Transferring a domain to ESTAGE

If you already own a domain somewhere else, you can move its registration to ESTAGE instead of just pointing it here. After the transfer, DNS, SSL, renewal and the project it serves are all managed in one place — and the domain is connected to your project as soon as the move completes.

Before you start

At your current registrar:

1. Unlock the domain — turn off the transfer lock (sometimes called “registrar lock” or “domain lock”).
2. Get the authorization code — also called the EPP code, auth code or transfer code. Registrars show it in the domain’s settings or email it to you.
3. Check the timing: a domain can’t be transferred within 60 days of being registered or last transferred. That’s a registry rule, not ours.
4. Make sure you can read the registrant email on the domain — the registry may ask you to confirm the transfer there.

The transfer

Open Domains (or Settings → General → Domain in any project) and choose Transfer Domain. Enter the domain and its authorization code; ESTAGE checks with the registry that the move is possible and shows the price. A transfer adds one year to the domain’s registration at the ending’s yearly rate, so nothing already paid for is lost.

Confirm the registrant — the domain stays in your name — and pay. The transfer is then submitted to the registry.

What happens to DNS

The transfer moves the domain onto ESTAGE’s nameservers, which is what lets it be connected automatically afterwards. So that nothing breaks in the move, ESTAGE copies the records a business depends on before submitting the transfer:

• Mail — the MX records, so email keeps arriving
• SPF, DKIM and DMARC — so email keeps being trusted
• Verification records — the TXT records tools like Google, Microsoft or Facebook use to prove you own the domain
• Mail subdomains — mail., smtp., autodiscover. and the like

The web records (yourdomain.com and www) are not copied — the point of the move is that ESTAGE serves the site. If you have other subdomains, add them on the domain’s DNS Records tab after the transfer. The transfer page shows how many records were carried over.

While it’s in progress

A transfer takes the registries a few days — usually two to five; the current registrar has to release the domain, and some require you to approve the transfer by email first. The domain appears on your Domains page as Transferring; you can close the window, and ESTAGE emails you when it’s done.

If the current registrar rejects the transfer — the domain was still locked, the code was wrong, the 60 days weren’t up — you’re refunded in full, automatically. Fix the cause at the registrar and try again.

After the move

The setup runs itself: the SSL certificate is issued, the domain is activated and the setup page asks which project it should serve. If you started from a project’s settings, that project is already selected. From there the domain behaves exactly like one bought here — automatic yearly renewal with a switch on the domain’s page, transfer lock, WHOIS privacy. See Buying a domain for the renewal details.