The Basics of Transferring Domain Names

A common concern after transferring or signing up for a new hosting service is what to do with the domain name. In most cases, your domain name is purchased separately from your hosting, though your hosting provider may also provide domain registrations through their partner registrar.

Whether you registered your domain separately or through your previous host, you’ll usually be given control from the registrar to manage your domain name. Your registrar is the actual party that your domain was registered with, and will usually be the party that you pay for your domain renewal unless your hosting provider is acting as a reseller of the registrar and handing the billing for you (which will usually be the case if you registered your domain through your web host). If you’re content with this arrangement, when moving to a new host you’ll only need to point your domain’s nameservers to those of your new host. Otherwise, you may have the option to transfer your domain to your new host’s registrar (or another registrar of your choice), which is slightly more involved.

While many registrars may have their own requirements for transferring a domain, the basics are:

• The domain should be “unlocked”;
• The domain should be active and not within 14 (or 7 in some case) days of expiration;
• You should have the authorization code for your domain;
• The domain must be more than 90 days old.

You should be able to unlock your domain and obtain its authorization code (sometimes referred to as an EPP code) from your existing domain registrar. From here, you’ll usually give the authorization code to your new domain registrar for them to request a transfer. During the transfer process, you’ll also probably get an email (or several) from both registrars that are required to approve the transfer. Once you have approved the transfer, it can take anywhere from 2-14 days for the transfer to be complete. It’s the the responsibility of the new registrar to take over the billing and management of the domain.