Transferring a domain moves the registration, who you renew with and where you manage it. It is optional. You can host with Ahosting while the domain stays registered elsewhere; you point it here by changing nameservers, and the registration never moves.
Transfer for consolidation, not because hosting requires it.
Whether it is worth doing
For: one company to renew with instead of several, one place to manage DNS, one invoice. A transfer normally adds a year to the expiry, so the fee buys something.
Against: it takes several days, it needs care, and it changes nothing about how the site works.
If your current registrar is adequate, leaving the domain there is a perfectly reasonable decision. If you only want the website hosted here, change nameservers and stop. For that, see updating your nameservers.
Four conditions
All must hold, or the transfer is refused.
At least 60 days old, and not transferred within the last 60 days. Registry rule, no exceptions, and no registrar can waive it.
Unlocked at the current registrar. Domains are locked by default.
You have the EPP code from the current registrar.
The WHOIS contact email is one you can read. The approval message goes there.
Getting your EPP code deals with the last two together, since they are handled in the same place.
Check where DNS is served from first
This is the one thing that can genuinely take a site offline, and it is easy to check.
A registration transfer does not change DNS. The nameservers stay as they are, so the website and email continue working throughout.
The exception: if the registrar you are leaving was also providing your DNS, they may stop serving the zone once the domain moves. The domain then resolves to nothing.
dig NS yourdomain.com
If those nameservers belong to the registrar you are leaving, move DNS elsewhere before starting the transfer: to Ahosting's nameservers, or to another DNS provider. Record every existing record first, because a nameserver change hands the zone to a provider that starts from defaults.
The sequence
- Confirm the domain is over 60 days old.
- Check where DNS is served from; move it first if it lives with the losing registrar.
- Turn WHOIS privacy off.
- Unlock the domain.
- Request the EPP code.
- Order the transfer here and paste the code.
- Approve it from the email sent to the WHOIS address.
- Re-enable privacy and the lock afterwards.
Steps three and four happen in the same control panel, so do them together.
What happens after you order
Two approvals. You approve at the losing registrar, usually by clicking a link emailed to the WHOIS address. And the losing registrar releases the domain, immediately or after a waiting period.
If nobody responds, the transfer completes automatically after about five days. Approving it is faster.
The fee normally includes a year's renewal added to the existing expiry, so no time is lost.
When it fails
Domain is locked. Unlock it at the current registrar.
Invalid EPP code. Usually expired. They have a lifetime. Request a fresh one, and check for a trailing space when pasting.
Too recent. Inside the 60-day window. Nothing to do but wait.
Approval email never arrived. Check the WHOIS address, check spam, and check privacy is off. This is the most common stall.
Rejected. Some registrars require confirmation on their side too. Look for a pending request in their panel.
After it completes
Check the nameservers are still what you expect, some transfers reset them to the new registrar's defaults, which would take the site offline:
dig NS yourdomain.com
Then re-enable WHOIS privacy and the registrar lock, confirm auto-renewal is on, and check the expiry reflects the added year.
Load the site and send a test email. Both should be unaffected, and confirming takes a minute rather than discovering otherwise later.
If the domain is simply held in someone else's account at a registrar you are happy with, a full transfer is the wrong tool. How to Move a Domain Between Registrar Accounts sets out the faster route.
When a transfer is rejected, the message rarely names the real cause. What to Do When a Domain Transfer Fails deals with the five to check in order.
Confirm the domain is eligible before paying
A transfer that is refused still consumes time, and the reasons are all visible in advance.
whois example.com | grep -iE 'status|created|updated|expir|registrar:'
Four things to read. The status lines, where anything beginning with a lock prevents transfer. The creation date, since a recently registered domain cannot move. The last transfer date, for the same reason. And the expiry, because a transfer close to it is worth doing sooner rather than later.
Statuses set by the registrar can be lifted by them. Statuses set by the registry cannot, and require the underlying reason to be resolved first. Telling them apart before starting saves the round trip.
Move the DNS before the domain
The transfer moves who bills you for the name. It can also move where the name resolves, and that is the part that causes an outage.
Some registrars replace the nameservers with their own on completion, at which point the site and the mail stop pointing anywhere useful. It happens at the end rather than at the start, so a transfer that appeared to go smoothly takes the site down hours later.
dig example.com NS +short dig example.com MX +short dig example.com A +short
Record those three before starting, and check them immediately after completion. If the nameservers changed, set them back to what you recorded. Doing this within minutes rather than the next morning is the difference between nobody noticing and a morning of reports.
What arrives with the domain
A completed transfer changes several things at once, and two of them are easy to miss.
The expiry usually gains a year, added to the existing date rather than replacing it, so nothing is lost by transferring mid term. The transfer lock is frequently off afterwards, which should be reversed immediately.
whois example.com | grep -iE 'expir|status|registrar:'
Also confirm the contact details came across correctly and that the address on them is one you read, since verification messages will be sent there and an unanswered one suspends the domain. What to check after transferring a domain covers the full list.