Ever wanted to own your own registrar, but either do not know how, or cannot afford the expense to become accredited with ICANN? Some existing registrars offer what is called a reseller account. This allows you to set up your own domain registration service, without all the hassles or becoming accredited. They will also usually provide you with a customizable management interface for your customers, and sometimes, API (application programming interface) access, so you can create your own interface from scratch.
Reseller accounts will allow you to provide a domain registration
service through your website. Reseller accounts with often include a
pre-made interface, at a yearly fee (usually, a few hundred dollars).
You can use this, or make your own custom interface, using the
registrars API. The API allows you to process payments using your own
system, which will mean less fees, but the interface will take many
more hours to set up.
How much does the registrar take?
Generally, the fees are quite low. A registrar will only charge a few dollars (on top of the registration cost) for each domain registration. So the rest is profit to you (after you pay your taxes, of course). They include this in the registration fee, so the customer will not even be aware of it.
The benefits of using a reseller account, rather than becoming an accredited registrar include:
- Low or no initial cost – Reseller account are usually free or inexpensive to set up. Accreditation costs several thousand dollars
- Little technical knowledge required – Reseller accounts usually include a customer management interface, so programming a custom interface is not necessary.
- Quick set up – Building a registrar system can take hundreds of hours of development.
- Help with sales and marketing – Often, you will be assigned to an Account Manager, who will help you grow your sales and improve your business.
The advantages of becoming an accredited registrar are:
- Lower registration fees – This can be an advantage if you are personally registering a lot of domains. You only have to pay the registration fee, which is US$7.04 per domain (for .com’s).
- More control – You are not limited to the TLD’s that the registrars supports.
- Direct access to the registry via EPP connections – great for catching dropped domains
- Registry promotions and discounts, that registrars rarely pass on to end clients or registrar resellers
- Registry beta programs and the ability to get access to Registry beta programs 1st
- Extra security – having your own registrar means you have greater control over domains registered and domain transfers
One of the big disadvantages of running your own registrar is that you have to pre-fund registry accounts. That is, you have to send registries money before you have sold a single domain and as soon as a domain is sold, funds are deducted from this account. This means you need to keep registry accounts topped up and outlay funds in advance.
So, if starting a domain registration service is something you want to try, there is an alternative to becoming an actual registrar. Reseller accounts are much lower risk and lower initial cost. If your business takes off and you are registering a lot of domains, THEN you might want to look at becoming accredited.
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