Domain Transfer Steps That Keep Your Website and Email Running

Someone has told you to "just transfer the domain," and now you are the one holding the risk. Maybe you are leaving a web designer, moving away from a registrar whose renewal bill surprised you, or pulling every domain into one account your business controls. The worry is simple: you click the wrong thing, the website goes blank, and customer emails start bouncing while nobody answers the phone. A domain transfer can feel like pulling the plug on the whole business. It usually is not. The move changes which company holds and renews your registration, and it can leave your site and your mailboxes exactly where they are, as long as you know which settings to leave alone. The order you do things in matters more than the button you click, and you can check most of it yourself in about fifteen minutes.

Keep Your Site and Email Online by Knowing What a Transfer Touches

A registrar transfer changes the company that sponsors and renews your domain registration. That is all it normally does. Namecheap's explanation of the difference between domain mapping and domain transfer draws the same line: pointing a domain at a service and moving the registration are two separate things.

Your website and email keep working because of DNS, not because of the registrar. Your nameservers tell the internet where your DNS records live. Those records then point your domain at your web host and tell mail systems where to send your email. A registrar transfer on its own should not change your nameservers, your website files or your mailboxes. If the nameservers and the records behind them stay the same until the transfer has finished, visitors and email should not notice anything happened.

That gives you one rule to hold on to during the whole move: leave the nameservers and the DNS records alone until the new registrar confirms the transfer is done. Namecheap's guide on how to transfer a domain also warns that nameserver updates may not be possible while a transfer is in progress, which is one more reason to leave them be.

Save Yourself a Fee by Checking Whether You Need a Transfer at All

Before you move anything, ask what you are trying to get done. If the goal is a new host, a new website builder or a new email provider, you may not need a registrar transfer. You may only need to point your DNS records or nameservers at the new service once it is ready. Pointing a domain is a DNS change and normally carries no transfer fee.

A transfer makes sense when you want the registration itself somewhere else. That includes getting the domain into an account your business owns, putting all your domains with one registrar, choosing a registrar for its prices or features, or removing a former provider's control. If you are switching builders, our post on switching website builders covers that move, which is separate from the registration.

One case sits in between. Cloudflare's guide to transferring a domain to Cloudflare requires the domain to use Cloudflare's DNS. So, a transfer there also means a DNS change, and that change needs its own plan: copy every record first and switch only when the copy is complete.

Get the Transfer Right the First Time With a Fifteen-Minute Inventory

A stalled or broken transfer often traces back to something nobody wrote down before starting. A short inventory fixes that. It also tells you whether you are ready to go, or whether you have an access problem to solve first. Work through it in this order.

The account check is the one to take seriously. ICANN moved from WHOIS to RDAP as the definitive source for generic domain registration data in January 2025, as its RDAP announcement explains, and public records often hide the owner's details. Your registrar login is what really proves control. If you cannot get in, or the approval emails go to an address nobody reads, stop and fix that before you start.

The DNS records to capture include A, AAAA, CNAME, MX, TXT, SRV and CAA records, plus any DKIM entries. The TXT records often hold your SPF and DMARC settings. Google's email sender guidelines say all senders need SPF or DKIM, and bulk senders need SPF, DKIM and DMARC. Lose those records and your mail can start landing in spam or failing outright, even though the mailbox itself is fine.

Move the Registration in the Right Order

Once the inventory checks out, the domain transfer process itself is short. The steps below follow ICANN's Transfer Policy, updated February 21, 2024, with registrars required to put it in place by August 21, 2025, plus the registrars' own help pages. Your current registrar's screens will look different from the new one's, so keep both registrars' instructions open as you go.

Turn off the registrar lock

Your current registrar usually keeps a transfer lock on the domain to block unauthorized moves. You need to switch it off at the current registrar before the transfer can start. ICANN's policy says a registrar must give you a way to remove that lock. This lock protects against someone moving your domain; it has nothing to do with whether your website loads.

Get the domain transfer code

The authorization code, also called the EPP code or AuthInfo code, proves you are allowed to move the domain. ICANN's page about the Auth-Code explains its role. Most registrars let you generate it in the account panel. Where there is no self-service option, ICANN's policy requires the registrar to provide it within five calendar days of your request. This code is only for moving the registration. You do not need it to connect a domain to a website builder.

Start and pay at the new registrar

Go to the new registrar's transfer page, enter the domain and the code, and pay. For a domain transfer to Squarespace, for example, Squarespace's help page on transferring a domain to a Squarespace site walks through its own screens. Moving a domain away from GoDaddy or any other registrar follows the same pattern, but use that registrar's own transfer-out instructions for the lock and code steps.

Approve the transfer and wait

Watch the registrant email for any approval request, and approve it. ICANN's FAQs for registrants say the transfer completes within five calendar days unless the losing registrar denies it. Some registrars quote a longer window in their own help pages. Do not touch the nameservers or DNS during this wait.

Confirm, then lock it again

When the new registrar shows the domain in your account, check that the nameservers match what you saved, load your website, and send a test email in and out. Then turn the registrar lock back on and set auto-renew.

Plan Your Timing Around ICANN's Rules

ICANN's rules cover generic top-level domains such as .com, .net and .org. They explain most of the "why can't I transfer yet" moments.

• The 60-day lock: A domain cannot move to another registrar in the first 60 days after it was registered or after a previous transfer.
• The registrant-change lock: A material change to the registrant's details can trigger its own 60-day lock, though some registrars offer an opt-out. Do not edit the owner name or email on a whim right before a transfer.
• The five-day window: Once approved, the registry ordinarily completes the transfer within five calendar days.
• The added year: Most transfers of generic domains add a paid year to the registration, up to a maximum ten-year term.

Country-code domains, such as .uk or .ca, follow their own registry's rules, so these timings may not apply. Check the registry or registrar for those. Expiry matters too: a domain close to its expiry date is a poor candidate for a rushed move, and our post on choosing a domain name for a new business covers setting up registration the right way from the start. If the date is close, renew where the domain is registered first, then check the registrar's guidance on how the added transfer year is handled.

Know What a Domain Transfer Will Cost Before You Start

The domain transfer cost is usually about one year of registration at the new registrar, and that year is added to the time you already have. You are not paying twice for the same year. Registrars present it differently. Cloudflare says it charges at registry and ICANN cost with no markup. Squarespace's page on domain transfer pricing and billing says it charges the domain's one-year registration price rather than a separate transfer fee. Namecheap lists its current prices on its domain transfer page.

Prices change, so the number at checkout is the one that counts. Some registrars call their transfer "free," but for most generic domains a paid year still comes with it.

Moving your website is a different job with a different bill. It means copying or rebuilding the site's files, databases and settings at a new host, and it may involve hosting or professional charges. Pointing the domain at a new host is a DNS change that normally costs nothing on its own.

Avoid the Mistakes That Actually Take Sites and Email Down

The transfer rarely causes the outage. The damage usually comes from a change made alongside it. There is no cross-registrar dataset that ranks these failures by how often they happen, so treat this as a list of risks to check, in a sensible order, rather than a measured ranking.

• No access to the registrar account or approval email: The transfer stalls, and you may not even see the request.
• Changing nameservers without copying every record: The new DNS provider starts answering with an empty or partial zone, and the site or email stops.
• Losing MX, SPF, DKIM or DMARC records: The website loads, but email bounces or lands in spam.
• Starting inside a 60-day lock: The transfer is refused, and you wait.
• A wrong or expired code: Request a fresh code and retry.
• Letting the domain expire mid-plan: The site and email can go dark for reasons unrelated to the transfer.

Each has a direct fix. A missing zone means recreating every record before changing nameservers, which is small for a simple site and a careful audit for a business with email marketing, booking, payments and several subdomains. A 60-day lock means waiting, unless your real goal is just a new host, which may not need a transfer at all.

Get Your Domain Back When a Former Designer Holds It

This is where the transfer question turns into an ownership question, and the answer depends on one fact: who is listed as the registrant.

If your business is the registrant, you have strong footing. ICANN's policy says the registrar must provide the authorization code within five calendar days when you cannot generate it yourself, and it cannot withhold the code solely because of a payment dispute. Gather your invoices, the contract, proof of your business name and any old registrar emails, identify the registrar through ICANN Lookup, and ask the account holder to move the domain into an account your business owns.

If the former designer or agency is the registrant, ICANN cannot simply hand the domain to you. That is a dispute that needs the registrar's documented process, an agreement, legal advice or a court order, depending on the situation. ICANN's page about unauthorized transfers and changes of registrant covers the related rules. Either way, do not change the registrant details in a hurry, because that can trigger a 60-day lock right when you need to move.

Frequently Asked Questions About domain transfer

Will transferring my domain take down my website?

Not if your nameservers, DNS records and hosting stay the same. A registrar transfer normally changes only who holds the registration.

Will I lose email during a domain transfer?

Not if your MX records and email authentication records, such as SPF, DKIM and DMARC, stay in place. Save a copy of every record before you start.

How long does a domain transfer take?

ICANN's process allows five calendar days after approval unless the losing registrar denies the transfer. Some registrars quote a longer window in their help pages.

What is a domain transfer code?

It is the authorization code, also called the EPP or AuthInfo code, that proves you can move a generic domain to another registrar. Your current registrar provides it.

Does a domain transfer cost money?

Usually. Most transfers of generic domains charge for one added year of registration, which extends your current term. Check the final price at checkout.

Can I transfer my domain 60 days after registering it?

Usually, for generic domains, as long as no other lock applies. A recent registrant change, an expiry problem or a country-code domain's own rules can change that.

Wrapping Up

A domain transfer moves the registration, not the website or the mailboxes. Save every DNS record, confirm you control the registrar account and approval email, turn off the lock, get the code, start and pay at the new registrar, approve, and leave the nameservers alone until the move is done. Then check the site and email, and lock the domain again. If a former provider is the registrant, settle ownership first.

Getting this right leaves you with a domain in an account your business owns, a written record of where your DNS, hosting and email live, and one less thing that can be held over you the next time you change vendors. A simple transfer with one domain and clean account access is something you can often handle on your own.

If your situation is messier, Web Leveling can help. Our website maintenance work covers the access and DNS audit, a staged change and the checks afterward, so your site and email keep running while the registration moves. If a DNS change alone will get you where you need to go, we will tell you that instead. We work with small and medium businesses across the country and overseas. Tell us where your domain is registered and what you want to move, and we will map out the safest order.

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