Thoughts about Domain Registration

The following five points are issues that I believe should push people into taking their domain names into their own control.

Refusal to transfer

The first problem that can occur is when you decide to change your developers, if they have your domain names then you will have to negotiate the release of them to you.

Critical services are out of your control

Along with your domain name there is likely business critical services like email that are attached to your domain. You should know exactly where these services are being provided from and how to administer/control these. If you have an employee that goes rouge and you need to disable email services in an emergency - you need to be prepared for such an event.

Developer could go into administration or cease working

Along with the previous point there are plenty of reasons why you may suddenly have to access your domain name. If your hosting company goes into administration and you need to transfer your website immediately - without the domain being in your control neither you or a new developer can get your site/application setup without access.

You should know/understand where your domain name(s) are

Along with your domain name, there are other important pieces of your digital infrastructure that you should be aware of. Who provides your domain registration, who provides your DNS services? Who provides your organisations email services? These are all important things that you should know but also be aware of where you can administer them.

You could be paying over the odds for renewals

I’ve seen many domain registration companies who over-charge for the domains they register. It’s a good profit earner for smaller companies. Over the long term, this may be costing you a considerable amount of money. You can find the lowest fees by checking either Google domains or Namecheap. Both charge the lowest possible fee.

If it goes wrong

If you’ve got a .co.uk domain then you can raise a dispute with Nominet - for other TLDs then you’re going to have
to attempt to get in contact with the person who registered the domain.