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Dynadot

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Dynadot Inc is a privately held company based in San Mateo, California, that says it was founded in 2002. It is an ICANN-accredited registrar A company that registers domain names for customers with the registry. Full definition (IANA registrar ID The unique number that identifies an ICANN-accredited registrar. Full definition 472) and runs the Dynadot Market, with expired-domain auctions, backorder A paid request to catch a domain name the moment it is deleted. Full definition and listings by its users. More than twenty other accredited registrars carry the Dynadot name.

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Industry roles and organizations

Updated on 4 min read

Dynadot is a US company that registers domain name A readable internet name made of labels separated by dots. Full definition for its customers. It is accredited by ICANN Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers The nonprofit that coordinates the global DNS and gTLD policy. Full definition as a registrar, and it also runs its own marketplace where people buy and sell domain names, including names whose owners did not renew them.

What Dynadot is

Dynadot Inc is, in the words of its terms of use, “a Californian general stock corporation”. Its contact address is in San Mateo, California, and its terms are governed by the laws of the State of California.

Dynadot describes itself as “an ICANN accredited, strategically automated domain name registrar” and as “a debt-free, privately held company” with no plans to go public or be acquired.

In undated figures on its website (as shown in October 2026), Dynadot says that more than 13 million domains are managed through it, for more than 1 million customers from 108 countries.

Its role in the domain system

A registrar takes registration Obtaining the right to use a domain name for a set period. Full definition from customers and passes them to the registry The central database and system of a top-level domain, or loosely the organization that runs it. Full definition that runs each top-level domain. As of October 2026, Dynadot Inc holds IANA registrar ID 472 and is listed as accredited by both IANA Internet Assigned Numbers Authority The functions that coordinate the root zone, IP addresses and protocol numbers. Full definition and ICANN, with the country United States of America. The .com registry’s RDAP Registration Data Access Protocol The modern protocol for looking up domain registration data, replacing WHOIS. Full definition record shows that dynadot.com itself is registered through Dynadot Inc.

Its website links to ICANN pages on registrant The person or organization that holds a domain name registration. Full definition’ benefits and responsibilities under the RAA Registrar Accreditation Agreement The contract between ICANN and each accredited registrar. Full definition. No IANA record shows Dynadot running a registry.

Other Dynadot-named accreditations

As of October 2026, IANA and ICANN list 23 further accredited registrars that carry the Dynadot name, 24 in all: Dynadot0 LLC to Dynadot17 LLC, plus Dynadot1700, Dynadot3184, Dynadot3804, Dynadot5706 and Dynadot9266 LLC. All are listed in the United States and all share the same RDAP service, rdap.dynadot.com.

Neither IANA nor ICANN states who owns these accreditations or what they are for. A group of accreditations owned by one company is called a registrar family A group of ICANN registrar accreditations controlled by one company. Full definition, but the official records do not confirm ownership or purpose for these entries.

History

Dynadot says it was founded in 2002. The .com registry’s record is consistent with that year: dynadot.com was registered on 30 October 2002.

The public IANA and ICANN lists do not show when Dynadot Inc was first accredited. No acquisitions or changes of name were found in primary sources.

What it offers in domains

According to Dynadot’s own pages, as of October 2026, it offers:

  • registration, transfer and renewal Paying to extend a domain registration for more time. Full definition of domain names, also through an application programming interface (API);
  • a reseller A business that sells domains using another registrar's accreditation. Full definition program for businesses that want to add domain registrations to their own platforms. The page says names registered under a reseller account “won’t be registered under Dynadot”, without saying which accreditation is used;
  • the Dynadot Market, which Dynadot describes as “its own domain marketplace A website where domain names are listed, bought and sold. Full definition, where customers can browse, buy, and sell domain names”.

The market page lists expired auctions, registry expired auctions, last chance auctions, expired closeout An expired domain with no bids, sold at a fixed price that falls daily. Full definition, user listings, user auctions, backorders and backorder auctions. The terms of use, version dated 2 October 2026, name Afternic GoDaddy's domain marketplace, which shows listings across many partner registrars. Full definition, Sedo A German domain marketplace that also offers brokerage and parking. Full definition and Uni Market as “Marketplace Network Partners”.

The terms say Dynadot is never to be treated “as an auctioneer or an escrow A neutral service holding payment until a domain is transferred. Full definition agent”. A seller may list a registered name at a fixed price only if they own it and are entitled to sell it. A name bought at a fixed price, without an installment plan, cannot move to another account or registrar for 30 calendar days after the name is transferred to the buyer, which Dynadot calls a buy-lock.

Dynadot also says it “does not (and will not) maintain” its own portfolio A collection of domains held by one owner. Full definition of domain names, so that customers are “partners, not competitors”. This is the company’s own pledge.

How an expired name reaches the market

Dynadot’s terms of use, version dated 2 October 2026, set out what happens when a name registered with it is not renewed. These are Dynadot’s contract terms, not ICANN rules, and other registrars use other periods. A worked example with example.com, registered at Dynadot:

  1. The registrant does not renew example.com before it expires. The name enters a post-expiration period of 40 calendar days.
  2. Within the first 30 days of that period, or a shorter period if the registry sets one, Dynadot may auction the name.
  3. If the former registrant renews the name, the auction sale does not complete and the winning bidder does not receive it.
  4. If the name is neither renewed nor sold, it enters a deletion Removing a domain registration from the registry, which starts the path to its release. Full definition period of 30 calendar days, during which the registry may flag it for deletion.

When an auction does complete, a buyer without an installment plan cannot move the name to another account or registrar for 15 calendar days after the name is transferred to the buyer, which Dynadot calls an auction-lock.

Dynadot describes a backorder as a way to “improve your chances” of acquiring an expiring name, not a guarantee. These periods are those of the 2 October 2026 version and may change.

  • Dynadot is the company and the accredited registrar. The Dynadot Market is its aftermarket The market where domain names that are already registered are bought and sold. Full definition product, not a separate registrar.
  • It serves its own customers and resellers. No primary source describes it as a wholesale registrar A registrar that sells domains mainly through resellers and not directly to the public. Full definition.
  • Unlike a registry, it does not run a top-level domain.
  • Afternic, Sedo and Uni Market appear in its terms as marketplace partners, not as parts of Dynadot.

Sources

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