DNS or HTTP based ownership verification?
Hi everyone,
Last week, I launched a marketplace for buying and selling side-projects. Now I am trying to add business ownership verification and need your input to choose the right method. Here are the validation methods I am considering:
- HTTP-based - Ask sellers to upload a file in website root directory.
- DNS-based - Ask seller to add a DNS record like TXT.
Personally, I would prefer DNS-based method as it is easier to detect and I have already done something similar in another project. But I am confused whether users will be able to update DNS or not.
If you were a seller, what would you to prefer and why?
#ask-ih
Some big companies validate domains using http-based (Google). However, it boils down to technical knowledge. Many non-technical person can easily upload a file, however, adding a DNS record needs an instruction.
I personally prefer adding DNS record, but would love to to have HTTP-based as an option.
Thanks for the feedback. I am going to add both options to facilitate both technical and non-technical founders.
Maybe worth thinking about the fact that many sites are hosted on a sub-domain belonging to a third party (e.g. carrd.co landing pages) so the DNS option is out and so is adding a file to the website root. You could ask them to embed something in their homepage HTML though.
Now, this is a 3rd option I haven't thought about before. Are we able to add custom meta tags in carrd.co or other no-code platforms?
No doubt there'll be some platforms out there that are too limiting but for carrd.co specifically it does sound like they allow custom meta tags: https://carrd.co/docs/building/embedding-custom-code
For a more complicated devops stack, I would prefer DNS.
DNS can be easily configured via provider's console (Route53, GoDaddy etc.)
Thank you for the feedback. It seems more people are in favor of DNS and it makes sense.
From a business perspective, I wouldn't care because both will take approx. same time for me. But from a technical perspective, I would prefer to handle this at the DNS level so you don't hit my app server at all. Just my preference. Plus it will be cleaner to remove the DNS entry than deleting the uploaded file. File uploads are also more prone to vulnerabilities.
I understand your point. I also prefer to change DNS rather than uploading a file. Thanks for the feedback 😇
It might come down to technical limits sometimes (not personal preference), so a choice of either would actually be ideal (I know that's double the work, though...)
I think if you provide instructions for updating DNS, it should be fine for someone who owns a project... even a no-code project requires you to update DNS to link the domain.
Thank you ✌️