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.
- 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
Search for the name you want, pick from what is available, 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.
The price shown is what you pay, and it renews at the same price yearly. 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
Add it on your website's Address tab and we show you 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.
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.
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.
Two sets of records are shown but locked. The record pointing the domain at your site is managed for you, and the mail records are managed by your email settings. Editing either by hand would break the thing that put them there, so those are changed from the settings that own them.
Bringing a domain in
To move a domain here from another registrar, you need its transfer code, sometimes called an EPP or auth code, which you get from your current registrar. Unlock the domain there, get the code, and start the transfer here.
Transfers are run by the registry rather than by us, so they take several days and we cannot speed them up. Your site keeps working throughout, as long as the records still point here.
Taking a domain away
Your domain is yours, and you can move it to another registrar whenever you want. Ask for the transfer code here and start the transfer at the registrar you are moving to.
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.