Domain registrars, in plain terms
Domain registrars for small businesses, field by field
A registrar holds your company’s domain name under contract. What it charges at renewal, and the DNS and transfer tools it includes, decide what that name costs to keep and how easily you can move it.
Domain name yourbusiness.example
- Registrar
- The company your domain is registered through. It bills you, holds the contract and answers when something goes wrong.
- Registrant
- The person or company the domain legally belongs to. For a business, that should be the business, not an employee or the web designer.
- Nameservers
- The servers that answer for your domain and say where your website and email live. Changing them moves those services without moving the registration.
- Expiry date
- The day the registration ends unless it is renewed. If it lapses, the website and email attached to it can stop working.
- Renewal
- What you pay to keep the name each year after the first term. It can differ from the price you first paid, so it is the figure to ask about.
- Transfer lock
- A status that stops the domain moving to another registrar without your say-so. You switch it off only when you mean to move.
Cost
What a registrar charges for
The advertised price usually covers the first year only. What a business pays over the years it keeps a name depends on the renewal rate and the extras sold alongside it.
- First-year price
- The introductory rate for a new registration. It is often set low to win the sale and is usually not the rate you keep.
- Renewal price
- The yearly rate once the introductory term ends. A company may hold its name for decades, so this does more to the total than anything else on the bill.
- Registration term
- Paying for several years up front guards against a missed renewal and can delay a price rise. The whole amount is due on day one.
- Transfer fee
- Moving a common ending such as .com to a new registrar usually means paying for one more year, which is added to the registration.
- Privacy protection
- Hides your contact details from public lookups. Some registrars include it and others charge for it every year.
- Add-ons
- Email, hosting, site builders and security products offered at checkout. Each one usually renews on its own terms, separately from the domain.
- Late recovery
- Restoring a domain after it has lapsed typically costs well above a normal renewal, where recovery is possible at all.
Tools
The DNS and transfer tools that come with a registration
Most registrars include a DNS editor and a way to move away. How clearly they set out each one tells you a good deal about how easy they will be to deal with later.
DNS settings
- A record
- Points the domain at the server hosting your website.
- CNAME record
- Points one name at another, often used for a www address or a service you connect.
- MX record
- Says which service receives your company’s email. A wrong entry stops mail arriving.
- TXT record
- Holds short text used to prove you own the domain and to help protect against forged email.
- DNSSEC
- Signs your DNS answers so they are harder to tamper with. Worth switching on where it is offered.
Moving to another registrar
- Unlock
- Switch off the transfer lock in your account before you start, and make sure it is back on when the move is done.
- Authorization code
- A code from your current registrar that proves you may move the domain. The new registrar asks for it. It is also called an auth or EPP code.
- Waiting period
- A new registration, or a change to the owner’s details, can block a transfer for a set time. Check before you plan around a move.
- Contact email
- Transfer notices go to the registrant’s email address, so it has to be one you still read.
- DNS copy
- Some registrars drop your records when a domain leaves their nameservers. Write them down first so the website and email stay up.
Choosing
How to tell which registrar suits a new company
A new company needs little from a registrar: its name held securely, in the right hands, at a price it can predict.
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Is the company the registrant?
Register the domain to the business from the start, with a shared address that survives a change of staff.
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Can you see the renewal price before you pay?
A registrar that states it plainly at checkout makes the long-term cost easy to work out. Look for it before you enter card details.
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Can you secure the account?
Two-factor sign-in matters more than most features. Whoever gets into this account controls your website and your email.
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Could you leave easily?
Find the unlock setting and the authorization code in the account. If they are hard to find now, they will be no easier when you need them.
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Do you want everything in one place?
Buying the domain, email and hosting together is simple. Keeping them apart means one problem or one bill does not touch the others.
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Who answers when something breaks?
Check what support is offered and when. A domain problem can stop your website and your email at the same time.
Register
Other terms you will meet
These turn up in account screens, renewal notices and lookup results.
- Party
Registry
The organisation that runs a whole ending, such as .com, and sets the terms registrars sell it under.
- Party
Reseller
A company selling registrations through another registrar’s accreditation. Your contract and your support may sit with either one.
- Party
ICANN
The non-profit that coordinates the domain name system and accredits registrars for endings such as .com.
- Lookup
WHOIS and RDAP
Public lookup services that show a domain’s registrar, status and key dates. Contact details are often hidden.
- Status
Grace period
A window after expiry when the owner can usually still renew. Its length varies by registrar and by ending.
- Status
Redemption
A later stage in which a lapsed domain can sometimes be recovered, usually for an extra fee.
- Status
clientTransferProhibited
The technical name for the transfer lock, as it appears in a lookup result.
- Ending
Country-code ending
An ending tied to a country, such as .uk or .de. Each sets its own rules, which can change how renewal and transfer work.