London 
Frankfurt 
Amsterdam 
Zurich 
Paris 
Stockholm 
Madrid 
Milan 
Warsaw 
Istanbul 
Moscow 
Helsinki 
Tokyo 
Singapore 
Hong Kong 
Mumbai 
Sydney 
Seoul 
Shanghai 
Kuala Lumpur 
Bangkok 
New York 
Toronto 
Sao Paulo Nothing goes down
DNS keeps answering from wherever it answers now, throughout.
Move a domain in without losing a minute
Transferring a domain does not take your site or your email offline. Here is what actually happens, in order, and the two things that stop a transfer dead.
The whole domain, extension and all. We will tell you whether it can move and what it costs — a transfer adds a year to whatever is left on it.
4.6 on Trustpilot
One client area for domain and server
Five to seven days
Most of that is a registry waiting period nobody can shorten.
You gain a year
The transfer adds a year to whatever you had left.
Before you start, two things
Unlock the domain at your current registrar. Transfer lock is on by default and a locked domain is simply refused.
Get the EPP code, sometimes called the auth code or transfer key. Your current registrar has to give it to you; most show it in the control panel, some email it.
Also check the WHOIS email on the domain is one you can read today. The approval email goes there, and a transfer to an address you lost years ago cannot be rescued.
What happens then
You start the transfer here and pay for it. The registry emails the address on the domain asking you to approve it. Once you do, the losing registrar has up to five days to release it — they usually do it sooner, and you can often speed it up by approving the release in their panel too.
When it completes, the domain appears in your client area with a year added to its existing expiry. You do not lose the time you had already paid for.
Your site and email keep working
A transfer moves who bills you for the domain. It does not change the nameservers, so DNS keeps answering exactly as it did and nothing goes dark — this is the part people worry about and it is the part that does not happen.
If you are also moving the hosting, do that first, let the DNS settle, and transfer the domain afterwards. Two changes at once is how an afternoon disappears.
When a transfer is refused
Registries block transfers within 60 days of registration, and within 60 days of a previous transfer. There is no way around either; you wait.
A domain that is expired or in redemption has to be renewed before it can move. If you are stuck, open a ticket with the EPP code to hand and the desk will tell you which of these it is.
Questions
Before you register one
The renewal column above raises most of these, so they are answered here rather than in the cart.
Prices
3Why does .site cost $3.76 now and $49.92 later?
Because the registry that runs .site prices it that way, and every reseller pays the same wholesale figure. A cheap first year is how a new extension gets taken up. If you want a price that does not move, 6 of our 23 extensions renew at exactly what you paid: .com, .net, .uk, .co.uk, .ca and .de.
Is WHOIS privacy extra?
No, and it is on wherever the registry permits it. Some extensions — several country codes in particular — publish registrant details by law and no registrar can hide them. The cart tells you which before you pay.
Can I buy a domain without hosting?
Yes. Plenty of people register a name here and host it elsewhere, or hold it for later. It sits in the same client area as everything else and renews on the same invoice.
Owning it
3Do I own the domain, or do you?
You do. It is registered to you as the registrant, and you can transfer it away whenever you like once it is past the sixty-day lock every registry applies after registration. We are the registrar, not the owner.
What happens if I let it expire?
There is a grace period of thirty to forty days depending on the extension, during which renewing costs the normal price. After that it enters redemption, where recovery is expensive and sometimes impossible. Turn auto-renew on and keep a working email on the account — that prevents essentially all of it.
Can I point it at a server you do not host?
Yes. You get full DNS control from the client area, so point the records anywhere you like. There is no requirement to host with us, and no penalty for not doing so.
Checking and moving
3Do you check availability live?
The 23 most asked-for extensions are checked against the registry as you type. The rest of the list shows its price, and the cart confirms availability the moment you add one — no name is ever sold twice.
How long does a transfer in take?
Five to seven days, most of which is a registry waiting period nobody can shorten. Your site and email keep working throughout, because a transfer changes who bills you and not where the DNS points. You need the domain unlocked and the EPP code from your current registrar.
Why was my transfer refused?
Almost always one of three things: the domain is still inside the sixty days after registration or a previous transfer, it is locked at the losing registrar, or it has expired and needs renewing first. Open a ticket with the EPP code to hand and the desk will tell you which.
Still stuck? An engineer will answer, at any hour.
Open a ticket