Domain Name Sanity is an authorised domain reseller and you can register an available domain name with us for up to 10 years at a time.
Domain name registrations can be made in 1 year increments. And your domain expiration date is publicly available information, showing when your domain name will need to be renewed.
If you don't want to renew a domain, or you forget to renew it, your domain name is considered expired. But don't worry, you still get a chance to renew it even after it expires.
When a domain name expires, it doesn't become available for anyone to register right away. There are several steps it goes through first.
Here's what happens during the lifecycle of an expiring domain name.
When a domain name expires, it's set to auto-renew by default.
Our registrars have up to 45 days to decide whether to delete the domain if it hasn't been renewed (this varies by registrar and TLD, with country-specific TLDs such as .es, .fr, .sg and .com.au having zero grace period).
Note: We recommend that you are very careful if you have a country-specific domain name - don’t let these expire unless you definitely don’t want them anymore.
Our registrar will delete it if you haven't paid for the renewal (they don’t want to pay the ICANN fees for nothing). So now is the easiest and cheapest time to renew an expiring domain.
From here on it gets more difficult and more expensive.
After a registrar deletes a domain name because it expired, something called the Redemption Grace Period kicks in. This period gives you a chance to get the domain back, but you’ll have to pay an exorbitant fee (usually several hundred dollars). Unfortunately, this is driven by our upstream suppliers.
Your domain won't be lost if you do reclaim it during this time. But if you don’t redeem your domain within those 30 days, it moves into pending delete status.
Before a domain becomes available for anyone to register, it goes into a stage called Pending Delete.
This happens to all domains released by the registry. They hang out in this status for up to 5 days before they're officially dropped, meaning they're free for anyone to register.
The domain is released and is available to be registered by the fastest person.
Note: A whole industry exists with big players competing to register valuable dropped domains. If you’re trying to register a dropping domain you may have to compete in an auction.
Q: What are my grace periods for a generic TLD (.com, .net, .org, .biz, .info)?
A: 30 days after expiry for a cheap and easy renewal. Plus another 30 days for a more difficult and expensive renewal. After 60 days you’ll need to try to re-register the domain once it becomes available again (and potentially have to bid against others in an open market).
Q: Where can I see the expiry date for my domain?
A: In your Domain Name Sanity account, under domains. https://my.domainnamesanity.com/clientarea.php?action=domains
Q: How do I check the status of my domain?
A: You can view your domain status by searching your domain name at https://lookup.icann.org/
Q: My domain name has expired and is in the grace periods, what do I do?
A: If you want to renew your domain please reach out to us ASAP. The longer you wait, the harder and more expensive your renewal will be. Create a ticket with us here https://support.domainnamesanity.com/tickets/create/step1
Q: My domain name has expired and is in “pending delete.”
A: Unfortunately, you will need to re-register your domain once it becomes available. To ensure you get your domain back we recommend using an expiring domain registration service such as https://www.dropcatch.com/
