Becoming a registrar

At a glance

Application process

To become a registrar you need to complete and submit an application form and agree to the terms of our Registrar Agreement and Good Practice Terms.  The ID that we allocate to your registrar account is called a tag and your service application is called a tag application.  As well as applying to become a registrar and set up a tag with us, you are also applying to open a credit account with us.  

Before we can approve your tag application, we will direct you to our website to take a short test about being a Nominet registrar.  This test is based on information that you will find on this website.

After we have received your application, we will take up bank and trade references with the referees you are asked to provide.  When we receive satisfactory references we will open a credit account for you.  If your references are unsatisfactory or unavailable we will ask you to deposit a sum of money against your account before you can make any transactions using our registrar systems.

When your application is approved our customer services department will contact you with your tag details.

Registrar systems for domain name registration

As a registrar, you can register and manage .uk domain names through Nominet's registrar systems, which require a minimal level of human intervention and mean that domain names can usually be registered in a matter of seconds.  

We support three domain management tools for registrars: Extensible Provisioning Protocol (EPP) (used by the majority of our registrars), the Web Domain Manager tool and the  Automaton.  We will provide you with an account ID known as a tag that will be used to flag the domain names that you manage.

To use EPP you either need to write your own EPP client or buy one off the shelf.  Your EPP software will then need to be able to connect directly to the EPP server using SSL.

When you become a registrar you will have an online account with us and part of this service is that you will be able to access the Web Domain Manager tool. This is a fully-featured system that you can use exclusively to manage the domain names on your tag.

To use the Automaton, you need to download PGP software and create a unique PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) Key which allows you to interact with the Automaton.  This enables the Automaton to identify you when you make a domain name registration application for a customer and process the application automatically.

Registration & renewal rates

Registrars who are members of Nominet are entitled to receive a discount for domain name registrations.  If you become a registrar but not a member of Nominet you will be charged the full registration fee of £80 plus VAT for each domain name.

Invoicing

You will receive consolidated monthly invoices on the 8th of the following month covering the registrations and renewals processed by our registrar systems.