A domain name registrar provides domain name registrations to the general public. A common misconception is that registrars sell domain names; these domain names are actually owned by registries and can only be leased by users. A domain name registrar is a business that handles the reservation of domain names as well as the assignment of IP addresses for those domain names. Domain names are alphanumeric aliases used to access websites; for example, Google’s domain name is ‘google.com’ and their IP address is 192.168.1.1. Domain names make it easier to access websites without having to memorize and enter numeric IP addresses. (For more on how this works, see What Is DNS?
It should be noted that registrars don’t actually manage and maintain domain names; that part is done by a domain name registry. What is the difference between a registrar and a registry? Learn more at the Cloudflare Learning Center
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