Registrar vs Registry vs Reseller: Who Actually Holds Your Domain
Four parties are involved in every domain and most people can name one. Knowing which is which tells you who to contact when something breaks, why some problems cannot be fixed by support, and what you are exposed to if a company disappears.
September 22, 20266 min readRegistrars · ICANN · Basics
The short answer. The registry operates the extension and holds the authoritative database. The registrar is accredited to write to it and sells to the public. A reseller sells under someone else's accreditation and has no direct registry access. You are the registrant. When something breaks, knowing which one you are dealing with tells you who can actually fix it.
The four parties
The registry
One organisation operates each top-level domain and maintains the definitive database of every name under it. Verisign runs .com and .net. Public Interest Registry runs .org. Hundreds of others run the rest.
The registry sets the wholesale price, defines the rules for that extension, and is the single source of truth about who holds what. When our checker tells you a domain is registered, it is because the registry said so over RDAP.
Registries do not sell to the public. You cannot buy a .com from Verisign.
The registrar
An ICANN-accredited company permitted to create and modify registrations in registries, using a protocol called EPP. GoDaddy, Namecheap, Cloudflare, Porkbun and around two thousand others.
The registrar is your counterparty. It holds your account, takes your money, sets retail pricing, and is the only party that can change your domain at the registry. It is also the one ICANN holds accountable for your rights as a registrant.
The reseller
A company selling domains under a registrar's accreditation rather than its own. Many web hosts, site builders and agencies are resellers.
This distinction matters more than it sounds. A reseller is not ICANN-accredited and has no direct registry access. Your domain is registered through their upstream registrar, and everything goes through two layers.
The registrant
You. The person or organisation with the rights to the domain, as recorded in the registration data.
How a registration actually flows
- You pay a registrar, or a reseller who pays a registrar.
- The registrar sends an EPP command to the registry.
- The registry records the domain against that registrar and stores your nameservers.
- The registry publishes those nameservers in the TLD zone.
- Resolvers worldwide can now find your domain.
The chain runs registry, registrar, optional reseller, you. Every request and every change follows it in one direction or the other.
Why the distinction matters
It tells you who can fix what
| Problem | Who resolves it |
|---|---|
| Billing, renewal, account access | Registrar (or reseller) |
| Transfer lock, auth code, nameservers | Registrar |
| serverHold or serverTransferProhibited | Registry, via your registrar |
| Extension rules, premium pricing | Registry |
| Registrar behaving improperly | ICANN complaint |
The codes beginning server are set by the registry and your registrar cannot simply remove them. The codes beginning client are set by your registrar and it can. This is why one support request gets resolved in minutes and a similar-sounding one takes weeks. See the portfolio audit checklist for what each code means.
It explains pricing
Wholesale is set by the registry and is identical for every registrar. Verisign charges all of them $10.26 for a .com, rising to $10.97 on 1 November 2026.
So retail differences are entirely registrar margin. That is why a registrar selling at cost is possible, and why the spread between cheapest and dearest is pure markup rather than different underlying costs. We broke that down in The Cheapest Domain Registrar in 2026.
It is the reseller risk
Buying through a reseller means:
The registrar of record is not the company you paid. Your registration data lists their upstream provider.
Support is indirect. Anything requiring registry action goes through two companies, and the second one has no relationship with you.
Transfers can be awkward. You need an authorisation code that the reseller must obtain from its registrar, and some resellers are slow about it.
If the reseller disappears, your domain does not. It still exists at the registrar. Recovering control can be painful, but the domain is not lost with the company.
This is a genuine argument for registering directly with an accredited registrar rather than through a host or agency, particularly for domains that matter.
How to tell which you are using
Look up your own domain in our checker. The RDAP record names the registrar of record and its IANA ID.
If that name is not the company you pay, you are buying through a reseller. That is not automatically a problem, but it is worth knowing before you need something urgently.
Common questions
What is the difference between a registry and a registrar?
The registry operates the extension and holds the authoritative database of registrations. The registrar is accredited to write to that database and sells domains to the public. You buy from a registrar, never from a registry.
Who actually owns my domain?
Nobody owns a domain outright. You hold the exclusive right to use it for a registration period, recorded at the registry against your registrar. As long as you renew and comply with the rules, that right continues.
Is buying from a reseller bad?
Not inherently, but support is indirect, transfers can be slower, and the registrar of record is not the company you pay. For important domains, registering directly with an accredited registrar removes a layer.
How do I find out who my registrar is?
Look up the domain over RDAP. The record names the registrar of record and its IANA identifier, which is definitive regardless of who invoiced you.
Why do registrars charge different prices for the same domain?
Wholesale pricing from the registry is identical for all of them. The retail difference is entirely registrar margin and whatever services they bundle.
What happens if my registrar goes out of business?
ICANN has a process for transferring registrations in bulk to another accredited registrar. Your domain does not disappear, though the transition can be slow and your renewal terms may change.
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