Domain registration and lifecycle management · SaaS · Registrar integration · Billing
Pratika Domains
Domain search, registration, renewals and DNS management priced in Kwanza, orchestrating the Openprovider API.
- Role
- Founder & Software Engineer — product, frontend, backend, registrar integration, billing
- Organisation
- Pratika
- Period · status
- 2026 · Completed
- Next.js
- TypeScript
- Supabase
- PostgreSQL
- Openprovider API
Overview
Pratika Domains lets a business search, register and manage a domain (.com, .io, .ai, .shop, .net, .org, .store, .tech) with pricing in Kwanza, and connects directly to Pratika Mail for professional email.
Problem
Registering a domain from Angola usually means a foreign registrar, foreign currency and a control panel in a language the customer does not read. The product needed local pricing, a Portuguese-language panel and an integration path into email.
Role
I built the product end-to-end: search and registration flows, DNS management, renewal tracking and notifications, the Openprovider registrar integration and billing.
Architecture
- Next.js frontend and Supabase (PostgreSQL) backend holding domain records, renewal dates and billing state.
- Openprovider registrar API for availability checks, registration, DNS and transfers; the customer remains the registrant of the domain.
- Shared Pratika account for login, billing and the hand-off into Pratika Mail.
Technical decisions
- Customer-owned domains
- Domains are registered with the customer as titular owner rather than under Pratika, which matters for trust and for portability.
- Per-TLD pricing and renewal rules in local currency
- Registration and renewal prices differ per extension (and some, like .ai, have their own term rules); the catalogue models those rules explicitly and shows all-in Kwanza prices.
- Domains as the entry point to email
- The registration flow feeds directly into Pratika Mail so a customer can go from no domain to a working mailbox inside one account.
Stack
- Next.js
- TypeScript
- Supabase
- PostgreSQL
- Openprovider API
Engineering challenges
- Mapping the registrar's domain lifecycle (registration, renewal windows, transfers where the registry allows them) onto a simple customer-facing state model.
- Keeping local prices coherent with registrar costs and currency.
Outcome
Live at domains.pratika.io with search, registration, renewal tracking, DNS management and Pratika Mail integration.
What I learned
- Registrar APIs make the easy path easy and the edge cases (transfers, renewal windows, TLD-specific terms) the whole product.