Domain renewal
What period are domains registered for?
One year is the minimum registration period for almost all TLDs. Some ccTLDs, for example, .au, should be registered for 2 years minimum due to Registry rules. Maximum depends on the specific TLD and can be 1-10 years.
Note Make sure you register your domains under your account (with your credentials) and mention your actual email and phone number. Phone and email will be used to send you important notifications and personal information under your account is needed for verification (if necessary).
What to do if you forget to renew the domain?
Most domains have several states (statuses) which we will now review.
1. Active
A state when a domain is registered and not yet expired. About a month prior to the domain expiration you should receive an email reminder to renew your domain. Make sure that your registrar's letters don't go to the spam/junk folder in your mailbox and the email address indicated in the domain contacts is valid and up-to-date. Checking if your registrar offers an auto-renewal service and activating it would be a good idea. Usually, that assumes you have a certain amount of money in your account with your registrar (or a credit card attached to it) and turned the service on for one or several domains.
2. Registrar/Client Hold
A domain is switched to that status as soon as the paid registration period is over and will remain in it for a certain period of time (usually 27-30 days depending on the registrar). The majority of ccTLDs don't have such status at all and are instantly deleted on the registrar's side. At this point, your website will stop working. You should be able to renew your domain name in your account in your account for the regular price.
3. Redemption Period
This status follows the Hold and lasts for about 30 days. At this point, the domain deletion process started but can still be stopped. In this case an additional reactivation fee is applied (depending on the TLD and Registrar). Do not miss your payment notification. You'll get updates on the status of the domain and reactivation price. (Domain status can be checked using a Whois service).
4. Pending Delete
If you didn't renew/reactivate your domain in time, it falls into Pending Delete status and will be deleted. It will be deleted in 5-6 days and become available for registration after deletion.
Note! Not all TLDs have the whole range of statuses. Make sure you have checked all of the information regarding a TLD before registering/buying a domain.
Be attentive and don't lose domains out of carelessness! If it becomes available for registration again, anyone can register it.
If you got yourself in such a situation, check your registrar's website for a section called "Pending domains", "Domains auction", etc. Many registrars list pending or recently deleted domains in those sections and users can pre-apply to register one after it's released (deleted). Domains are registered on a 'first come - first served' basis and that will be your last chance to keep the domain if you forgot to renew/reactivate it on time.
And here you can check our rating of accredited domain registrars.
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The more comfortable the control panel is, the easier will it be for you to change the website and hosting account settings.
Most hosting providers that are in TOP20 in our rating offer user-friendly control panels, such as cPanel, Plesk or DirectAdmin. That’s why we recommend to pay attention to other, more important parameters, while choosing a hosting provider.