What Happens When Your Domain Expires, Day by Day

• Before the expiry date
• The day it expires
• What happens next, ending by ending
• Getting an expired domain back
• The paid-up domain that still switches off
• A five-minute check

Nobody buys a domain outright. It is registered for a year or more at a time, and every renewal is a payment someone has to make, on time. When one is missed, the domain goes through a series of stages set by the registry that runs its ending, and each stage is slower and more expensive to undo than the one before.

Most people never learn the stages, because their renewals just work. Here they are for the endings our customers use most, with what we send you along the way and a five-minute check that makes all of it unlikely to matter.

Before the expiry date#

For a domain that is set to renew, we email you 30 days and again 7 days before it expires. A renewal invoice is emailed about 14 days before its due date. If the renewal will cost more than you last paid, for example the first renewal of a domain that came free for a year with a plan, you also get a separate notice at least 30 days ahead.

Two settings decide whether that renewal happens without you, and they are easy to confuse:

• Auto Renew, on the domain's own page in the client area, decides whether we raise a renewal invoice at all. It is on by default. Turn it off and no invoice is created: the domain runs out on its expiry date, which is what you want for a name you're letting go.
• Automatic payment, under Billing → Automatic payment, decides whether a saved card pays that invoice. While it is on, the card is charged a few days before the due date. While it is off, the invoice waits for you.

Both on, and the domain renews by itself. Auto Renew on and automatic payment off, and you have an invoice to pay before the expiry date. Auto Renew off, and nothing happens, by design.

The day it expires#

On the expiry date the domain's paid term ends, though nobody else can register it yet. What visitors see next depends on the ending. Some registries switch the domain off at once. Some leave it working for about two weeks. For generic endings such as .com, ICANN's rules let the registrar decide, as long as the domain stops working for at least the last eight days in which it can still be renewed.

Don't plan around those days. When a domain stops working, everything on it stops together: the website, and every email address on it. Mail sent to those addresses bounces back to the sender, and you never see it.

That matters for one setting in particular. A few days after a domain expires we email you again, with a button to renew it (for a .eu domain, write to us instead). If the email address on your account is on the same domain, that email goes to a mailbox that no longer receives anything. Use an address on a different domain for your account.

What happens next, ending by ending#

After the expiry date each registry runs its own clock. These are the endings we see most:

The 35 days for .com, .net and .org are our registrar's window. The registry rules allow up to 45, and other registrars choose differently, so if a domain of yours is registered somewhere else, ask them for theirs. A .ee domain can't be restored once it is deleted, but up to then, renewing it brings it straight back.

Other endings have rules of their own. If yours isn't in the table, ask us before it expires rather than after.

Getting an expired domain back#

Within the renewal window, you can usually do it yourself. In the client area, go to Domains → Renew Domains, pick the domain and pay the invoice. If a renewal invoice is already waiting, paying it is enough. If the domain isn't listed there, write to us. We send the renewal to the registry as soon as it is paid. The website and email come back once the change has spread through DNS: usually within hours, though some networks can take up to two days to notice.

In redemption or quarantine, write to us. Getting a domain back at this stage is a restore, not a renewal. We arrange it with the registrar by hand, it costs more than a renewal, and we'll tell you the price before we do anything.

After it is released, it is no longer yours. You can try to register it again like anyone else, if nobody gets there first. For a .ee domain, that means bidding for it in the registry's auction.

The paid-up domain that still switches off#

There is one way to lose a domain for a while that has nothing to do with paying for it. When a domain is registered, transferred to a new registrar, or given a new owner, the registrar has to confirm that the owner's email address works. It sends an email with a link to click. If nobody clicks it within 15 days, the domain is suspended: the website shows a holding page or doesn't open at all, and email to the domain stops arriving, until someone clicks the link.

For .com and the other generic endings, this is an ICANN rule. Our registrar applies the same check to country endings, .ee included.

Clicking the link lifts the suspension within about half an hour, though it can take anywhere from a few hours to two days before every network sees the website again. So after you register a domain with us, or move one to us, keep an eye on the owner's inbox for the next two weeks, spam folder included. If the email hasn't arrived after a few days, tell us and we'll send it again. Ask before day 15 and the domain is never suspended; after that, clicking the new link still brings it back.

A five-minute check#

Open the client area and look at four things.

1. Domains → My domains. Every domain you rely on is listed, and its Next Due Date, the day its renewal is due, is one you recognise. A domain registered with another company won't be listed here, and you renew it with that company, even if your website is hosted with us.
2. Auto Renew, on the page of each domain you want to keep.
3. Billing → Automatic payment. Either it's on, or you're happy to pay renewal invoices yourself and the invoice emails reach you.
4. The email address on your account, and the owner's email under the domain's Contact Information. Both should be real, read by someone, and preferably not on the domain they're meant to protect.

If anything there looks wrong, or you'd like a domain registered elsewhere moved to us so it renews with your hosting, write to us and we'll sort it out with you. After a move, watch for the verification email described above.