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This page provides important terminology that applies to Cloud Domains.
Review these terms to better understand how Cloud Domains works
and the concepts on which it is built.
Cloud DNS is a high-performance and resilient DNS hosting provider
that you can use with Cloud Domains to
publish your domain names to the global DNS namespace. For
detailed information about Cloud DNS concepts and important
terminology, see the Cloud DNS overview.
DNS hosting provider
A DNS hosting provider is a company that maintains DNS name servers.
If you choose Cloud DNS as your DNS provider,
then Google is your DNS hosting provider. If you are using custom name
servers, then the company responsible for those name servers acts as your
DNS hosting provider.
domain ending or top-level domain (TLD)
A domain ending is the last label in a domain name, like .com.
Thousands of endings exist, and each ending is controlled by a
registry. Customers of a registrar
purchase domain names that are a single label plus the domain ending,
such as google.com.
Often, the domain ending is just a single label like .com, in which case
the domain ending is also the top-level domain (TLD). In some cases, a
registry controls a multi-label domain ending like .co.uk, and customers
purchase domain names one level below that, like google.co.uk.
While not always technically accurate, it is common to refer to all
registry-controlled domain endings as TLDs.
A domain name is a character string comprised of several parts called
labels that are separated by dots to represent the domain hierarchy.
Domain names have a domain ending corresponding to their
registry operator. Domain names can be equivalently
written in either Unicode or Punycode.
Domain Name System (DNS)
The Domain Name System (DNS) is a hierarchical distributed database
that stores IP addresses and other data and allows queries by name.
To learn more about DNS, see the
DNS overview page.
name servers
Name servers identify the location of your domain on the internet. A DNS name
server stores DNS records for a domain name and responds with answers to
queries against its database. For a detailed explanation of name servers,
see Name server.
premium domains
Premium domains are domains offered for sale or resale at a premium price.
There are two kinds of premium domains:
Aftermarket premium domains: Domains offered for resale by owners for
a premium price. After the initial premium price, you can renew your domains
at the regular annual renewal price.
Registry premium domains: Domains offered by the registry for a
premium price. Usually, when you transfer, renew, restore, or add more
years of registration to a domain, you're charged the initial premium
price.
registrant
A registrant is the registered name holder of a DNS domain. A registrant
holds the rights to the domain for the duration of the registration period.
Because a domain's registration can be renewed indefinitely (up to 10 years
at a time), a registrant is often considered the owner of the domain.
registrar
A registrar is an organization that manages the
registration
of domain names for one or more of the DNS registries.
A registrar acts as an interface between a
registrant (owner) and a registry (database of domains).
Registrars sell domain names, provide registration services, and offer other
value-added services applicable to domains. For details about registrars,
see Domain name registrars.
For Cloud Domains, domain registrations are provided by
Squarespace. The registrar of record is often Squarespace but might vary based
on the TLD. To determine the registrar of record for your domain, search
the WHOIS database.
registration
Registration is the process through which a registrant registers a domain
with a DNS registrar. A registrant can register a domain for a period from
one to ten years. When the registration period expires, the registrant can
renew or extend the registration. The registrant must provide contact
information to the registrar for inclusion in the
WHOIS database.
A registry is a database that contains registrant
information for second-level DNS domains (google.com, example.com)
beneath a given domain ending or TLD (.com). A registry can
control any domain ending and can allow you to register domains under that
domain ending—for example, .co.uk and google.co.uk.
A registry operator is an organization that maintains the administrative
data for one or more top-level or lower-level DNS domains. For example,
VeriSign is responsible for several top-level domains, including the .com,
.net, and .name domains. A registry operator is given authority for a
domain through ICANN,
a corporation responsible for managing functions that maintain the core
infrastructure of the internet. For more details, see
ICANN.
resource records
Resource records provide DNS-based information about the hardware and
software components that point to and support your domain (such as hosts,
name servers, web servers, and email servers). For detailed information
about resource records, see Records.
Within the Domain Name System, for historical reasons,
domain names are stored in
ASCII.
Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) that are normally written in
Unicode
are compressed into ASCII with a scheme called
Punycode.
Domain names expressed in Punycode start with the characters xn--. For
example, an IDN representation of the Unicode example.ελ is
example.xn--qxam in Punycode.
The Punycode and Unicode versions of a domain name are equivalent and used
in different contexts. For example, the name of each Registration resource
ends in the Punycode version of the corresponding domain name. On the other
hand, in user-facing contexts, the domain name is generally displayed in
Unicode for ease of use.
WHOIS database
The WHOIS database stores information about DNS domains, such as the
following:
Registration contact information for registrant, administrator, and
technical contacts
The domain's registrar
Creation, update, and expiry dates
The WHOIS protocol, which is a query and response protocol used for querying
databases that store details about registered domain users, is documented
in RFC 3912.
For details about WHOIS, see the
ICANN WHOIS
page. You can look up registered domain names and associated details on the
ICANN WHOIS database.
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Hard to understand","hardToUnderstand","thumb-down"],["Incorrect information or sample code","incorrectInformationOrSampleCode","thumb-down"],["Missing the information/samples I need","missingTheInformationSamplesINeed","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-08-29 UTC."],[[["\u003cp\u003eCloud Domains uses specific terminology related to domain management, such as Domain Name System (DNS), domain endings (TLDs), registrars, registries, and registrants.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eSquarespace now manages domain registrations previously held by Google Domains, which affects how Cloud Domains operates, and some features and Google Domains as a DNS provider are retired.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eA DNS hosting provider maintains DNS name servers, with Google acting as the provider if Cloud DNS is used, while custom name servers are managed by the company responsible for them.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe WHOIS database contains key domain information, including registrant details, registrar, and registration dates, and is accessible via the ICANN WHOIS database.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eDomain names can be represented in Unicode for user-friendliness or in Punycode (starting with \u003ccode\u003exn--\u003c/code\u003e) for technical storage within the Domain Name System.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],[],null,["# Important terminology\n\n| **Note:** On September 7, 2023 Squarespace acquired all domain registrations and related customer accounts from Google Domains. For more information about how this change affects Cloud Domains, see [Cloud Domains feature deprecations](/domains/docs/deprecations/feature-deprecations), [Renew an expired domain registration](https://support.google.com/a/answer/6152355), and [Squarespace purchase of Google Domains FAQ](/domains/docs/faq).\n\n\u003cbr /\u003e\n\nThis page provides important terminology that applies to Cloud Domains.\nReview these terms to better understand how Cloud Domains works\nand the concepts on which it is built.\n\nFor more information, see the\n[Cloud Domains overview](/domains/docs/overview).\n\nCloud DNS\n: Cloud DNS is a high-performance and resilient DNS hosting provider\n that you can use with Cloud Domains to\n publish your domain names to the global DNS namespace. For\n detailed information about Cloud DNS concepts and important\n terminology, see the [Cloud DNS overview](/dns/docs/overview).\n\nDNS hosting provider\n\n: A DNS hosting provider is a company that maintains DNS name servers.\n\n\n | **Caution:** Google Domains as your Domain Name System (DNS) provider for your domains in Cloud Domains is retired, and some DNS functionality from Cloud Domains is no longer supported. For more information, see [Cloud Domains feature deprecation](/domains/docs/deprecations/feature-deprecations).\n\n \u003cbr /\u003e\n\n If you choose Cloud DNS as your DNS provider,\n then Google is your DNS hosting provider. If you are using custom name\n servers, then the company responsible for those name servers acts as your\n DNS hosting provider.\n\ndomain ending or top-level domain (TLD)\n\n: A domain ending is the last label in a domain name, like `.com`.\n Thousands of endings exist, and each ending is controlled by a\n [registry](#terms-registry). Customers of a [registrar](#terms-registrar)\n purchase domain names that are a single label plus the domain ending,\n such as `google.com`.\n\n Often, the domain ending is just a single label like `.com`, in which case\n the domain ending is also the top-level domain (TLD). In some cases, a\n registry controls a multi-label domain ending like `.co.uk`, and customers\n purchase domain names one level below that, like `google.co.uk`.\n While not always technically accurate, it is common to refer to all\n registry-controlled domain endings as TLDs.\n\n For a detailed explanation of TLDs, see [Top-level\n domain](https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Top-level_domain).\n\ndomain name\n\n: A domain name is a character string comprised of several parts called\n labels that are separated by dots to represent the domain hierarchy.\n Domain names have a [domain ending](#terms-tld) corresponding to their\n [registry](#terms-registry) operator. Domain names can be equivalently\n written in either [Unicode or Punycode](#terms-unicode-punycode).\n\nDomain Name System (DNS)\n\n: The Domain Name System (DNS) is a hierarchical distributed database\n that stores IP addresses and other data and allows queries by name.\n To learn more about DNS, see the\n [DNS overview page](/dns/docs/dns-overview).\n\nname servers\n\n: Name servers identify the location of your domain on the internet. A DNS name\n server stores DNS records for a domain name and responds with answers to\n queries against its database. For a detailed explanation of name servers,\n see [Name server](https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Name_server).\n\npremium domains\n\n: Premium domains are domains offered for sale or resale at a premium price.\n There are two kinds of premium domains:\n\n - **Aftermarket premium domains:** Domains offered for resale by owners for a premium price. After the initial premium price, you can renew your domains at the regular annual renewal price.\n - **Registry premium domains:** Domains offered by the registry for a premium price. Usually, when you transfer, renew, restore, or add more years of registration to a domain, you're charged the initial premium price.\n\nregistrant\n\n: A registrant is the registered name holder of a DNS domain. A registrant\n holds the *rights* to the domain for the duration of the registration period.\n Because a domain's registration can be renewed indefinitely (up to 10 years\n at a time), a registrant is often considered the *owner* of the domain.\n\nregistrar\n\n: A registrar is an organization that manages the\n [registration](#terms-registration)\n of domain names for one or more of the DNS [registries](#terms-registry).\n A registrar acts as an interface between a\n [registrant](#terms-registrant) (owner) and a registry (database of domains).\n Registrars sell domain names, provide registration services, and offer other\n value-added services applicable to domains. For details about registrars,\n see [Domain name registrars](https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_name_registrar).\n\n For Cloud Domains, domain registrations are provided by\n Squarespace. The registrar of record is often Squarespace but might vary based\n on the TLD. To determine the registrar of record for your domain, search\n the [WHOIS database](/domains/docs/key-terms#terms-whois).\n\nregistration\n\n: Registration is the process through which a registrant registers a domain\n with a DNS registrar. A registrant can register a domain for a period from\n one to ten years. When the registration period expires, the registrant can\n renew or extend the registration. The registrant must provide contact\n information to the registrar for inclusion in the\n [WHOIS database](#terms-whois).\n\n To register a domain by using Cloud Domains, see [Register a\n domain](/domains/docs/register-domain).\n To edit your domain registration settings, see [Edit\n registrations](/domains/docs/edit-registration-settings).\n\nregistry\n\n: A registry is a database that contains [registrant](#terms-registrant)\n information for second-level DNS domains (`google.com`, `example.com`)\n beneath a given domain ending or TLD (`.com`). A registry can\n control any domain ending and can allow you to register domains under that\n domain ending---for example, `.co.uk` and `google.co.uk`.\n\n A registry operator is an organization that maintains the administrative\n data for one or more top-level or lower-level DNS domains. For example,\n VeriSign is responsible for several top-level domains, including the `.com`,\n `.net`, and `.name` domains. A registry operator is given authority for a\n domain through [ICANN](https://www.icann.org/),\n a corporation responsible for managing functions that maintain the core\n infrastructure of the internet. For more details, see\n [ICANN](https://wikipedia.org/wiki/ICANN).\n\nresource records\n\n: Resource records provide DNS-based information about the hardware and\n software components that point to and support your domain (such as hosts,\n name servers, web servers, and email servers). For detailed information\n about resource records, see [Records](/dns/docs/dns-overview#records).\n\n For a list of record types supported by Cloud DNS, see\n [Supported record types](/dns/docs/records-overview#supported_dns_record_types).\n\nUnicode and Punycode\n\n: Within the [Domain Name System](#terms-dns), for historical reasons,\n domain names are stored in\n [ASCII](https://wikipedia.org/wiki/ASCII).\n Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) that are normally written in\n [Unicode](https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Unicode)\n are compressed into ASCII with a scheme called\n [Punycode](https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Punycode).\n\n Domain names expressed in Punycode start with the characters `xn--`. For\n example, an IDN representation of the Unicode `example.ελ` is\n `example.xn--qxam` in Punycode.\n\n The Punycode and Unicode versions of a domain name are equivalent and used\n in different contexts. For example, the name of each `Registration` resource\n ends in the Punycode version of the corresponding domain name. On the other\n hand, in user-facing contexts, the domain name is generally displayed in\n Unicode for ease of use.\n\nWHOIS database\n\n: The WHOIS database stores information about DNS domains, such as the\n following:\n\n - Registration contact information for registrant, administrator, and technical contacts\n - The domain's registrar\n - Creation, update, and expiry dates\n\n The WHOIS protocol, which is a query and response protocol used for querying\n databases that store details about registered domain users, is documented\n in [RFC 3912](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3912).\n\n For details about WHOIS, see the\n [ICANN WHOIS](https://whois.icann.org/about-whois)\n page. You can look up registered domain names and associated details on the\n [ICANN WHOIS database](https://lookup.icann.org/)."]]
