Domain ownership
Who is a domain registrant?
The domain registrant is whoever registered the domain name and paid for the registration be it a company or a private person. Registrant is able to manage and renew the domain.
In some cases, a domain registrant is also referred to as the domain administrator. The reason being that while for most gTLD’s it is required to list 4 contacts (Registrant, Administrative, Billing and Technical) there are some ccTLD’s that allow listing only one (administrative) contact. If you’re looking for the domain holder, make sure you got the terminology right.
How to locate a domain administrator?
Prior to 25 of May 2018, you could find domain name holders contacts using any Whois service. After the EU introduced General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) registrant contacts are hidden and can no longer be displayed. There are still some registrars that do not not remove the registrant contact details, but those are few. You can try your luck with Whois service, just in case.
If you want to contact the current registrant to buy the domain, check the domain registrar’s website for contact forms. You can also hire a broker for this purpose for an additional price. If your rights were violated by the domain holder and you want him to remove the illegal content – send a complaint to the domain registrar. Be advised, that the matter might be escalated to a lawsuit and it is normal. If there is a serious infringement or ToS violation, the registrar will take action up to suspending the domain (set domain status to Suspended and redirect to different servers so the website doesn’t load) if the violation is hard and obvious. Once the domain is suspended, the registrar will contact the domain holder for him to remove the content that violates your rights. Domains that went through suspension are afterward monitored by the registrar and might be suspended for repetitive violations for the whole period of the domain registration.
We expect that the domain contacts will be visible in public Whois soon (as it was announced). Just in case, here is our Whois services rating.
Can there be more than one domain registrant per domain?
It is not possible. There can only be one registrant per domain name.
Note! Many registrars allow providing access to domain settings for third parties, but the registrant is still the only domain holder. Registrars do their best to make such access is as safe as possible for the domain holders (limiting third-party access, etc.). Still, we do not recommend to allow unverified third party access to domain settings.
How to transfer a domain?
You can find the detailed description of the process in this article.
We highly recommend not to purchase the cheapest hosting package. Usually, they come with a row of issues: the server is often down, the hardware is outdated, lousy and slow support, registration and payment errors, etc.
For your convenience, we have created a tool that can help you to choose the right hosting package for you just by answering a few simple questions.
CMS is a content management system. A lot of hosting providers offer so-called CMS optimized packages. However, this is a marketing trick because most CMSs do not have special software or hosting requirements.
Trial period is a period of time, usually from 7 to 30 days, during which you can use the hosting services for free to test them.
Moneyback policy allows the customer to receive a refund for his order within a certain period after the purchase.
OS means the operating system is installed on the server. We recommend to choose Linux hosting unless your website requires another OS.
Bulletproof hosting - it’s a type of service that allows to host almost any type of content, even the restricted one (adult content, warez, spam etc). Bulletproof hosting providers do not remove your content in case someone reports an abuse.
Unlimited hosting - refers to companies that provide packages with unlimited disk space, bandwidth, number of domains, databases or email accounts, etc. This is usually a marketing trick but sometimes you can find something worth a try.
Secure hosting - it’s a type of service when the hosting provider is mostly responsible for the security of the user’s account: updates the software installed on their servers, provides an antivirus and malware scanner, firewalls and basic anti-DDoS protection, etc.
DDoS-protected hosting - companies that provide packages that include anti-DDoS protection. These packages are considerably more expensive than regular ones. Nevertheless, they’re totally worth their price because the company will ensure that your website is secured from cyber attacks.
Most websites require MySQL and PHP installed on the server to work correctly. Almost all hosting providers support these technologies.
ASP.NET is a Microsoft web application development platform.
The more comfortable the control panel is, the easier will it be for you to change the website and hosting account settings.
Most hosting providers that are in TOP20 in our rating offer user-friendly control panels, such as cPanel, Plesk or DirectAdmin. That’s why we recommend to pay attention to other, more important parameters, while choosing a hosting provider.