A domain name registrar is an entity accredited by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) or a national top-level domain (ccTLD) authority to manage the reservation of Internet domain names. Registrars act as intermediaries between the registrant and the registry, facilitating the entry of domain names into the central registry database.
The choice of registrar determines the legal and technical control over domain assets. It affects the security of the domain through features like multi-factor authentication, registry locks, and the handling of transfers. A registrar failure or unauthorized access can lead to the loss of service and ownership.
Sovereignty begins with domain ownership. We advise decoupling your registrar from your hosting provider or cloud vendor. This separation of concerns prevents vendor lock-in and ensures that technical issues with a provider do not jeopardize your root domain assets. Use registrars that support security features like hardware-based MFA and registry-level locking.