How to get your domain back from a website builder

1. Find out where your domain is registered

Type your domain into our free domain checker or ICANN's registration data lookup. Both show the registrar, the company your domain is registered through. If you bought the domain through a builder, the lookup may name the builder's partner registrar instead of the builder. The owner's personal contact details are often hidden for privacy, so the lookup may not show whose name it's in.

Your inbox can help too. Search for renewal notices or receipts that mention your domain. Whoever sends them is usually the company holding it.

2. Find out whose account it's in

Sign in to the account that pays for the domain and look at its registrant contact. That's the person or business the domain is registered to.

• If it's your account and your name, go on to step 3.
• If a builder or a past designer holds it in their account, ask them in writing to move it to you: either transfer it to a registrar account you own, or make you the registrant. Keep a copy of every message.

Under ICANN's rules, changing the registrant name starts a 60-day period when the domain can't move to another registrar, though some registrars let you opt out. If you plan to move it, it's often simpler to transfer first and update the details after.

3. Get ready before you move it

• Copy your DNS records, especially email (MX) records and any records Google or Microsoft asked you to add. You'll need them at the new registrar.
• Check the dates. A registrar may refuse a transfer within 60 days of the domain's first registration or its last transfer. Note when it expires, too.
• Make sure the registrant email works. Transfer codes and approval emails go there.
• Turn off privacy or extra protection if your current provider asks you to. Wix and GoDaddy both say to before a transfer.
• Open an account at the new registrar in your name, with an email address you'll keep.

4. Unlock it and get the transfer code

Every registrar has to give you a reasonable way to remove the transfer lock, and has to give you the transfer code, also called an EPP or auth code, within five calendar days of your request. How you get it depends on where the domain is:

• Wix: see our step-by-step guide, how to transfer your domain from Wix.
• GoDaddy: in your Domain Portfolio, select the domain, then under Transfer choose Transfer to Another Registrar and follow the checklist. GoDaddy says to turn Domain Protection all the way down first, and it emails the code to the registrant address as well as showing it on screen.
• Any other builder or registrar: search its help center for "transfer domain away." The steps are similar everywhere, because the rules come from ICANN.

5. Start the transfer at your new registrar

Choose transfer, not register, at the new registrar, and enter the code. Then approve the confirmation emails. ICANN's rules say a transfer won't go through if you don't respond to them. Most transfers take about a week: Wix says up to 7 days, and GoDaddy says 5 to 7.

6. Reconnect your website and email

• Add your DNS records at the new registrar, starting with email.
• Point the domain at your website. If you're keeping the builder site for now, check whether the builder can connect a domain registered elsewhere. Wix can.
• Turn on auto-renew, and keep the contact details current.

If you're stuck

• The registrar won't give you the code. They have five calendar days under ICANN's transfer rules. If a registrar breaks those rules, you can file a complaint with ICANN.
• Someone else is the registrant and won't cooperate. The transfer steps need the registrant's account and email, so they can't be done without them. An attorney can tell you your options.
• The transfer was refused. Check the 60-day periods above, and whether the domain was locked again.

Rather hand it off?

Our Builder Rescue service finds out who holds your domain, walks you through unlocking and transferring it, moves your pages and sets up redirects, and keeps your business email working through the move. It's $600, plus any balance the old provider requires, and it's free with any website plan.