A domain renewal checklist for the name your website and email depend on
A lapsed domain takes the website and usually the email down with it, and the cause is rarely dramatic: a card expired, the reminder went to a former employee, nobody knew which registrar held the name. Most of the protection is set up once. This domain renewal checklist covers ownership, the registrar account, the renewal itself and a short check afterwards.
Why domains lapse
The registrar sends renewal notices to the contact email on the account. If that's a personal address of someone who has left, or a shared inbox nobody reads, the notices go unseen. Auto-renew then tries the saved card, the card has expired, and the name moves into the registry's grace period without anyone noticing until the site stops loading. After the grace period most registries add a redemption stage, when recovery costs more, and eventually the name is released for anyone to register.
Set up once: ownership and access
- Registrant
- The business itself, not the web designer or a staff member personally. If a freelancer registered it for you, ask them to transfer it into an account you control.
- Registrar account
- Held under a role address such as domains@ or admin@ on a mailbox at least two people can read, so reminders aren't tied to one person.
- Two-factor sign-in
- Turned on at the registrar. A stolen password on this account lets someone repoint the site and the email.
- Registrar lock
- Switched on, so the domain can't be transferred away without someone unlocking it first. Most registrars call it transfer lock or registrar lock.
- Auto-renew
- On, with a payment card whose expiry date is on the business calendar. Consider renewing for several years at once for a name you'll keep.
- A written note
- Registrar name, account email, renewal date, who has access, and where the DNS is managed. Keep it with the business's other important records.
Find out where your domain lives
If you don't know, look the domain up in a public RDAP or WHOIS lookup. It shows the registrar's name and the expiry date even when the owner's details are hidden. Then sign in at that registrar, or work out who can. Note separately where the DNS is hosted, because it may not be the same company: the records that point the domain at your website sit wherever the nameservers point.
The renewal routine
- Sixty days out: check the card on file is valid and the account email still reaches someone.
- Thirty days out: confirm auto-renew is on, or renew by hand. Don't wait for the last week; some payment failures take days to surface.
- On renewal: save the receipt and the new expiry date in your written note.
- Straight after: sign in to the registrar and confirm the domain shows the new date and that registrar lock is still on.
- Then check the site and email: open the website on the bare domain or www, whichever one you connected, and send yourself an email to the domain's address.
Where Anticode comes in
Anticode doesn't sell or renew domains. On a paid plan you connect a domain you already own: Anticode asks for a CNAME or TXT record to verify it and issues the HTTPS certificate itself. That means the renewal, the lock and the registrar account all stay with you. If a domain does lapse and you recover it, the DNS records may have been reset, so check the record Anticode asked for is still in place and the site loads over HTTPS. Anticode doesn't redirect between www and the bare domain, so the one you connected is the one to test.
Protect your Anticode account the same way you protect the registrar: turn on two-factor sign-in with an authenticator app, and keep the recovery codes with your domain note. If the site collects enquiries, the account owner and the person publishing already need two-factor sign-in before it can publish.
What goes wrong
| Problem | Fix |
|---|---|
| Renewal reminders go to an ex-employee | Change the account contact to a shared role address |
| The web designer holds the domain | Ask for a transfer to your own registrar account while relations are good |
| Domain expired yesterday | Renew straight away; during the grace period it's usually a normal renewal |
| Site down after renewal | Check the DNS records at whoever hosts DNS; recovered domains sometimes come back with defaults |
| An email claims your domain is about to expire | Ignore links in it and sign in to your registrar directly; fake renewal notices are a common scam |
Limits
Anticode can't see your registrar, warn you about expiry or renew on your behalf, and it doesn't host email. Moving the domain to a new site is a separate job: see moving a domain to a new website, and for the record types involved, CNAME vs A record.
Questions people ask
What happens when a domain expires?
The website and any email on it stop working, usually within a day. Most registries allow a grace period for a normal renewal, then a more expensive redemption stage, after which the name can be released to anyone.
Should the domain be in my web designer's name?
No. Register it to the business in an account the business controls. The designer can be given access to change DNS records.
Is auto-renew enough on its own?
Only if the card and the contact email stay current. Put the card's expiry date and the renewal date on the business calendar as well.
Does Anticode renew my domain?
No. You keep the domain at your registrar and connect it to Anticode on a paid plan. Renewals stay with you.