Domain Name Life Cycle

Last updated on April 15th, 2020 at 08:48 am

Everyday, across the world, thousands of domain names are registered, and equally many are deleted too. The life cycle of a domain name begins with it being available for registration, and they all expire at some point.

Available for registration

Here the domain has not been registered with or by any domain registry. Use a registrar to search for the availability of the domain name of your choice. If available, then you are good to go.The registration period ranges between 1 to 10 years, depending on the TLD

Active

Your domain name is active for the period you registered it. To extend the period, then you would have to renew it with your registrar. This ensures that you do not experience any down time and still own domain name.

Expired (Grace Period)

The subscription of the domain should be renewed before it expires, i.e if you still want to continue using it. Emails, websites and any other services attached to it are deactivated when it expires. At this period, you can still renew your domain at the normal price, depending on your registrar such as Truehost Cloud. For the .ke TLD, the grace period lasts for 90 days, while for the .com and other international TLDs the period ranges between 10 – 30 days. In the event the name is not renewed, it enters the restoration period.

Restoration Period

At this stage, it is possible to recover the domain but the renewal fee charged is very expensive. This starts from the 35th day after expiry for the international TLDs.

Pending Delete

After the restoration period is over, which is typically 70 days after expiry of the domain for gTLDs, the domain enters the Pending Delete status. This lasts for up to 5 days and during this time, it is not possible to redeem or recover the domain name.

Deletion

If the domain name is not yet renewed, the registry deletes and releases it back to the market. For TLDs such as the .ke, they are deleted 90 days after expiry. At this time, the domain is available to the public for registration… and the cycle repeats itself.

Truehost Cloud offers you the most affordable domain registration fees as well as renewal charges. Get yours today. And if you already do, ensure that you renew it before it expires to allow seamless flow of services.