Why Reseller Bulk Tiers Are Higher Than Retail

Trustname offers bulk pricing to API resellers under the same Bulk and Super Bulk structure as retail customers — but the qualifying thresholds are higher.

The standard bulk pricing terms apply to standard retail customers. API reseller accounts operate under separate pricing models, operational policies, and abuse-handling procedures.

Resellers and privacy-focused customers value this structure because it protects against wrongful suspensions while preserving Trustname's ability to act decisively on verified abuse.

Reseller Tier Thresholds

Why the Thresholds Are Higher

The difference isn't a markup — it reflects the operational cost of supporting the reseller channel.

Retail customers register domains for themselves. When an abuse report comes in, Trustname investigates directly: we have the registrant's verified contact details, payment history, and account context already on file. Retail abuse rates are low, and the cases that do arise are typically resolved quickly through a single channel.

Resellers register domains on behalf of their own end customers. Trustname doesn't have a direct relationship with those end customers — the reseller does. When an abuse report comes in for a reseller-managed domain, the workflow involves more parties and more steps:

• Trustname notifies the reseller of the report
• The reseller investigates their end customer
• The reseller communicates with their customer, gathers evidence, and responds back to Trustname
• Trustname reviews the response, may request additional information, and makes a determination
• If action is required, the reseller coordinates with their customer on remediation or takedown

Each of these touchpoints is manual. A single complex case can involve multiple rounds of communication across three parties (Trustname, reseller, end customer), document review, and follow-up verification. Reseller portfolios also tend to see higher absolute volumes of abuse reports simply because they aggregate domains across many unrelated end customers.

What This Means

The 10x threshold reflects the real cost of supporting this workflow at scale: dedicated compliance staff, longer case-handling cycles, and the infrastructure to coordinate multi-party investigations. Resellers who operate at higher volumes absorb this overhead more efficiently per domain, which is why bulk discounts still apply — they just kick in at higher spend levels.

Abuse handling itself follows the same standards across retail and reseller accounts. Trustname applies consistent policies in line with ICANN requirements and registry agreements regardless of tier. The tier structure reflects how much work it takes to handle a case, not what outcome the customer gets.

Reseller Bulk Benefits

Once qualifying thresholds are met, resellers receive the same per-domain discounts as retail Bulk and Super Bulk customers, plus reseller-specific benefits: API rate limit increases, dedicated technical account management, and white-label support tooling.