What is a domain registrar?

What it is

Registrars are accredited to sell names under endings such as .com and .org, and the registry that runs each ending keeps the master list. Three different jobs are often mixed up, and they can sit with one company or with three:

• Registrar: the company you rent the name from. It holds the registration and the renewal.
• DNS host: where the records live that point the name to your website and mail. See DNS.
• Web host: where the website itself runs. See web hosting.

Fixing a website or email problem usually starts with working out which company does which job.

Why it matters to a business

• Ownership: the registrar account should be in the business's name, on a company email address, not held by a former employee or a web designer. If that person leaves, proving ownership can be slow.
• Renewals: if a name expires, the website and email stop working and someone else may register it. Keep auto-renew on and a billing contact whose email someone reads.
• Transfer locks: registrars can lock a domain against transfer, and moving it also takes an authorization code from the current registrar. Both protect against theft, and both mean you need account access to move to another registrar.
• Sign-in security: control of the registrar means control of your site and mail, so the login should have multi-factor sign-in.

How KawaConnect works with domain registrars

We document where each domain is registered, who holds the login, and when it renews, and we watch those dates so a name does not lapse unnoticed. The registrar account should be in the business's name, and we check that it is.

When a domain sits in a former web designer's or an old employee's account, we trace it and help move control back to the business.

Learn more

• Domain name registrar on WikipediaBackground on how registrars fit into the domain system and who does what.
• ICANN lookupLook up the public registration record for a domain.
• ICANNThe organization that coordinates the domain name system.