How to Sell 1 Million Domain Names as an Accredited Domain Registrar?

As someone who has helped more than 40 companies become ICANN-accredited registrars, one question I hear frequently is:

How do registrars grow to one million domains under management?

For many new or aspiring registrars, this number feels almost unreachable. But the truth is that a million domains is not magic — it’s the result of a clear business model, proper distribution, automation, and patience. Even today, with over 4,000 ICANN-accredited registrars globally, only a small percentage manage to hit the million-domain mark.

This blog breaks down the exact strategies used by successful registrars who crossed that threshold, whether they are retail giants, wholesale platforms, or niche regional players.

Understanding What “1 Million Domains” Really Represents

Selling one million domain names is a milestone that almost every new registrar dreams about, yet very few ever reach. Even though ICANN has accredited more than 4000 registrars globally, only a small percentage cross the million-domain mark. For most newcomers, the number feels intimidating, almost unrealistic. But after helping over 40 companies become registrars—and after studying the growth patterns of companies that have surpassed this number—it is clear that selling a million domains has little to do with luck. It is the result of deliberate strategy, long-term execution, and a clear understanding of how the domain name business actually scales.

Why Reaching 1 Million Domains Starts With the Right Business Model

The first step is understanding what “1 million domains” really means. Most people assume that one million domains equals one million customers, but that is rarely the case. The registrars who grow at scale rely heavily on resellers, hosting partners, bundled services, and large renewal portfolios. A registrar with a million domains might have only 60,000 customers - but each customer controls dozens, hundreds, or thousands of domains. Likewise, growth does not come from new registrations alone. It comes from renewals. A registrar with a low renewal rate can onboard thousands of domains, yet never reach scale. Long-term retention is the engine that compounds domain count year after year. And underpinning everything is automation: no registrar can manually operate a million-domain business. Every successful high-volume registrar embraces EPP automation, billing automation, support automation, and abuse automation from day one.

The Retail Growth Path: Marketing, Brand, and Cross-Sell Engines

Becoming a million-domain registrar ultimately depends on choosing the right business model. Retail-driven registrars—like GoDaddy or Namecheap—get to one million through aggressive direct marketing, enormous brand visibility, intuitive UX, and constant cross-selling of hosting, email, SSL, and website builders. But this model is expensive and suited only for companies with strong capital and marketing budgets. 

The Wholesale Model: The Fastest Route to Massive Scale

The second model is wholesale, popularised by Tucows/OpenSRS. Instead of marketing to end users, these registrars build enormous reseller networks of hosting companies, developers, SaaS platforms, telcos, and IT providers. Each reseller sells domains under its own brand, while the registrar remains invisible in the background. With hundreds or thousands of active reseller partners, a registrar’s domain base grows quietly and consistently, without retail marketing costs. 

The Bundled Services Model: When Hosting Drives Domain Growth

The third model relies on bundling—used by hosting giants like IONOS, Hostinger, and Wix. In this approach, the domain is not the product; it is the default companion to a hosting plan or website builder. Hosting companies that convert thousands of new customers monthly automatically accumulate tens of thousands of domains. Over a decade, that becomes a million-domain portfolio without ever “selling” domains directly.

Why Distribution is the Real Engine Behind Domain Volume

Regardless of the model, no registrar grows without strong distribution. Selling one million domains manually is impossible. Growth happens when you build systems that allow other people—resellers, hosting partners, agencies, SaaS platforms, marketplaces, even domain investors—to register domains without interacting with you. This means offering a clean API, bulk tools, white-label storefronts, competitive pricing tiers, and a frictionless onboarding flow for resellers. Once distribution is established, promotion becomes less about marketing and more about giving partners the tools they need to grow your domain count on your behalf.

Pricing plays a crucial role. Most large registrars drive new registrations through aggressive first-year pricing—sometimes even one-dollar promotions. But the long-term business is always built on renewal revenue. A registrar cannot sustainably scale with weak renewal margins. High-volume registrars typically maintain renewal prices that ensure profitability, while keeping registrations attractive enough to sustain new adds. Sustainability, not deep discounting, is what allows a registrar to grow past 500,000 or one million domains.

Automation: The Operational Backbone of a Million-Domain Registrar

All successful registrars at scale share another trait: exceptionally high automation. Handling expiring domains, reminders, billing retries, DNS updates, WHOIS/RDAP queries, transfers, abuse reports, and registry communications manually is not feasible past even 50,000 domains. Million-domain registrars have carefully designed systems to manage renewal cycles, registrant communications, domain lifecycle events, abuse queues, security checks, DNS availability, and ICANN compliance without human intervention. This level of automation is what allows domain count to grow without operational collapse.

If selling domains is the engine, renewals are the fuel. A registrar reaches one million domains only when it maintains a high retention rate. That is why successful registrars in this range focus heavily on infrastructure reliability, DNS uptime, support quality, fraud controls, and abuse management. A registrar with poor reputation or downtime will experience high churn and never scale.

Why Broad TLD Coverage Drives Higher Domain Count

Another critical factor is TLD coverage. Registrars with a million domains usually offer hundreds of TLDs—legacy gTLDs, new gTLDs, country codes, premium tiers, and bulk investor-friendly extensions. Broad TLD coverage brings in domain investors, international resellers, and hosting partners who want one unified system to register everything. Diverse TLD inventory equals diverse revenue streams—and higher domain count.

The Role of M&A in Hitting the One-Million Mark

Finally, many registrars reach a million domains through acquisition. This is one of the industry’s open secrets. GoDaddy, Tucows, IONOS, Squarespace (via Google Domains), Newfold Digital, and Namecheap have all grown partially through buying other registrars or absorbing domain portfolios. A single acquisition can add 50,000 to 500,000 domains instantly, dramatically accelerating growth.

The Real Path - How to sell 1 Million Domain Names

Selling one million domain names is possible for any registrar that approaches the business strategically. It requires choosing the right model, building a scalable distribution ecosystem, automating every operational process, focusing on renewal-driven growth, and expanding TLD coverage. Above all, it requires patience. Registrars who reached a million domains did not achieve it in a year—they achieved it through consistent execution, strong relationships, and long-term infrastructure planning.

If there is one lesson the industry teaches us, it is this: a registrar becomes “big” not by selling domains, but by retaining them. And with the right systems and strategy in place, crossing the one-million mark becomes a matter of time, not luck.