What is a registry, registrar and registrant?
When you register a domain there are always three parties involved; the registry, registrar and registrant. Below we explain what their roles are.
Registry
The registry is responsible for the overall administration of a top-level domain (TLD). They set the policies for the domain, manage the registrations and generate the zone file.
A registry can manage multiple domains, like Verisign for .com and .net, or just one domain like SIDN for .nl. one.com is the registry for .one.
Registrar
The registrar is the middleman. It is an accredited organization that registers a domain with a registry, on behalf of the registrant. one.com is an accredited registrar with ICANN.
one.com is a registrar for a number of TLDs, among others, .dk, .se and .de domains. However, for a lot of domains, we use our partner Ascio. Ascio is a registrar that caters to other registrars and web hosting providers. It allows us to offer a lot of TLDs to our customers, without having to adapt our systems to each registry.
Registrant
The registrant is the registered name holder of a domain. This person or entity owns the rights to use the domain for their website and email, as long as they pay the domain fee every year.
When you host a domain at one.com, you are the registrant.
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