Registrant, registrar and reseller in plain English, how to check yours, and how to fix it if it is in the wrong name.
Resources / Who actually owns my business's domain name?
Whoever is listed as the registrant. That is the person or business the domain is licensed to, and it is not always the business that uses it and pays for it. If a web designer, IT provider or former employee registered your domain in their own name, they hold it, not you. For a .au domain, auDA's rules say your business must be the registrant even when someone else manages it. Check it today, it takes a minute.
A .au domain is licensed to you, not owned outright
To move a .au domain between registrars
To transfer the licence after selling the business
Three names come up, and they are easy to mix up. The registrant is the person or business the domain is licensed to. Strictly, nobody owns a .au domain: the registrant holds a licence to use it for the licence period.1 In practice the registrant is the one in control.
The registrar is the accredited company that registers and renews the domain. A reseller is a business, often a web host or designer, that sells domains through a registrar without being accredited itself.1
None of those is necessarily you. The question that matters is the first one: whose name is on the registrant line. Paying the invoice every year does not put you there.
The same applies to a .com or any other ending. The rules differ from .au, but the principle does not: the name and contact details on the registration decide who controls the domain. If your business also holds the .com version of its name, check that one too, because it is often the one a designer registered years ago and nobody has looked at since.
It usually happens innocently. A web designer registers the domain while building the first site, using their own details because it is quicker. An IT provider adds it to their account. A staff member signs up with a personal card and a personal email address. Years later the business has built its whole name around a domain it does not hold.
For .au domains this is specifically against the rules. Since 12 April 2021, auDA has said that if someone like a web developer registers or renews your domain on your behalf, you or your organisation must be listed as the registrant, not the developer.2 The point is that you keep control, and that the domain is held by someone eligible for it.
Eligibility matters too. A .com.au must be held by an Australian business entity, such as one with an ABN or ACN, and the name has to be connected to it: your business name, an acronym of it, your trade mark, or a match for what you do.4 A designer holding your business name as a .com.au usually fails that test.
Our free Domain Checker shows who holds any domain, and for .au names it shows the holding entity and its ABN. Type in your domain and look at the holder. If it is your business, good. If it is a person, a web agency or a company you do not recognise, you have found the problem.
Then check the contact email on the registration, through your domain provider's account. It is where renewal reminders and transfer codes go. A designer's address or a former employee's personal email is a quiet risk even when the registrant name is right.
If you cannot log in to the account where the domain sits, find out who can. That account is the front door to your website and email, and someone in the business should have the key.
Ask whoever holds it to change the registrant to your business. For a .au domain this is a change of registrant, started through the domain provider's website. Your business needs to be eligible to hold the name and enters into a new licence agreement, and some providers charge a fee for doing it.3
Ask in writing, calmly, and say why: you want the domain in your business's name, as auDA's rules require. Most designers and providers simply never thought about it and are happy to fix it.
If the person holding it cannot be reached, or will not help, contact the registrar that manages the domain and explain the situation. Keep your evidence together: your ABN, the business name the domain matches, invoices showing you paid for it, and any emails that show it was registered for your business. The longer the website and email have run on it as yours, the clearer the story.
Once the registrant is right, you can move the domain to whichever registrar you like. There is no fee for moving a .au domain between registrars,3 and the transfer code goes to the registrant contact email, which is one more reason to get that address right first.
Keep the domain registered in the business's name, with a contact email the business controls, such as an admin address several people can read rather than one person's inbox.
Turn on auto-renew, and keep a note of the registrar, the expiry date and who can log in. A domain that lapses can be registered by someone else, and a renewal reminder going to the wrong inbox is how that usually happens.
If you ever sell the business, the domain goes with it as part of the sale, and auDA expects the licence to be transferred within 28 days of the contract.3 Having it in the right name now makes that a form, not an argument.
Free Domain Checker: See who holds any domain, and for .au names the holding entity and ABN.
I got a "domain renewal" invoice. Is it a scam?: Three checks before you pay any renewal notice.
How do I change IT providers without breaking everything?: Domain, admin access, licences and data: what to secure first.
Not unless your business is listed as the registrant. For .au domains, auDA's rules say your business must be the registrant even when a designer registers or renews it for you. Check the holder, and ask them to change it if it is in their name.
Look it up in a domain checker. Our free Domain Checker shows the holder, and for .au names the holding entity and ABN. Then check the contact email in your domain provider's account.
Ask the current registrant to start a change of registrant through their domain provider's website. Your business must be eligible to hold the name and enters a new licence agreement. Some providers charge a fee.
No. The registrar is the company that registers and renews domains. The registrant, the person or business the domain is licensed to, is the one in control.
Moving a .au domain between registrars has no transfer fee. You need the transfer code, which is sent to the registrant contact email, so make sure that address is one your business controls.
Send us your domain. We will tell you who holds it, where it is registered and whether anything needs fixing, and help you get it into your business's name. Free, no obligation.
Prefer to talk? Call (02) 9053 8789.
Belivanis Information Systems