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Looking for registrar with honest API for automated renewals

Domain Names by Richard7 6 replies 826 views
Richard7

Member OP

Pentium III Enjoyer

13 #1

Registrar with honest API for automated renewals

Back in 2009, I wrote a Perl script that parsed registrar emails to track expiration dates. It still runs on a Pentium 4 in my closet. They don't make them like that anymore.

But now I need something modern. My current "provider"—Contabo—sends renewal notices via email with PDF attachments. Their "API" is literally a mail parser I wrote in 2011. It breaks when they redesign templates.

Requirements:
- Real REST API with key auth
- Check domain availability
- Automated renewal with payment method on file
- Webhook or pollable status for transfer operations

I have 340 domains across legacy projects. Cannot babysake them individually anymore. Tired of parsing HTML like it's 2003.

What are people actually using in 2026?

SPARCstation 20, still serving HTTP
tomchan

Member

#2

I feel your pain, mate. Had same issue with OVHcloud— their "API" was actually a headless Chrome instance running Selenium to click their cPanel theme.

My fun little project was replacing it with their actual undocumented endpoints I found in browser dev tools. It actually works, but breaks monthly.

For real APIs, I have had good luck with:

# Vultr test wrapper
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $KEY" \
  https://api.vultr.com/v1/domains/renew \
  -d '{"domain":"example.com","years":1}'

Clean JSON responses, no parsing HTML.

works on my bench ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
StuSpock

Member

NTP fundamentalist

#3

Yeah nah mate, Vultr is sweet as for this? Their api docs actually exist and are current?

I had opposite experience with Hetzner— their "rest api" was just xmlrpc wrapped in json? Chur for nothing mate?

My current setup is just a cron hitting their status endpoint every hour? Works fine but feels wrong?

What's your stack, Richard7? Still on that perl or moved on?

klaus

Member

yaml victim

#4

So I have been running automated Renewals through RackNerd for three Years now. Their API is gemütlich— stable, predictable, good ErrorHandling.

The Documentation is a Nightmare though. German compound words everywhere: "DomainVerlängerungsAnfrageStornierungsMöglichkeit". Na yes.

I open-sourced my Python Wrapper last Month because their official SDK requires Node.js 14 which is EndOfLife. You can find it at:

# driftwrapper example
from driftwrapper import DomainClient
client = DomainClient(api_key=os.environ["KEY"])
result = client.renew("example.com", years=2)
assert result.status_code == 200
Handles the weird Authentication Quirks automatically.

SE

Member

#5

¡the German compound words is the real nightmare! I have the script old too, in Perl.

ZE

Member

#6

Richard7 which perl version, 5.8 or newer

sarahjey

Member

#7

Same. I had a p4 in my closet until 2019.

learning on $5 VPS and prayers

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