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I am developing a SaaS that will offer clients the ability to create a corporate identity website (insert content, upload logos, pick certain colors, and select from predefined themes).

The website will then provide some features to the client to assist in managing their business.

The website will also be accessed by the client's own customers, who should access the client's own domain and have access to customer-specific features.

My question:

Is there a method to automate top level domain name registration without: 1. Requiring the client to manually configure the domain redirect. 2. ‎My SaaS becoming a domain registrar in addition to the other services provided.

Is their a foolproof method to automating top level domain name registration?

These previous question are discussing the a similar issue but none directly answer this inquiry.:

  1. SaaS Platform and multiple possible domains
  2. Third-party SaaS will also host our web site. They want our registrar username and password. Is this normal?

Edit

After reading @closetnoc's comment, to clarify that I'm looking for an automated way to assign a custom domain name for each client on my SaaS (e.g. www.myclientscompany.com) and not to have a sub-domain for each client (e.g. myclient.mySaaScompany.com)--if such a method exists.

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  • A top level domain are .com, .net, .org, etc. Example.com would be an example of a domain name and blog.example.com would be an example of a sub-domain. TLDs are extremely expensive and require a business case, infrastructure, employees, and a guarantee. Domains can be registered anywhere from 1 to 10 years. A sub-domain requires only a CNAME or A record for a domain name. Cheers!!
    – closetnoc
    Commented Feb 18, 2018 at 22:27
  • @closetnoc thanks for the clarifications, I knew I got my terminology wrong somewhere. Would you say, after this clarification, that the second part of michael d's answer points to the thing I'm after?
    – Fahad Al-Jasim
    Commented Feb 18, 2018 at 22:35
  • Anytime! We are here for you. I have not explored the topic, however, the terms reseller and API are correct. There may be others out there. I suspect GoDaddy would have something too. So yes, it looks like the links are probably correct. Cheers!!
    – closetnoc
    Commented Feb 18, 2018 at 22:54

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Top level domain registration is performed through registrars that are verified and approved by icann.org . In order to become a registrar you need to sign up with icann and I believe the fee can be upwards of $250,000 per year.

You can automate top level domain registration through reputable 3rd party API requests provided by icann registrars. These APIs should allow you to register domains through your website and manage the DNS servers from your website. This should allow you to then upload the website files to your server and the corresponding domain names.

Here are some domain registration APIs that might help you complete the process that you are looking for.

https://www.enom.com/reseller/

https://www.namecheap.com/support/api/intro.aspx

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/Route53/latest/APIReference/requests-rpc.html

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  • I know the OP is saying top level domains, but I am wondering if he knows what he is asking for. I rather suspect the OP means domain name registration. If not, owning and operating a TLD is more costly than most can imagine. The infrastructure requirements are significant all by them selves.
    – closetnoc
    Commented Feb 18, 2018 at 21:44
  • @closetnoc, I believe you are correct. I will edit my original question. Thanks for the heads up.
    – Fahad Al-Jasim
    Commented Feb 18, 2018 at 21:49
  • From where does your price tag comes from? This is in fact far less than that, in the order of thousands of dollars per years plus an amount per domain (in the vicinity of 0.20$). You have also contractual and technical obligations.
    – Patrick Mevzek
    Commented Feb 19, 2018 at 0:38
  • Also it depends on what TLD you are selling. ICANN regulates only gTLDs. For ccTLDs the conditions will be up the registries but you certainly do not need to be ICANN accredited
    – Patrick Mevzek
    Commented Feb 19, 2018 at 0:40

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