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Domain life cycles

All domains have a life cycle from the moment they are registered to the moment they go back on the open market. This guide will provide you with all you need to know about your domain life cycles.

When you register a domain name, you do not own it outright, it is a subscription service and if you want to keep it, you need to renew your domain name when it comes to the end of its current term.

How long you have to do this depends on the life cycle of your domain.

Below is a breakdown of domain life cycles for some of our most popular domain names Birdweb offer:

.UK (.co.uk, .org.uk, .uk, .me.uk) domain life cylces

  1. A domain is available to be registered.
  2. The domain is registered 1 to 10 years.
  3. If the domain name isn’t renewed, it expires.
  4. If you’ve chosen to manually renew the domain and have not paid to extend your term, when it reaches it’s expiry date we will suspend it. If you have selected auto-renewal, we will attempt payment on your expiry date. In the event payment is unsuccessful, we will notify you and suspend the domain 9 days after your expiry date.
  5. After suspension, we will leave the domain on your account for 7-10 days. If you still haven’t decided to renew your name, we will remove the record from your account.
  6. A domain name ending in .uk doesn’t become available for re-registration until 90 days after the expiry date. If you missed your renewal and still want it during this time, you can contact our support team and they will add it back for you and take the renewal. No additional charges are applied for late renewals.

.com, .net, .org, .biz, .info, .me and .mobi domain life cylces

  1. A domain is available to be registered.
  2. The domain is registered for 1 to 10 years
  3. If the domain name isn’t renewed, domain name expires.
  4. If you’ve selected to manually renew the domain and have not paid to extend your term. When it reaches it’s expiry date the domain will be suspended. If you have selected auto renewal, we will attempt payment on your expiry date, if payment is unsuccessful we will notify you and suspend the name 9 days after your expiry date.
  5. After suspension we will leave the domain on your account for 7-10 days. If you still haven’t decided to renew it, we will remove the record from your account.
  6. From expiry date, the domain enters a renewal grace period for 25 days where it can be renewed at the standard price.
  7. 25 days after expiry, the domain enters redemption for 30 days and will no longer be displayed in your Birdweb account. During this stage the domain cannot be transferred and can only be restored for one-year at a cost of £51.95+VAT via a call to the support team.
  8. If the domain name is 55 days or more past expiry, the domain then enters pending delete for approximately 5 days. During which it cannot be renewed, transferred or restored.
  9. Approximately 60 days after expiry the domain name is deleted and is available on the open market.

.co domains

  1. A domain is available to be registered.
  2. The domain is registered for 1, 2, 4 or 5 years.
  3. The domain expires.
  4. If you’ve chosen to manually renew the domain and have not paid to extend your term, when it reaches it’s expiry date we will suspend it. If you have selected auto renewal, we will attempt payment on your expiry date. If payment is unsuccessful, we will notify you and suspend the domain 9 days after your expiry date.
  5. The domain enters a renewal grace period will last 45 days, where the domain can be renewed for a further term at the regular price.
  6. The domain then enters redemption, which lasts 15 days and will no longer be displayed in your Birdweb account. During this the domain cannot be transferred. A redemption price of £51.95+VAT will be in place to restore for one-year via a call to the support team.
  7. Finally the domain enters pending delete for approximately 5 days. During this period the domain can’t be renewed.
  8. Approximately 65 days after expiry the domain name is deleted and is available on the open market.

.uk.com domains

  1. A domain is available to be registered.
  2. The domain is registered for 1, 2, 5, 9 or 10 years.
  3. The domain expires.
  4. If you’ve chosen to manually renew the domain and have not paid to extend your term, when it reaches it’s expiry date we will suspend it. If you have selected auto renewal, we will attempt payment on your expiry date. In the event payment is unsuccessful, we will notify you and suspend the domain 9 days after your expiry date.
  5. The domain enters redemption, which lasts 45 days. During this the domain cannot be transferred and costs £51.95+VAT to restore for one-year via a call to the support team.
  6. After a full 50 days the domain will be cancelled and be placed back on the open market.

At Birdweb we register hundreds of different types of domain names, if you need to understand the domain life cycles of a domain that isn’t covered here, don’t hesitate to get in touch.

That’s it! You now know your domain’s life cycle.