Domains, delivery and craft
What is Domain registrar?
The company you register a domain through, and the account that ultimately controls it. Whoever holds the registrar login can move the domain, change its DNS, or let it expire — which makes it the single most important credential in a web presence.
Also called: registrar account · domain host
What to check on your own account
- That the registrant name and email are yours, not your developer’s
- That you can log in without asking anyone
- That auto-renew is enabled and the payment card is current
- That transfer lock is on, preventing an unauthorised move
- That the expiry date is further away than you assumed
Registrar and host are different jobs
The registrar holds the name; the host serves the files. They are frequently the same company for convenience and do not have to be. Keeping them separate makes a host change trivial, because you only repoint a DNS record rather than migrating a registration.
The renewal failure that takes sites down
A card expires, the renewal email goes to an address nobody reads, and the domain lapses. Recovery is possible during a grace period and expensive after it. Auto-renew plus a calendar reminder costs nothing and prevents the entire category.
Where this is covered in depth
A definition can only go so far. Who actually owns your website — a checklist you can verify today covers this properly — 3 minutes, free, no email required.
Who wrote this
Anas Bin Masud builds e-commerce sites and does technical SEO for businesses in the UK, Canada and Pakistan. These definitions come from client work rather than from a content brief — where an entry describes a mistake, it is usually one found on a real site. More about how I work.