Bret, Very good observations. Re first one: I would re-state your sentence: "Many registrars present themselves to the consumer in English, but are based in non-English speaking countries." into "Many registrars present themselves to the consumer in English, but you do not know the country they operate in, neither the jurisdiction which apply in case of problem. Usually it it easier to understand contract written in your mother tongue, to deal with courts and lawyers in your mother tongue." Personnaly the very first thing I am checking is the company name, VAT number, postal address, country, phone numbers. If I cannot find it easily, like in German "impressum", which is always available on the main website page, I get suspicious, and leave. Your third comment is the most important. I want to see up front the easy tools to write my new zonefile, to update it, and to have DNS servers taking change into account immediately (live, 30 seconds or so). I also appreciate registrar providing information on how many his name servers he makes available to me, and ASN's distribution of his nameservers. I would love to have registrar's commitmment to use only ICANN's Internet root servers, no "a la sitefinder" tricks diverting name servers trafic and attempting on my privacy. I appreciate also registrar's commitment to preserve network neutrality. Eventually my final observations: I want to see in one glimpse all costs, for all TLDs, gTLDs or ccTLDs, the registrar is accredited for. No clicodrome, no adds, no dancing nonsense - sober, up to the point website, minimizing my time, and dedicated ONLY to the domain names. Best regards, Elisabeth Porteneuve (holder of a dozen of domain names in gTLDs and ccTLDs) --- ----Bret original messages---- Two comments, if it's not too late. 1. Choice of law/jurisdiction is something to consider. Do you really want to purchase from an overseas registrar? ("overseas" being a relative term, wherever you are in the world.) Many registrars present themselves to the consumer in English, but are based in non-English speaking countries. This can be an issue for customer service. It's also an issue should you have to sue the registrar because most registrar contracts make the jurisdiction for suit the place where the registrar is located. I might use this to replace 8 ("What if choose not to re-register..."), which really has nothing to do with selecting a registrar. 2. As phrased, I think you do a disservice with #1 because resellers of accredited registrars are often places to get great personal service and prices. A lot of local ISPs, for example, are resellers of companies like Tucows and eNom and GoDaddy, but they don't have their own accreditation. So I might rephrase #1 to say something about looking for an ICANN accreditation *or a reseller of an ICANN- accredited registrar.* Hope that is helpful. -- Bret Another comment, even more important. I'm really surprised you mention nothing about the online tools and explanations for how to use those tools that the registrar provides. I mean, is anything actually more important than the ability to *use* the domain name you've registered? I would recommend that would be registrants actually look around on the registrar sites long enough to see whether they can find clear explanations of both the registration process and the domain name configuration process. Do you need hosting with your domain? Does the registrar explain how to set up the name servers to work with your host? I have about 150 domains, and I've used a lot of registrars, and their online tools vary greatly. Some are easy to use, some are a maze of upsells that could confuse even power users. I think you're looking for a clear interface, few ads and upsells presented along the way, with a easy to understand FAQ about how to configure your name. Bret