.com domains: registry operator, eligibility and terms

The IANA root zone lists VeriSign Global Registry Services as the sponsoring organisation for .com (IANA record). The ICANN Registry Agreement, dated 1 December 2024, names the operator as VeriSign, Inc., under a Non-Sponsored agreement (ICANN registry agreement). Verisign, Inc. is the publicly traded parent (NASDAQ: VRSN), so there's no separate holding company sitting above the registry operator named in the agreement (Verisign, Wikipedia). Verisign runs its own registry and DNS resolution infrastructure in-house too, rather than farming the technical backend out to a third party (Verisign registry overview).

Here's how the pieces fit together. The registry, Verisign, holds the authoritative database of every .com name and sets the wholesale terms under its ICANN agreement. A registrar, the company you actually buy the domain from, is accredited by ICANN to sell and manage .com registrations against that database, then adds its own retail markup and support on top. The registrant is you: the person or organisation whose contact details sit in the registration record. Verisign never sells .com names directly to the public. That only happens through its network of accredited registrars.

.com has no registry-level eligibility rules. IANA and ICANN documentation impose no residency, citizenship, business licence or nexus requirement on registrants, and a third-party TLD reference lists the extension as open with no known restrictions (TLD-List policy summary). Anyone, anywhere, whether a private individual or a registered company, can pick up a .com name.

The variation sits with registrars, not the registry. Each registrar sets its own rules around identity verification, accepted payment methods, WHOIS privacy options and acceptable-use policies, and these can differ quite a bit from one company to the next. There is no registry-run premium-name programme, according to the same source. That doesn't stop registrars or aftermarket sellers charging well over the odds for a name they think is in demand, but that price comes from the seller, not from Verisign.

Transferring a .com between registrars follows ICANN's standard Inter-Registrar Transfer Policy. The gaining registrar needs an authorisation code from your current one, and you (or your admin contact) have to confirm the move. Any new registration, completed transfer, or change of registrant contact locks the name for 60 days before it can be transferred again. This is an ICANN rule applied across .com as a standard gTLD, not something Verisign bolted on itself (ICANN Transfer Policy).

Registration terms run from 1 to 10 years, set at the registry level, and every accredited registrar offers the full range (tld-list.com). Let a .com lapse and ICANN's Expired Registration Recovery Policy kicks in: at least two reminder notices first, then a 30-day redemption grace period where the registry suspends resolution and only the previous registrant can bring the name back (ICANN ERRP). The restore fee itself isn't set by the .com registry at all, it's whatever your registrar decides to charge, and third-party guides show the figures swinging wildly from one provider to the next (domain-monitor.io). Nowhere in the registry agreement will you find a fixed restore price, so check your own registrar's fee schedule before you count on redemption as a safety net.