Domain Registration Terms

These terms apply if you register or transfer a domain through us. They sit alongside the terms of service, which cover everything else.

The important thing to understand first: we are not the registry. A domain is issued by the organisation that runs its extension — Verisign for .com, the NIXI-appointed registry for .in, and so on — and reaches you through an accredited registrar. We work through such a registrar to give you one place to manage the domain and the hosting together.

That means most of the rules below are not ours and we cannot change them. Where a registry or ICANN policy applies, it applies, and we will tell you so rather than pretend we have discretion we do not have. It also means our commitments here are deliberately modest: we will do the work properly and promptly, and we will not promise you an outcome that someone else decides.

Registering one

Availability is only confirmed when the registration completes. A name can be taken between the moment you search and the moment you pay — by someone else, or by a registry process. If that happens we refund you in full, immediately.
A registration cannot be reversed. The fee goes to the registry the moment the name is created. This is why domains are never refundable — not a policy we chose, and it is the same at every registrar. The refund policy says so too.
You are the registrant. The domain is registered in your name and you own it. We do not hold it as ours, and you can move it away.
Your contact details must be accurate. This is a registry requirement, not a preference. A domain with details that are wrong, or that you do not answer a verification email for, can be suspended by the registry — and at that point neither we nor the registrar can stop it. If we email you about a domain verification, please act on it.
Some extensions have extra rules — a local presence, a business registration, a documented eligibility. We will tell you before you buy where we know of one.

Renewal, expiry, and the expensive bit afterwards

Domain renewal is the part that costs people money, so here it is in order:

We invoice a domain renewal ahead of its expiry date and email you. Keep auto-renew on unless you are sure you want to let it go.
At expiry the domain stops working — the website and the email on it go down. Most extensions then allow a grace period in which you can simply renew at the normal price.
After the grace period comes redemption, and this is the one that hurts. Recovering a domain in redemption carries a fee set by the registry that is many times the renewal price — commonly several thousand rupees — and we have no ability to waive it. We pass on what we are charged.
After redemption the name is deleted and returns to the public. At that point anyone can register it, and there is nothing anyone can do for you.

The exact number of days at each step is set by the registry for that extension and varies. We will tell you which stage a domain is in and what it costs to recover it, and we will do it quickly, because every one of these stages has a deadline.

Renewal prices can change when a registry changes its wholesale price. We do not use the cheap-first-year-then-triple-it model on domains any more than on hosting, but we cannot promise a renewal price years ahead that a registry sets.

Transfers, and the 60-day lock

Moving a domain to us: unlock it at your current registrar, get the authorisation code, and start the transfer here. A transfer usually adds a year to the registration. It can take up to a week, mostly waiting on the losing registrar, and it can be refused for reasons outside our control — a lock we cannot see, a dispute, or a recent change.

The 60-day lock catches people out, so read this one. ICANN rules place a 60-day transfer lock on a domain after it is newly registered, after it is transferred, and after a change to the registrant's name or email. It is not our lock and we cannot lift it. If you are planning to move a domain, change the contact details after the move rather than before.

Moving a domain away from us: we will not stand in your way. Unlock and the authorisation code are in the panel, or ask support and we will do it the same day. We do not charge a transfer-out fee and we will not hold a domain hostage over an unrelated dispute. A domain can only be transferred if it is not inside a lock period and the account is paid up.

Privacy on the public record

Registrant details go into the registry's records. How much of that is publicly visible depends on the extension and on data-protection law: for many extensions most personal detail is now redacted by default, and for others it is not.

Where the extension supports privacy protection we will tell you and turn it on if you want it. Where it does not, we cannot manufacture it. Either way, redaction is not secrecy — a court order, a UDRP complaint or a law-enforcement request can require the underlying details to be disclosed.

Disputes, and what we can actually do

If someone claims your domain infringes their trademark, or you believe someone else's does, that is decided through a dispute process — the UDRP for most international extensions, the INDRP for .in. Those processes have arbitrators. We are not one of them.

What we can do: act on a decision or a court order once it is made, act on the hosting where a site is plainly impersonating a brand or a bank, and tell you which registrar and which process to approach. What we cannot do: transfer, cancel or adjudicate a domain because someone asked us to. The copyright and abuse page explains how to raise one.

We may suspend or cancel a domain where a registry, a registrar, ICANN or a court requires it, or where it is being used for phishing, malware or fraud. That is in the acceptable use policy as well.

You do not have to buy one from us

Keeping your domain where it already is and pointing it at us costs nothing and works exactly as well. Two DNS records and you are done, and support will do it with you.

We say this on the domains page too. A domain is close to a commodity and we would rather you bought hosting from us because it is good than because we bundled a name you did not need.