Domain registrar landscape — 2026-Q3
A quarterly, source-derived snapshot of where the registrar market stands on the capabilities that matter for automation and AI agents: public APIs, delegated auth, machine-readable specs, agent interfaces, DNS, RDAP and security disclosure.
Every statistic below is computed over the 7 registrars Open Domain Data currently tracks — not the whole registrar industry. Shares describe this tracked sample. As coverage grows each quarter the sample becomes more representative; the denominator is stated on every stat so a reader always knows what a percentage is over. Numbers are computed deterministically from the primary datasets and re-checked in CI.
Headline statistics#headline
All statistics (13)#all-stats
| metric | value | statement | type |
|---|---|---|---|
| Public domain-management API | 6 of 7 | 6 of the 7 registrars tracked by Open Domain Data expose a public domain-management API. | headline |
| OAuth 2.0 API authentication | 0 of 7 | 0 of the 7 registrars tracked by Open Domain Data authenticate their API with OAuth 2.0 (the rest use a static API key). | headline |
| Scoped API tokens | 1 of 7 | 1 of the 7 registrars tracked by Open Domain Data support scoped API tokens (a delegated agent can be granted less than full account access). | headline |
| Machine-readable OpenAPI spec | 1 of 7 | 1 of the 7 registrars tracked by Open Domain Data publish a machine-readable OpenAPI specification for their API. | headline |
| Native agent (MCP) interface | 1 of 7 | 1 of the 7 registrars tracked by Open Domain Data expose a native agent interface over the Model Context Protocol (MCP). | headline |
| API sandbox / test environment | 3 of 7 | 3 of the 7 registrars tracked by Open Domain Data publish an API sandbox or test environment. | supporting |
| Account audit logs | 1 of 7 | 1 of the 7 registrars tracked by Open Domain Data expose account-level audit logs (so automated actions leave a reviewable trail). | supporting |
| Built-in human-approval flow | 0 of 7 | 0 of the 7 registrars tracked by Open Domain Data offer a built-in human-approval or spend-limit flow for API-initiated actions. | supporting |
| DNS records editable via API | 6 of 7 | 6 of the 7 registrars tracked by Open Domain Data let you manage DNS records programmatically via API. | supporting |
| DNSSEC support | 7 of 7 | 7 of the 7 registrars tracked by Open Domain Data support DNSSEC (6 fully, 1 partially). | supporting |
| IANA-bootstrapped RDAP endpoint | 7 of 7 | 7 of the 7 registrars tracked by Open Domain Data expose an IANA-bootstrapped, RFC 7483-conformant RDAP endpoint. | supporting |
| RFC 9116 security.txt | 3 of 7 | 3 of the 7 registrars tracked by Open Domain Data publish an RFC 9116 security.txt (2 do not; 2 could not be determined). | supporting |
| Minimum DNS TTL (median) | 300 s (median) | The median minimum DNS TTL across the 7 registrars tracked by Open Domain Data is 300 seconds (range 60–600). | supporting |
Facts, not rankings#separation
Open Domain Data publishes structured datasets only. It does not rank registrars or recommend providers. Ranking and recommendation products are maintained separately and must disclose how they use this data.
Reuse & cross-citation#cross-citation
These statistics are published under CC BY 4.0 for anyone to quote — press, blogs, other open directories and AI answers — as long as the source is credited. The data is available as a stable JSON and CSV feed so it can be cited programmatically. See the cross-citation convention for the exact attribution wording.
1 of the 7 registrars tracked by Open Domain Data expose a native agent interface over the Model Context Protocol (MCP). Cite this stat →
Data & endpoints#downloads
The machine-readable dataset behind this edition: /api/registrar_landscape.json. Its schema and full record view live in the data catalog.
Edition#edition
Cite as: Open Domain Data (2026-Q3). registrar_landscape, 2026-Q3. opendomaindata.org/landscape/2026-q3. Licensed CC BY 4.0.