Vendor Relationships

TLDR

  • Domains are used to provide many services; DNS, Email, Websites, etc.
  • You can use one vendor for everything or choose a different vendor for each service.
  • Your registrar is used to set nameserver records for your domain.
  • Your DNS host is used to configure the services used with your domain.
  • There are many providers for common services like email and website hosting.

Overview

A domain must be registered via a registrar, but using the registrar for other services, such as website hosting, is not a requirement. You can mitigate some risk by using a different vendor for each tier of service; domain registration, DNS, service (e.g., website, email).

Domain Usage

The most common services used with domains are DNS, Email, and Website Hosting. DNS stands for Domain Name System which is the system used to describe and discover all the other services that are associated with a domain. The nameservers associated with your domain must be pointed to a DNS Host.

Other services such as email or a website will require DNS records. The hierarchy for all of this is shown below.

An image of vendor relationships.

The topmost item, the domain, is the most important because it is irreplaceable, so choosing a reputable, high-quality registrar is critical. DNS is next most important because all other services depend on it. The importance of other services, such as email and websites, is subjective.

Vendors

Everything in the above diagram could be purchased from your domain registrar or from separate vendors. Choosing between a single vendor or multiple vendors comes with some difficult tradeoffs. Everything but the domain is replaceable, so it is often a good choice to minimize the relationship with your domain registrar. For example, if you use a 3rd party to host your website, and that account gets terminated for some reason, there is less chance of losing access to your domain because your registrar account may not be affected.

However, every time you add a vendor, that is an extra account to maintain and it adds complexity. For example, if you use a 3rd party DNS provider, you will probably need to know how to configure your DNS by hand to get things like a website and email working.

You can get more resiliency by using a separate vendor for every service, but it comes at the cost of complexity. If you are using your domain to set up a simple brochure style website for a small business, the added complexity may not be worth it because the complexity adds to the risk of having something go wrong and that risk can exceed the benefits gained from isolating each service by using a separate vendor for each.

On the other hand, if you have an IT vendor that deals with everything for you, they might already have a set of preferred vendors for each service, and you can benefit from increased resiliency if they are willing to manage the complexity for you. Just make sure you are the registrant for your domain.

Registrar

You must use a domain registrar to register your domain. Once you have registered a domain, you can choose any vendor you want as a DNS host by specifying the nameservers (aka NS records) for your domain. This can only be done via your domain registrar. By default, these are usually set to DNS servers run by your domain registrar.

If you use a 3rd party for DNS, you will not be able to use any one-click services offered by your domain registrar.

DNS Host

You can use any vendor you want for DNS. For example, DNS hosting is one of the services offered by Cloudflare. DNS is the system used to point to your web host, email provider, etc.

Service Providers

Hosting providers are vendors that host a website, email, etc. on your behalf. Examples of website hosts are Squarespace, Wix, WordPress. Examples of email providers are MS365, Google Workspace, Fastmail.