An end-user cannot directly register a domain and manage their domain information with ICANN. A designated registrar must be chosen. Prior to 1999, the only com registrar was NSI, but the approval of the SRS opened up the opportunity for other companies to be designated as registrars.

Only the designated registrar may modify or delete information about a domain name. The competition that the SRS created enables end users to choose from many registrars offering different services at varying prices. It is not unusual for an end user to switch registrars which invokes a domain transfer process governed by specific domain name transfer policies.

Many registrars also offer registration through reseller affiliates. An end-user registers either directly with a registrar, or indirectly through one or more layers of resellers. As of 2008, the cost generally ranges from a low of about $7.50 per year to about $35 per year. The maximum period of registration of a domain name is generally 10 years. Some registrars are offering longer periods of up to one hundred years, but such offers involve the registrar renewing the registration for their customer. The one hundred year domain name registration would not be in the official registration database. Some packages of Internet services, such as web hosting, include the domain registration in the total package pricing.

A term used to refer to domain name registrars who offer a service that will attempt to register a name for an end-user as soon as it becomes available - that is, catching a dropped name - either because the current owner does not want the name any more, or because they have not renewed the name before it expires.