Domains

A domain name is yours, not ours. You can buy one here, bring one you already own, point it at any of your sites, and take it somewhere else whenever you like. This is how each of those works.

The short version

• Everything lives under Domains in the sidebar.
• Buy one here and it points at your site automatically.
• Connect one you own by creating one record at your current registrar.
• Move one in from another registrar and its DNS keeps working exactly as it is.
• Auto-renew is on for domains bought here. Leave it on.
• You can move a domain away at any time. It is yours.

Buying one

Type your business name or the domain you have in mind. We check the popular endings, show a few you may not know about, like .shop or .studio, and suggest similar names if yours is taken. Pick one and choose which site it should point at. We register it and set up the DNS for you, so there is nothing to configure and no waiting for records to spread. Not ready to use it yet? Choose Nowhere yet to keep it for later. A domain kept for later points nowhere, so nothing loads at it until you point it at a site, which sets up its records for you, or add records of your own.

Each result shows what you pay for the first year. Some endings cost less up front, so when the renewal price is different we show it right beside it. Domains are billed separately from your subscription because they are a different kind of thing: you keep the domain whether or not you keep the site.

Connecting one you already own

Choose Connect one you own under Domains, or Use a domain you own on your website's Domain tab, and pick the site it is for. The domain then opens, and its DNS records tab shows the exact record to create, with a button to copy it. Create that record wherever you bought the domain, then come back and use Check again. Where we can work out who runs your domain's DNS, we name them and point you at the right settings page, so you are not hunting for it.

Until we can see that record pointing here, the domain is connected in name only. Visitors still get your registrar's parking page, and we do not treat it as a working address. That is deliberate: publishing a site onto an address nobody can reach is worse than knowing it is not ready.

Registrars publish changes on their own schedule, so a few hours is normal. A check also tells you what your own internet connection can see right now, which is why a fresh record can look wrong from your office and right from ours for a while.

Renewals

Domains bought here renew once a year, and auto-renew is on by default. We charge the card on file a little before the expiry date and renew it for you, and we email you either way.

If a renewal payment fails we keep trying, and we tell you. There is a grace period of 30 days after expiry during which the domain can still be recovered. After that it goes back on the open market and anybody can register it.

Auto-renew is the Renew automatically switch on the domain's Renewal tab, which also has Renew for another year if you would rather renew early. Turning auto-renew off means you have to renew it yourself, on time, or lose the name. There is very little reason to turn it off for a domain your business is actually using.

The DNS records

For a domain you bought here, you can edit its DNS records directly. That is what you need for things we do not run for you: verifying with another service, or pointing a subdomain somewhere else.

Your email records are locked here, because your email settings manage them. Change them there and they are rewritten for you.

The records pointing the domain at your site are marked, but you can still change them. Doing so takes your site offline on this domain, so only do it if you are moving the domain to another host. We will not hold a domain you own hostage.

Sometimes the records here are not the ones the world is using. That happens when a domain you moved in is still answered by your old provider. The tab says so at the top, and gives you two choices: add the two records it shows at that provider and leave everything else alone, or press Use our DNS instead. The switch shows you what it found before anything changes.

Taking a domain away

Your domain is yours, and you can move it to another registrar whenever you want. Open the domain, go to Move away and unlock it. We show you the transfer code; start the transfer with it at the registrar you are moving to. Only owners and admins can do this, and we keep serving your site until the domain moves.

One thing to do first: if that domain is the only address of a published site, give that site another address before moving the domain, or the site goes dark when the domain leaves.

Registries also refuse a transfer within sixty days of a domain being registered or transferred. That is their rule and applies everywhere, not just here.

One domain, several sites

A domain points at one site at a time, and you can change which one whenever you like. Moving a domain between your own sites takes effect quickly, since we run the DNS for domains bought here. Pointing it at a site updates the records that decide where visitors land, and leaves the rest of your records, like email, untouched.

Take a domain off a site and we remove those same records again, so it goes back to loading nothing rather than showing a stranger's error page. The domain is still yours, still renewing, and ready to point at a site whenever you want.