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This article examines the lifecycle of a typical domain name, from registration to deletion. For simplicity, we will say that our domain name was registered on Jan 1, 2005.
NOTE: Not all information below may be accurate since this article was published in 2006. Visit our domain expiration process article for a more recent timeline.
| Date | Event | Status | ||
| 2005/01/01 | domain registered | ACTIVE | ||
| 2005/03/01 | after 60 days, the domain can now be transferred to another registrar, if desired | ACTIVE | ||
| 2005/11/01 | most registrars start sending renewal notices around this time | ACTIVE | ||
| 2006/01/01 | the domain has expired; most registrars will HOLD the domain, which means your website and email will no longer work; you can still renew your domain name for the regular price; you can no longer transfer the domain unless you renew first | REGISTRAR-HOLD Grace Renewal Period |
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| 2006/01/30 | During the last 10 days of the domain's grace renewal period, an additional fee of $10 is charged by Dynadot for renewals | REGISTRAR-HOLD Late Renewal Fee |
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| 2006/02/09 | after 40 days, most registrars delete the domain; to get the domain back after this point you have to restore it which costs a lot | REDEMPTION PERIOD | ||
| 2006/03/11 | after 30 days, the domain can no longer be restored; the only way to get the domain back is to wait until it is dropped from the registry; of course anyone else can also register the domain at that time | PENDING DELETE | ||
| 2006/03/16 | after 5 days, the domain is dropped from the central registry and can now be registered by anyone, first come first serve; if the domain is valuable or has lots of traffic it will be snapped up seconds after it has dropped; Google "expiring domain names" for more information; to get a valuable domain back consider using a service like Snapnames.com. | none |
If you want to keep your domain name, the best policy is to renew early. You do not lose any time by renewing early. For example, if the domain expires on Jan 1 2006, and you renew 1 month before that, the new expiration date is Jan 1 2007.
The chart above applies to COM & NET domains. ORG, INFO, BIZ, US & CN domains have a similar lifecycle, but the status names may be different. WS domains do not have a REDEMPTIONPERIOD, and are dropped 25 days after expiration.
Check out our Domain Lifecycle Infographic below for more info:
