How to Transfer Your Domain Name Step-by-Step (And Save on Renewals)

Why Transferring Your Domain Is Easy and Cost-Effective

Many domain owners assume that moving a domain to a different registrar requires complex server migrations or causes website and email downtime. In reality, an ICANN domain transfer is strictly an administrative billing transfer. Your website hosting, SSL certificates, email inboxes, and DNS records remain 100% operational throughout the entire process.

Even better: Under ICANN rules, transferring any gTLD (such as .COM, .NET, .ORG, .XYZ) automatically extends your domain's expiration date by one full year. If you pay a $9.50 transfer fee to Spaceship or Sav, you receive a full extra year of registration included.

The 5-Step Domain Transfer Checklist

Step 1: Check the 60-Day Lock Rule

ICANN enforces a mandatory 60-day transfer lock on all domains registered or previously transferred within the last 60 days. Ensure your domain has been active with your current registrar for at least 60 days before initiating the transfer.

Step 2: Disable Registrar Lock & Confirm WHOIS Email

Log in to your current registrar's control panel:

• Navigate to your domain's security settings and turn off Registrar Lock / Transfer Lock.
• Ensure your registrant email address is accessible, as transfer confirmation links will be delivered there.

Step 3: Request the EPP / Auth Code

Click "Get Auth Code" or "Request EPP Code" in your domain settings. Your registrar will either display the alphanumeric key immediately or email it to you within minutes.

Step 4: Initiate Transfer at the New Registrar

Navigate to your new registrar's transfer page (e.g. Spaceship Domain Transfer), enter your domain name, paste your EPP Auth Code, and apply any active transfer coupon codes (e.g., SPSCOMTR for discounted .COM transfers).

Step 5: Approve the Transfer Request

Once payment is processed, your current registrar will send an email asking you to confirm the release. Click "Approve Transfer". While standard transfers can take up to 5 business days if unconfirmed, manually clicking "Approve" completes the transfer in less than 15 minutes.

What a Transfer Does and Does Not Change

A registrar transfer moves the sponsorship of your domain from one accredited registrar to another. Three things are worth being clear about before you start:

• Your registration time is preserved and extended. A gTLD transfer adds one full year to the existing expiry date. You do not forfeit unused time.
• DNS does not change automatically. Nameservers usually carry across as-is, so a correctly prepared transfer causes no downtime whatsoever.
• Ownership does not change. A transfer moves the registrar, not the registrant. Changing the registrant is a separate operation with its own 60-day lock.

Prepare Before You Start

Almost every failed transfer fails for a preventable reason. Work through this first:

1. Verify the administrative email. Approval correspondence goes to the address in the registration record. If it is stale, you cannot complete the transfer.
2. Record your DNS configuration. Export every record — A, AAAA, CNAME, MX, TXT, CAA — before touching anything. If you are using registrar-provided DNS rather than an external provider, those records may not survive the move.
3. Check expiry proximity. Do not begin a transfer within a few days of expiry. Transfer to a registrar, then renew — not the reverse.
4. Disable privacy temporarily if required. Some registrars cannot deliver the auth code while a proxy service masks the contact address.

Why Transfers Get Rejected

Registries will refuse a transfer for specific, defined reasons. If yours is blocked, it will be one of these:

• The 60-day rule. Domains cannot be transferred within 60 days of initial registration, a prior transfer, or a change of registrant.
• clientTransferProhibited is set. This is registrar lock. Turn it off in the control panel; it is a safety feature, not an obstruction.
• The auth code is wrong or expired. Codes are case-sensitive and some registrars rotate them. Request a fresh one.
• The domain is in redemption. An expired domain must be restored before it can move.
• Unverified registrant contact. ICANN requires email verification; an unverified domain is frozen for transfer purposes.

After the Transfer Completes

Transfers typically complete within five days, or immediately if you approve at the losing registrar rather than waiting out the automatic window. Once it lands:

• Confirm DNS resolves correctly and email still flows — check MX and any SPF, DKIM and DMARC TXT records specifically.
• Re-enable registrar lock and WHOIS privacy at the new registrar.
• Turn on two-factor authentication on the new account before you do anything else.
• Set auto-renew, then diarise a review 60 days before the new expiry date so you check the price rather than paying it blindly.

Transferring is the primary defence against renewal inflation, and it is worth doing deliberately rather than reactively. See renewal price traps for why the economics reward moving.

Frequently Asked Questions

Will my website go down during the transfer?

Not if your nameservers are unchanged and hosted externally. Downtime happens when the domain relied on the losing registrar's own DNS service, which may stop serving records once the domain leaves. Move DNS to an independent provider before transferring if that applies.

How much does a transfer cost?

For gTLDs you pay the mandatory one-year extension at the gaining registrar's price. There is no separate transfer fee under ICANN policy, and the year is added to what you already have.

Can I speed it up?

Yes. Explicitly approving the transfer at your current registrar usually completes it within minutes rather than waiting for the five-day automatic approval to elapse.