Domain registrar

The company the domain is registered through — who to contact to renew it, unlock it or move it.

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The registrar is the company you rent the domain through: GoDaddy, Namecheap, OVHcloud, Gandi, a hosting provider or a local reseller. It sits between you and the registry that runs the zone (Verisign for .com, DENIC for .de, NASK for .pl) and is the only party that can change the registration on your behalf.

What you go to the registrar for:

• Renewal and auto-renewal, and the payment card behind it.
• Nameserver changes, when you move DNS to another provider.
• The transfer lock and the authorisation (EPP) code needed to move the domain to another registrar.
• Contact data and the verification e-mails registries require; an unanswered verification can get the name suspended.

What the row shows

The name comes from the registry's RDAP or WHOIS record. Some registries no longer publish it (DENIC for .de, for example), and then the row is not shown. It is informational: there is no good or bad registrar from the report's point of view.

Why it is worth checking

Many companies discover during an incident that the domain sits in a personal account of a former developer or agency. If the name in this row is not one your organisation has an account with, find out who holds that account and move the domain into a company-owned one. See also the transfer lock and the registry status.