DomainTools Blog

The ICANN meeting in Lisbon has started and there are a lot of issues being discussed. Elliot Noss, the President & CEO of Tucows, posted on their corporate blog an article titled “Questions to Ask Before You Pick Your Domain Name Registrar”. The ten bullet points that he covers are good questions that should be asked and, we would say, continued to be asked every year. The registration process changes over time and so do the policies of registrars, registries, and ICANN.

The important summary of the article is that a user should know how a domain expires at the registrar and how they get the domain back if it expires. It can be time consuming and is now getting increasingly difficult and costly to retrieve a domain past expiration. The next thing to consider is how portable the domains are - can you unlock them and move them? The transfer policy can be different at every registrar. Always use a registrar that offers the ability to auto-renew with a credit card or funding source. The user should be able to stop auto-renewal if they don’t want to hold on to a domain name, because some names are junk and aren’t worth renewing. Word of mouth about the registrar is good to check - ask people you trust or read blogs or news groups that discuss the registrar.

1. What is your primary business model?
2. Do you make transfers as easy as the rules allow?
3. Do you allow for easy locking/unlocking?
4. Do you make it easy to opt-out of auto-renewals?
5. Do you tie domains to your services?
6. Do you offer Whois privacy? What are your privacy policies in general?
7. What are your policies on compliance issues like litigation, ownership disputes and WDRP?
8. How easy is it to contact you?
9. What happens when my domain expires?
10. Are you a registrar or reseller?

The article is a good read and is heavily detailed about registration issues.