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The short version
- Registry: keeps the master list for one ending, such as .au or .com. There’s one per ending.
- Registrar: a company accredited to add and change names in that list.
- Reseller: sells and supports domains through a registrar. Chill Domains is a reseller.
- Registrant: you, the person or business the name is registered to.
- Above them, ICANN and IANA coordinate the system worldwide, and auDA administers .au.
The chain, top to bottom
ICANN and IANA: the coordinators
ICANN is the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, a not-for-profit organisation formed in 1998. The internet only works as one network if every name and number is unique, and ICANN’s own summary is that it “coordinates these unique identifiers across the world. Without that coordination we wouldn’t have one global Internet.” For endings like .com, it “draws up contracts with each registry” and “runs an accreditation system for registrars”.
It’s just as useful to know what ICANN doesn’t do. In its words: “ICANN doesn’t control content on the Internet. It cannot stop spam and it doesn’t deal with access to the Internet.”
IANA, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority, is the part of ICANN that keeps the top-level lists. It manages the DNS root zone, which records who runs each ending, and it hands out blocks of IP addresses to the regional registries.
auDA: in charge of .au
Country endings are run locally. For Australia that’s auDA, short for .au Domain Administration. Its description: “.au Domain Administration (auDA) administers the .au domain for the benefit of all Australians.” IANA’s record for .au lists auDA as the manager.
auDA writes the rules for .au names: who is eligible for a .com.au, what details are public, how long a licence runs. It also accredits the registrars allowed to sell them. Because the rules come from auDA, they’re the same no matter where you register.
The registry: one master list per ending
Every ending has exactly one registry. ICANN describes it as “one company in each case (called a registry)” that “is in charge of all domains ending with that particular TLD”.
- For .au, auDA calls the .au registry “the comprehensive database of .au domain name registrations”. A separate company, Identity Digital Australia, operates it under contract to auDA.
- For .com, the registry is Verisign.
The registry does two things for your name. It records the registration: which name, held by whom, through which registrar, until when. And it runs the nameservers for the ending, which tell the world which nameservers answer for your domain. You never deal with the registry yourself. Changes reach it through a registrar.
The registrar: accredited access
A registrar is a company accredited to make changes in a registry. auDA’s glossary defines registrars as “companies that offer domain name services to the public, including registering, maintaining and renewing .au domain name licences”. For .au names the accreditation comes from auDA. For .com and most other endings it comes from ICANN.
The registrar is the name you’ll see in the “Registrar” line when you look a domain up in WHOIS. WHOIS, RDAP and privacy explains the rest of that record.
The reseller: sells through a registrar
Not every company that sells domains is a registrar. auDA defines resellers as “businesses that provide domain name registration services to the public but are not auDA accredited .au registrars”. A reseller has an arrangement with a registrar and places every registration through it.
That’s us. Chill Domains is a reseller, operated by Digital Greenhouse. Every domain is registered through an auDA- and ICANN-accredited wholesale registrar partner, which is why that partner’s name, not ours, appears as the registrar on your domain’s public record. You get the same registry, the same rules and the same domain. We set the price and look after the dashboard and the support. More about who runs Chill Domains.
The registrant: you
The registrant is the person or organisation the name is registered to. auDA’s definition: “The individual or organisation who holds a domain name licence. Registrants do not own a domain name.” (Lesson 1 covers the licence idea.)
Being the registrant is what gives you control. So check that it’s really you:
- The registrant should be you or your business, not your web designer, your IT person or a former staff member. If someone registered the name on your behalf, ask whose details are on it. If it needs to move into your name, read our guide to changing the registrant of a .com.au.
- Keep the registrant email address current. Important notices and transfer codes are sent there. An old address that nobody reads is how businesses lose domains.
What this means in practice
The rules are the same everywhere; the prices aren’t
Eligibility and policy come from the top of the chain, so no seller can offer you a .com.au on easier terms than another. Price is different. ICANN notes that domains are sold by registrars “free to charge whatever they wish, although in each case they pay a set per-domain fee”. Every seller pays a wholesale cost and sets its own retail price, renewal price and extras on top. That’s where the differences come from. Ours are listed here. For a recent example of a wholesale change, read our guide to the October 2026 .au price rise.
You can move, and nothing breaks
A transfer moves your domain from one registrar to another. The name, the registry and the registrant all stay the same. You need the transfer code from your current provider. Transfers, locks and status codes walks through it.
One thing to check first: if the company you’re leaving also hosts your DNS, that hosting may end when the domain leaves. Set up your records at the new home before you move, so your website and email don’t drop out. Moving your DNS safely has the steps.
Who to contact for what
| You want to… | Go to |
|---|---|
| Renew, transfer, or update the registrant’s details | The registrar or reseller you registered with |
| Change which nameservers the domain uses | The registrar or reseller you registered with |
| Add or change DNS records | Your DNS host (often the same company, not always) |
| Fix the website or a mailbox | Your web host or email provider |
| Read the rules for .au names | auDA, which publishes them |
The DNS host, web host and email provider aren’t part of the registration chain at all. They’re separate jobs, covered in Nameservers and DNS zones.
Terms in this lesson
- ICANN
- The not-for-profit organisation that coordinates domain names and IP addresses worldwide.
- IANA
- The part of ICANN that keeps the internet’s top-level lists.
- auDA
- The not-for-profit organisation that administers the .au domain.
- Registry
- The single master list of every name under one ending, and the organisation that keeps it.
- Registry operator
- The company that runs a registry’s systems day to day.
- Registrar
- A company accredited to add and change names in a registry.
- Reseller
- A business that sells and supports domains through an accredited registrar, without being a registrar itself.
- Registrant
- The person or organisation a domain is registered to.
- Licence
- What you actually hold when you register a .au domain: the right to use the name for a set period.
Every term, in full, is in the glossary.
Sources
All read on 2 October 2026.
- What Does ICANN Do? (ICANN): its coordinating role, registries, registrar accreditation, pricing and what it doesn’t control.
- Root Zone Management (IANA): IANA’s role in managing the root zone.
- Number Resources (IANA): allocation of IP addresses to the regional registries.
- Delegation record for .au and for .com (IANA): auDA manages .au; Verisign manages .com.
- About auDA (auDA): its role as administrator of .au.
- The .au registry (auDA): what the registry is, and that Identity Digital Australia operates it.
- Glossary of domain name terms (auDA): the definitions of registrar, reseller and registrant.