Domain contacts (registrant, admin, tech, billing)

Every domain has four contact roles in the registry: registrant, admin, tech, and billing. You edit them from the portal — registrant changes are typically what people want when they say "change ownership of a domain."

What each role means

• Registrant — the legal owner. This is the most important one. Registry records show this person/organization as having authority over the domain.
• Admin — administrative contact. For most personal domains this is the same as registrant.
• Tech — technical contact. For DNS or hosting questions; typically same as admin.
• Billing — billing contact. For renewal payments; typically same as admin.

For most domains, all four roles are the same person. They diverge for organizations where the registrant is a company, the tech contact is the IT manager, and billing is finance.

Editing contacts

1. Go to Domains and click the domain.
2. Open the Contacts subpage.
3. You'll see four cards, one per role. Each card has the current contact data and an Edit button.
4. Click Edit on the role you want to change.
5. Update the fields, save.

Most TLDs accept the changes immediately. A few (.de, .eu, certain country-codes) require an additional confirmation step at the registry — we'll tell you if so and walk you through.

Copying from one role to another

If you want admin/tech/billing to all match your registrant:

1. Edit the registrant first, save.
2. On admin, click Copy from registrant. Same for tech and billing.

The pills are de-duplicated — if admin and tech already share a contact handle, copying admin to tech is a no-op (registry-level we mint exactly one handle per unique contact).

What changing the registrant does

Changing the registrant is a transfer of legal ownership of the domain at the registry level. ICANN treats this as significant:

• Some TLDs trigger a 60-day transfer lock after registrant change — meaning the domain can't be transferred to another registrar for 60 days.
• Some require an explicit confirmation message to the new registrant before completing.

If you're transferring ownership to a different person (selling the domain, handing it to a colleague), do the registrant change explicitly through the contacts editor rather than just changing your own contact info.

WHOIS privacy and contacts

If WHOIS privacy is on (default for most domains), the public WHOIS lookup shows proxy contact details — not your real ones. The actual contacts on file at the registry are still your real details; privacy is a layer in front.

The contacts editor shows you what's on file at the registry (your real details). Lookups from outside (whois.com, GoDaddy WHOIS lookup, etc.) show the privacy proxy.

For more, see WHOIS privacy.

Handle changes under the hood

When you edit a contact, our domain backend (OpenProvider) creates a brand-new contact handle at the registry rather than modifying the existing one in place. This is intentional:

• It preserves history — the old handle still exists tied to its previous use.
• It avoids the rare race condition where editing in place could affect other domains sharing the same handle.

You won't notice this — it's a backend detail. From your perspective, the contact updates and that's that.

Common changes

• Updated address — edit the relevant role. If all four roles match, edit one and use "Copy from..." for the others.
• Got married/divorced, changed name — edit registrant, possibly admin/tech/billing too.
• Switched companies — depends. If transferring registrant ownership to the new company, do an explicit registrant change. If the domain is yours personally, just update name/email.

What we can't change via this editor

• Registrant for .eu domains — registry policy requires a transfer-out and re-registration to a new registrant. We can guide you through it; open a ticket.
• Some country-code TLDs with strict registry policies. The editor flags these and explains.