New Domain or Transfer: What Changes, What Breaks, What It Costs

Registering a new domain creates a name that does not exist yet. Transferring a domain moves a name you already hold from one registrar to another. They sound like the same kind of task and they are not: different paperwork, different blocking rules, different timelines, and in one important case a different effect on your website and email.

The confusion is common enough that people pay for the wrong one. Here is how to tell which you need.

The difference in one table

All prices shown exclude GST. Prices are in AUD.

Choose a new registration when

• The name you want is genuinely available. There is nothing to move, so there is nothing to transfer.
• You want a second name for a second site, a campaign or a product. Additional names run alongside the

existing registration with no effect on it.

• You are starting a business and the domain is part of the setup. This is the simpler path, and it avoids

inheriting anything from a previous owner, including a history with search engines or spam filters.

Choose a transfer when

• You want to stop paying two companies. Bringing the registration to the same place as the hosting means

one invoice, one renewal reminder and one place to look when something is wrong with the domain.

• Your current registrar is the problem. Poor support, unclear renewal pricing, or a control panel nobody

can use. A transfer fixes the supplier without touching the website.

• Renewal is due anyway. A transfer at renewal time costs the same as renewing where you are, and you end

up with a registrar you chose.

• You want the domain inside the same account as the hosting. DNS and mail settings then sit with the site

they belong to.

What blocks a transfer

1. The 60 day lock. Generic domains generally cannot be transferred within 60 days of registration or a

previous transfer. ICANN's transfer policy is the source of that rule. There is no way around it except to wait.

1. The domain is locked at the registrar. Client transfer prohibited or client hold both stop it. Remove the

lock in the current registrar's panel before you start.

1. The authorisation code is missing or stale. Ask for a fresh one immediately before you start.
2. The registrant email address is not one you can read. The approval request goes there. If it is a defunct

address belonging to a former employee or an old web developer, fix it before you start, not during.

1. An unpaid invoice at the current registrar. Settle it, or they will decline the transfer.
2. A recently expired domain. An expired name may be past the point of transfer and into the deletion

cycle. Renew it where it is, then transfer.

What a transfer does not change

This is the part worth reading twice, because it is where expectations go wrong.

• It does not move your website. The site stays on whatever host is serving it. Moving the site is a

separate exercise with its own sequence, covered in how to move your website to a new host.

• It does not move your email. The MX records stay where they are until you deliberately change them.
• It does not move your nameservers. The domain keeps resolving through the same DNS as before the transfer

unless you change the records or the nameservers afterwards.

That is why a transfer is a low-risk thing to do: the visible parts of your business keep working while the registration quietly changes hands. If you want the DNS here as well, that is a second step, and our guide to pointing a domain at your hosting walks through both the nameserver method and the record level method.

Doing both, in the right order

If you are moving the registrar and the host at the same time, do it in two steps rather than one. Transfer the registration first, wait for it to complete, and only then move the site or the DNS. When two things change at once and something breaks, you lose the ability to tell which change caused it, and this is exactly the week you least want that ambiguity.

If the domain's eligibility details sit with a person who has left the business, fix the registrant details before the transfer rather than after. The .com.au rules on who can hold a licence are covered in how to register a .com.au, and they apply to a name you already hold as well as one you are buying.

Frequently asked questions

How much does a transfer cost? The registration rate for the extension, which includes a renewal term. For .com.au that is $25.99 AUD, and .com is $41.99 AUD.

Will a transfer interrupt my website or email? No. The nameservers and MX records are untouched by the transfer itself.

How long does it take? Usually a few days, depending on how quickly the current registrar releases the name and how quickly you approve the request.

Can I transfer a domain I registered a few weeks ago? Not a generic domain inside its first 60 days. Wait for the lock to pass.

Does transferring give me another year? On most extensions the transfer includes or extends a registration term. Checkout shows the term and price for the specific extension before you confirm.

What if I have already paid for years at the old registrar? The remaining registration period generally carries across with the domain. You are not paying twice for the same period, and the added term sits on top of the time you already hold.

Can I transfer a domain and leave the website hosted where it is? Yes. That is the common case, and the reason a transfer does not need to be coordinated with your host at all.

What if the transfer fails? Nothing changes. The domain stays registered where it is until a transfer completes, and you can start again once the blocking issue, usually the code, the lock or the contact email, is resolved.

Move the registration

If the name is staying and only the registrar is changing, the process takes a few minutes to start and a few days to finish. Have the authorisation code and a current registrant email ready, and transfer the domain in.

If the name you want is not taken yet, register it new instead. If the price comparison is the reason you are reading this, our domain pricing page lists registration, transfer and renewal side by side, so you can see the real annual figure rather than the first year.