How a domain name changes hands

Two mechanisms, not one

Almost every completed domain deal finishes with either a push or a transfer. A push moves the name from one account to another inside the same registrar. A transfer moves the name from one registrar to another and is recorded by the registry.

Country code registries add their own variations on the second mechanism. A .nl name moves on a token issued by the losing registrar, a .de name on an AuthInfo code, a .co.uk name on a change of registrar tag rather than any code at all. The commercial steps are the same in each case, but the buttons and the timings are not, which is why the mechanism belongs in the agreement rather than in a message on the day of handover. The differences per extension are set out in the transfer rules by extension.

What a registrar push does

A push is the fastest handover available. The seller opens the domain in the registrar control panel, enters the buyer's account identifier, usually an account number or the email on that account, and confirms. Depending on the registrar the buyer either accepts the incoming name or simply finds it in the account.

A push takes minutes rather than days. No authorisation code is issued, no confirmation email is sent by a second registrar, and the expiry date does not change. That last point matters: a transfer between registrars of a generic extension normally adds a year to the registration term, a push does not.

The trap in a push is that it usually changes the registrant contact data at the same time. Under the transfer policy that applies to generic extensions such as .com, .net and .org, a change of registrant can put a sixty day inter-registrar transfer lock on the name unless the previous registrant opted out before the change was made. A buyer who intends to move the name onward to a preferred registrar should know about that lock before agreeing to a push.

What an inter-registrar transfer does

A transfer runs to a fixed sequence. The seller removes the registrar lock, requests the authorisation code, and passes the code to the buyer. The buyer submits the code at the gaining registrar. A confirmation goes to the registrant address on record. The losing registrar is given a window to respond, and if it does nothing the registry completes the transfer once that window closes.

For generic extensions the whole sequence is normally finished within five days, and often much sooner if the losing registrar approves the request immediately. For .de and .be the registry acts on a valid code straight away, so the elapsed time depends entirely on how quickly the code reaches the gaining registrar.

A transfer fails, rather than stalls, when the name is inside a waiting period, when the lock was never lifted, or when the code has already expired. Those causes are covered in registrar locks and waiting periods.

What changes at the registry

On a transfer, the sponsoring registrar recorded at the registry changes. On a push, it does not: the registry sees the same registrar and, in most cases, no visible event at all.

Registrant contact data sits in the registrar system and, for some registries, in registry records as well. Public lookups are heavily redacted for most extensions, so a buyer checking WHOIS or RDAP after a push may see nothing move. Absence of a visible change is not evidence that the handover failed.

Treat the registrar account, not the public record, as the proof of handover. The account either contains the name and responds to the buyer's credentials, or it does not.

The moment control is real

Control is real when the name sits in an account that only the buyer can open, under an email address the seller has never had access to, with two factor authentication enabled and the seller removed from every recovery path.

Until that is true, a determined former holder can still reach the name through a password reset. The first days after payment are therefore part of the deal rather than an afterthought, and the sequence for them is set out in the first week after payment.

Matching the payment to the mechanism

A push can be completed in the time it takes to confirm a payment, so it suits an escrow flow well: funds held, push executed, buyer confirms, funds released. A transfer takes days, which means the holding period has to cover the full window rather than the moment the code was handed over.

Agree the mechanism, the registrar involved and the deadline in writing before money moves. A deal that says only that the seller will transfer the domain leaves the two sides free to mean different things.