What does domain expiry mean?

You do not buy a domain, you rent it: usually for one or more years, after which you must renew it. If it is not renewed by its expiry date, your registrar (the company you got the domain from) stops your site and email, and eventually the domain is released so that anyone can register it.

Why it matters

An expired domain means your site does not open and your mail does not arrive. Worse, once the domain is released someone else may register it: some people look for exactly that, to resell the name or to exploit its reputation and the email still sent to it. Getting it back from them can be impossible.

Make sure it does not expire

1. In your registrar’s panel, turn on auto-renew.
2. Check the saved payment method: an expired or empty card makes auto-renew useless.
3. Keep the account’s and the domain’s contact email current, preferably an address that is not on the same domain; if the domain stops working, you would miss the reminder emails too.
4. Turn on the registrar (transfer) lock so nobody can move the domain to another registrar without you.
5. If you can, renew for several years and also put the expiry date in your own calendar.
6. Check the new expiry date on CheckNet’s WHOIS page.

If the domain has expired

For generic domains such as com, net and org, ICANN’s rules give you a chance to get it back. After expiry the registrar must still let you renew for a while, and during part of that time your site and email are switched off. After the domain is deleted there is a 30-day redemption period in which it can still be restored, usually for a fee far higher than a normal renewal. The exact lengths depend on the registrar and the kind of domain.

• Contact your registrar and renew as soon as possible; the later it gets, the costlier and harder it is.
• Country-code domains (such as ir or uk) have their own rules; read them on that registry’s or registrar’s site.
• After renewing, check that your name servers and DNS records were not changed.

Some country-code registries, Iran’s .ir among them, have no RDAP service, so CheckNet cannot show their expiry date. Look it up in your registrar’s panel.

Check it with CheckNet

On CheckNet’s WHOIS page the answer reads “N days until it expires”, shown as a warning when fewer than 30 days are left. The DNS page shows the same as the row “The domain expires in N days”. The date comes from the registry’s RDAP service.