may have; LocalBox is about people first.