iFastHostingWhat is a domain registrar?
The accredited company you register and renew a domain through, which is not always the same company hosting your website.
A registrar is a company accredited to sell and manage domain registrations on behalf of a registry — the organisation that actually operates a given extension, such as .com or .co.uk. When you register a domain, you are not dealing with the registry directly; you are dealing with a registrar, who handles the registration, renewal, and administrative record on your behalf.
Registrar, registry, and host are three different things
| Role | What it actually does |
|---|---|
| Registry | Operates a specific extension as a whole — for example, one organisation runs all of .com. You never deal with this directly. |
| Registrar | Accredited to sell and administer domains within extensions the registry permits. This is who you pay to register and renew a domain. |
| Host | Runs the actual server your website and email live on. Often a completely separate company from the registrar. |
It is entirely normal, and common, for all three to be different companies, or for the registrar and host to be the same one while the registry remains a separate body you never interact with directly.
What a registrar actually controls
Your registrar is where you renew the domain, update the registrant contact details, and — critically — set which nameservers the domain uses. That last point is what connects a registrar to everything else: whoever runs those nameservers controls the domain's actual DNS records, which might be the registrar itself, your hosting provider, or a separate DNS service entirely. See what nameservers are for how that handoff works.
Finding out who your registrar is
If you are not sure, a public WHOIS lookup on the domain will show the registrar of record. This is useful if you inherited a domain, took over a business, or simply cannot remember where a particular domain was originally bought — the registrar shown there is who you need to log in with to renew it, transfer it, or change its nameservers.
Plenty of people buy a domain from one company and host their website with another. The only requirement is that the domain's nameservers, set at the registrar, point at wherever the DNS is actually managed — see how to point a domain to your hosting for how that connection is made.
Can you move a domain to a different registrar?
Yes, and it is a routine process rather than an unusual one — see how to transfer a domain to a new registrar. Moving registrars changes only who you renew and manage the domain with; it does not touch the website or email unless you separately choose to change nameservers as well.
Related reading
They decide who gets to answer questions about your domain — and changing them hands your whole domain to a different company.
How to transfer a domain to a new registrarThe steps to move a domain to a new registrar, the checks to do first, and why the transfer itself never touches your website.
How to renew a domain nameRenewing before the expiry date is simple; the details worth knowing are auto-renewal, payment failures, and what a late renewal costs.
Can I use a domain I bought somewhere else?Yes — a domain registered anywhere can be hosted with us without ever moving its actual registration.