Connecting a Domain vs Domain Transfer

There are two ways to use a domain that you’ve purchased elsewhere with another registrar – Domain Connection and Domain Transferring.

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Summary

Connecting a domain (also referred to as domain mapping) means that you connect your domain with your WordPress.com site, but you renew the domain at your registrar (where you bought the domain), and renew your site plan here at WordPress.com.

Domain Transfer means that your domain’s registration is moved over to WordPress.com and we then become your registrar, so all future renewals of your domain and plan for your WordPress.com site are managed and paid on your WordPress.com account.

Read on for more specific steps and differences.

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Connecting a Domain

This method connects your domain with your WordPress.com site, but the domain continues to be registered with whomever you initially purchased the domain from. You would continue to pay them for the domain renewal.

Connecting a domain is free for any site with a paid plan attached to it, and you can connect any number of domains to the same site.

After adding the domain connecting subscription, you need to complete the process at your registrar by updating the Name Servers of your domain, so that they point to our servers. We have a guide for the connection process on this page.

Please note that we are not able to accept domain connection for Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) if it contains language-specific characters such as ä, û, ע, ж, 字, मा.

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Domain Transfer

This method transfers the registration of the domain to WordPress.com. This means you would renew your domain registration through WordPress.com for subsequent renewals, and we would be considered the domain’s registrar.

You can see a list of current domains that you can transfer in here.

If a domain cannot be transferred, you can still use the domain with your WordPress.com site by connecting it instead.

With any new plan purchase for a site, you’ll receive a domain credit which you can use to either register a new domain for free for a year, or transfer a domain to us for free. Upon a completed domain transfer, the domain is automatically renewed for a year. You would pay to renew the domain for subsequent renewals through WordPress.com.

If you already have a domain registered with us as part of your plan, transferring a domain from another registrar is a paid purchase. The cost of the transfer depends on the domain. You can see pricing information on the Domain Pricing and Available TLDs list, but you can also check by going to My Site → Upgrades → Domains → Add a Domain to This Site end entering the domain you want to transfer. Upon a completed transfer, domain will be renewed for a year.