Registrars vs resellers: What's the difference?
Every website has a domain name. The owner of the site either registered the domain name before anyone else – or purchased the domain from someone who had already registered it. Most people want to know the difference between a registrar and a reseller.
What is a domain registrar?
All active domain names need to be listed at a domain registrar: A registrar handles the registration and management of domain names. A registrar is responsible for managing all aspects of the registration process, from acquiring new domain name registrations, renewing existing ones and transferring domains. In the case of generic Top-Level Domains such as .com, this includes providing customer service and complying with ICANN's policies and dispute resolution.
Registrars provide services to people who want to register a new domain name, renew their existing domain name, or make changes to their domain name record. Registrars process new registrations and renewals, as well as update registrant contact details. Services that registrars may provide include DNS management, hosting, URL forwarding, domain transfers and more.
What is a domain reseller?
A domain reseller is a person or company who owns existing domains and lists them for sale. Resellers keep their domains at registrars, then transfer ownership of the domain to a buyer. Many resellers offer premium domains for sale – premium domains are domain names that are generally short and easy to understand.
Resellers generally do not have any involvement in the technical side of registering or maintaining domains but instead focus on marketing and sales to customers who want to purchase or transfer them.
What is a domain registrant?
A registrant is the registered holder of a domain. A registrant holds the "rights" to a domain for the duration of the registration period. If you own a domain, you are the registrant.
What is a domain registry?
A domain registry is a database that stores the information about each domain name and its corresponding IP address. The registry is an organization that manages the administration of a top level domain, such as .com, .net, .org, etc.
What is ICANN?
ICANN is the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. ICANN oversees most domain registration. Domain names are all entered in a central registry (domain registry), and must be listed to be valid. ICANN sets the policies and regulations Registrars, and Registrants must follow.
ICANN is a nonprofit organization headquartered in Southern California that was formed in 1998 to help the U.S. government manage certain functions that maintain the Internet's core infrastructure. ICANN maintains the central repository for IP addresses and helps coordinate the supply of IP addresses. It also manages the domain name system and root servers.
Find available domain names
Searching for a domain name can be difficult. You may not know where to start or what you're looking for, but the process doesn't have to be as complicated as it seems. Try our search tool to find available domains today!
If you need any advice on buying a domain name or want some guidance throughout the whole process, feel free to reach out anytime — we're happy to offer all sorts of support through this difficult but necessary step in getting started online!
